Near the end of his life, Waylon Jennings picked up the phone and called Robby Turner. He wanted to put down some songs. Nothing fancy. Just Waylon’s voice and his acoustic guitar, with Robby playing bass beside him.
Waylon never got to hear those songs finished. Robby did, a decade later, and it cost him more than anyone knew.
Two friends and a tape machine
Robby Turner was not just another session player. He had been Waylon’s longtime accompanist, producer and friend. When he later talked to NPR about those final sessions, he said they did not feel like work at all. It felt like spending time with his best friend and his father at once.
Together they recorded twelve songs. Waylon wrote eleven of them, and only one had ever been released before: “Belle of the Ball,” which first came out in 1977 as the B-side of “Luckenbach, Texas (Back to the Basics of Love).” Jessi Colter, Waylon’s wife of more than thirty years, later said he once told her it was his favorite song he ever wrote.
Waylon was in poor health by then, though he never complained. Robby remembered suggesting they redo a take, and Waylon telling him he didn’t think he could get through it again. Robby understood that Waylon would never say that unless he meant it. He let it go.
The two of them worked out how each song should eventually sound, what parts would be added and where. One day, while listening to a playback, Waylon stopped the 24-track machine, looked at Robby and told him he could almost hear the part Robby would play, and that it sounded great. Then Waylon asked him to finish the songs someday.
Ten years of waiting
Waylon Jennings died in February 2002, at 64, from complications of diabetes. Robby kept the tapes. For years, he did not touch them.
When he finally felt ready, he had Jessi Colter’s blessing to go ahead. He called in men who had played with Waylon for decades: guitarist Reggie Young, longtime drummer Richie Albright, and Waylon’s old touring partner Tony Joe White, who had written the song that would give the album its title.
Robby wrote the same four letters on all his notes: W.W.W.D., for “What would Waylon do?” Waylon had always led his band by hiring the right people, showing them the shape of a song, and letting them play until he smiled. That became the rule for finishing the record, too.
The tear on the steel guitar
Robby played steel guitar on many of the songs himself, recording his parts against Waylon’s voice. It was harder than he expected. Sometimes a take would end and he would hear Waylon say something on the tape. Sometimes it was simply the sound of Waylon playing the closing notes of “Belle of the Ball.” Those moments broke him.
“I remember looking down at my steel guitar and seeing the teardrop fall.”
He thought it would have made a great photograph, but one he would never show anyone except Jessi. In fact, he never told anyone about it at all, not even her, until he described it during that NPR interview in 2012. After a pause, he added that it had all been worth it.
Goin’ Down Rockin’
The album was released in September 2012, ten years after Waylon’s death, as Goin’ Down Rockin’: The Last Recordings, on Saguaro Road Records. The songs include “Belle of the Ball,” “I Do Believe,” “If My Harley Was Runnin’,” “Never Say Die,” “Wrong Road to Nashville” and Tony Joe White’s title track, with White joining in.
When Jessi first heard the finished recordings, she said it was almost shocking. It took her several tries before she could listen all the way through. To her, it sounded like Waylon was right there, opening his heart.
She called “Belle of the Ball” his leaving song, the story of a man who arrived as a vagabond and a dreamer and was now on his way out. Robby Turner made sure he did not leave it unfinished.
Have you heard Waylon’s last recordings?