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Waylon Jennings, the Ultimate ‘Outlaw,’ Explains A Lot About MAGA

Beer, bait, and ammo: Trump’s base doesn’t need Trump to be MAGidiots

B Kean
4 min readMar 14, 2024
Courtesy of Collector’s Weekly

“Well, ain’t no good old boy ever sung Swahili, I think I’m outta here.” Those were the words uttered by Waylon Jennings in 1985 when he decided he no longer wanted to be part of the “We Are the World” song. The song’s making is currently on Netflix and was interesting to watch. Jennings just walked out and was gone from one of the biggest songs ever.

From what I know about Waylon Jennings, and it’s not much, I don’t think for a second that he regretted that move. The original outlaw country musician, Jennings, was always bucking the system. In 1966, he released an album called Nashville Rebel and followed it up in 1972 with Ladies Love Outlaws. Those albums were his first musical utterances that the status quo in Nashville wasn’t to his liking. Jennings didn’t like the regimentation the business side of Nashville was forcing upon country singers. He didn’t appreciate the attempts to steer the content of songs in a more commercially appealing direction. Jennings wanted to be Jennings, a cranky, racist, good old boy from Texas — ain’t no one gonna tell a Texan good old boy what he can sing and how he can dress. Jennings ditched the rhinestone suit and donned the leather jacket.

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B Kean
B Kean

Written by B Kean

The past holds the answers to today’s problems. “Be curious, not judgmental,” at least until you have all the facts. Think and stop watching cable news.

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