185 “I’ve been called an outlaw”: Daniel Henninger, “The Outlaws Take Aim at the Nashville Sound,” National Observer, August 7, 1976.
186 According to Billy Ray Reynolds: Author interview with Reynolds, January 28, 2012.
187 “I was kind of a fan of him”: Author interview with Clement.
187 In the studio, the song came to life: Author interview with Reynolds.
187 “That was one of the key tracks”: Interview with Clement.
188 “The thing Waylon figured out”: Author interview with Albright.
188 “We were there one time”: Author interview with Clement.
189 “Waylon was selling”: Author interview with Bradley.
191 “Most of the tracks”: Joe Nick Patoski, “Records,” Country Music, May 1976.
191 Talk of the pair joining Bob Dylan’s: Peter Doggett, Are You Ready for the Country: Elvis, Dylan, Parsons and the Roots of Country Rock (New York: Penguin, 2000), 366; Denisoff, Waylon, 264; Nelson Allen, “Is It Goodbye to Willie’s Picnics?,” Country Music, November 1976.
192 “It’s just a lot of crummy jive”: Robert Ward, “Redneck Rock,” New Times, June 25, 1976.
192 Rhythm guitarist Gordon Payne: Author interview with Payne.
192 “We did gigs”: Author interview with Albright, July 20, 2010.
193 “When we were doing”: Ibid.
194 “We had just finished”: Author interview with Payne.
194 “Now he rules country music”: Chet Flippo, “The Saga of Willie Nelson: From the Night Life to the Good Life,” Rolling Stone, July 13, 1978.
195 “There’s just something real”: Author interview with Payne.
196 “That was a good move for him”: Author interview with Cash.
197 When Bob Beckham cracked: Author interview with Kristofferson.
198 “He’s a fast-livin’”: Ben Gerson, “Kristofferson: Goin’ Down Slow,” Rolling Stone, April 27, 1972.
199 Critic Chet Flippo could only muster: Chet Flippo, “Records,” Rolling Stone, January 4, 1973.
200 “He taught us how to write great poems”: Jennings with Kaye, Waylon, 211.
200 A review in Country Music: Kit Rachlis, “Records,” Country Music, May 1976.
200 “If he hadn’t went to Hollywood”: Author interview with Smith.
200 A return trip to the South: Author interview with Fritts; author interview with Swan; author interview with Kristofferson, June 14, 2011.
Chapter Eleven: Third Coast
203 “The constant bustle”: Allen Tate, “The Migration,” in Patrick Allen, ed., Literary Nashville (Athens, GA: Hill Street Press, 1999), 35.
203 “Sure, you know what you remind me of”: Taxi Driver, directed by Martin Scorsese, Columbia Pictures, 1976.
204 “I thought it was such a nice thing to do”: Author interview with Kristofferson.
205 “The outlaws and the redneck rockers”: Larry L. King, “The Passions of the Common Man,” Texas Monthly, August 1976.
206 Closer to home: Hank magazine was another Nashville publication that lasted for a few years in the mid-1970s and reliably covered the city’s underground music scene.
207 KWAM changed its format in 1975: Michael Bane, “KWAM: Memphis Goes Progressive Radio,” Country Music, July 1976.
207 “The town has gone funky!”: Hickey, “Notes on Kris Kristofferson, 1968–1974.”
207 “In Nashville these days”: Hickey, “Outlaw Blues,” Country Music, February 1977.
208 “Anymore you don’t have to be ashamed”: Bill Hance, “‘T’ for Texas . . . , ‘T’ for Tennessee,” Nashville Banner, September 20, 1975.
208 “The old South had died”: Bruce J. Schulman, The Seventies: The Great Shift in American Culture, Society and Politics (New York: Da Capo Press, 2001), 117.
209 “If Carter makes it”: Ed Kiersh, “What’s Jimmy Carter Doing in This Magazine Anyway?,” Country Music, December 1976.
209 “I think that was one of the reasons”: Chris Willman, Rednecks and Bluenecks: The Politics of Country Music (New York: New Press, 2005), 77.
209 “Now, Jimmy Carter”: Patrick Carr, “Cash Comes Back,” Country Music, December 1976.
210 In the homestretch: Tom Ingram, “Carter Visit ‘Just Great’ for Sasser,” Nashville Banner, October 2, 1976.
211 “We had done one of the arenas”: Author interview with Gordon Payne.
212 “The speed and the weed”: Patoski, Willie Nelson, 328.
212 In 1976, authorities: “Willie Nelson Subpoenaed in Hicks Narcotics Trial,” Nashville Banner, August 25, 1976; “3 Willie Nelson Aides Charged on Cocaine,” Nashville Banner, November 19, 1977.
212 “It was everywhere”: Author interview with Payne.
212 “The early seventies”: Author interview with Crowell.
213 He claimed to spend twenty thousand dollars: Jennings with Kaye, Waylon, 253.
213 “I wasn’t just doing a little drugs”: Bob Allen, “Waylon Jennings: Steady as She Goes,” Country Music, May/June 1986.
213 Jack Clement nudged him: Author interview with Clement.
214 “To me it was country”: Alden, “Bobby Bare/Bobby Bare, Jr.: Bobby Bares, All.”
215 “Most of us marked time”: Jennings with Kaye, Waylon, 257.
215 “I remember Billy telling me”: Author interview with Kristofferson.
215 In conversations, Jarvis marveled: Author interview with Light.
217 “Oh, everybody was crying!”: Author interview with Smith.
217 On August 16, Gordon Payne: Author interview with Payne.
217 A few blocks away: Author interview with Kahanek.
217 “I don’t know how”: Author interview with Crowell.
217 A spectator later recalled: Richard Irby, “Heartbreak Hotel Is Still Open,” August 19, 2010, available at www.areawidenews.com.
218 “Looked to me”: Author interview with Crowell.
219 “The head of RCA”: Ibid.
Chapter Twelve: Ain’t Living Long Like This
221 “Even with its present day”: Peter Taylor, A Summons to Memphis (New York: Knopf, 1986), 23–24.
221 “These awards are”: Laura Eipper, “2 ‘Outlaws’ Don’t Want on Ballot,” Tennessean, August 24, 1977.
222 Early in August: Dwight Lewis and Frank Cason, “17 Arrested as Vice Unit Raids Top of Block Club,” Tennessean, August 8, 1977; Pat Alexander, “8 Arrested in After-Hours Raids,” Tennessean, August 15, 1977; Katherine Freed, “2 Released Following Club Raid,” Tennessean, August 21, 1977.
224 “They said they were there”: Author interview with Albright.
225 The next morning, Waylon: Larry Brinton, “Waylon Faces Federal Cocaine Charge,” Nashville Banner, August 24, 1977.
226 “Waylon’ll have a whole new following”: Bill Hance, “Coke Bust Could Boost Outlaw Singer’s Pot,” Nashville Banner, September 2, 1977.
226 “A little bit of drugs”: Author interview with Bradley, July 22, 2010.
227 The evening of his first court appearance: Laura Eipper, “Outlaws and Emmy Lou Triumph,” Tennessean, August 25, 1977.
227 In April 1978: Kirk Loggins, “Waylon Manager Aide Pleads Guilty,” Tennessean, April 26, 1978.
227 “Everywhere we went”: Author interview with Payne.
228 Waylon claimed that Reshen: Jennings with Kaye, Waylon, 264.
228 On Willie’s side of the house: Patoski, Willie Nelson, 334.
228 “Neil had helped me and Willie”: Jennings with Kaye, Waylon, 293.
228 But the cocaine proved: Ibid., 304.
229 “[Emerson] was eating”: Author interview with Bellamy.
229 “No one realized”: Adell Crowe, “Court Slashes Sadler’s Term in Gun Death,” Tennessean, September 29, 1980.
230 “I think he was”: Bob Sipchen, “The Ballad of Barry Sadler,” Los Angeles Times, January 27 1989.
230 “S
adler stepped up to him”: Author interview with Bellamy.
230 “He had a side of him”: Author interview with Fritts.
231 “I’m a weapons expert”: Hunt Helm, “Sadler Involved in Songwriter’s Shooting Death,” Nashville Banner, December 2, 1978.
232 “Side two consists”: Martha Hume, “What Goes Around Comes Around,” Rolling Stone, December 13, 1979.
232 “farewell to outlawry”: Nick Tosches, “Lunchtime,” Rolling Stone, February 8, 1979.
233 “I turned around”: Author interview with Bradley.
234 “The album is rarely”: Patrick Carr, “Waylon and Willie Go to a Party,” New Times, February 20, 1978.
235 “Waylon was a little paranoid”: Author interview with Smith.
235 “I remember the first night”: Nelson with Shrake, Willie, 147.
235 Blackburn, who’d proven his mettle: Author interview with Rick Blackburn, January 21, 2005.
236 Critic John Morthland: John Morthland, The Best of Country Music (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1984), 412.
237 Rolling Stone gave it two stars: Christopher Connelly, “City of New Orleans,” Rolling Stone, August 30, 1984.
237 Even Rosanne Cash: Paul Kingsbury and Alanna Nash, eds., Will the Circle Be Unbroken: Country Music in America (London: Dorling Kindersley, 2006), 336.
238 Until his dying day: The Exit/In later reopened and would close and reopen in the future. It remains in operation today.
238 “Film projects immediately”: Bane, Willie, 226.
239 “barely a mediocre record”: Paul Nelson, review of Easter Island, Rolling Stone, April 20, 1978.
240 “Kris Kristofferson’s songs”: Bane, Willie, 240.
240 “like a reheated enchilada”: Laura Cunningham, “The Very Long Nights of Kris Kristofferson,” Esquire, November 1981.
241 “I think it all probably started”: Author interview with Kristofferson, June 14, 2011.
241 “It was Mexicans”: Peter Cooper, The Pilgrim: A Celebration of Kris Kristofferson (American Roots, 2008).
241 “I don’t think anybody”: Author interview with Kristofferson.
241 “They were telling stories”: “Rosa Jordan, “Kris Kristofferson,” Progressive, September 1991.
241 Kris’s new skepticism: Author interview with Kristofferson.
242 And Willie: In 1975, Native American activist Peltier shot and killed two FBI agents at the Wounded Knee reservation in South Dakota. Many of his advocates believe that he did not receive a fair trial.
242 At a Grammy Awards: Cunningham, “The Very Long Nights of Kris Kristofferson.”
243 “We have such a sorry history”: Jay Scott, “Kristofferson All Fired Up About Politics,” Globe and Mail, May 7, 1988.
243 Playing Atlanta during: Ibid.; Jordan, “Kris Kristofferson.”
244 “I knew that some of my audience”: Author interview with Kristofferson.
244 Former mayor Beverly Briley: Frank Gibson, “Briley, in Tears, Admits He Has Alcohol Problem,” Tennessean, June 2, 1979.
244 The looming National Life: Gene Wyatt, “WSM Exec Fights Order on Opryland,” Tennessean, June 2, 1979.
244 And in 1980, toxic shock syndrome: Bill Snyder, “Toxic Shock Hits 5 Tennesseans,” Nashville Banner, September 27, 1980.
245 This night he picked up: Author interview with Albright.
245 So on May 24, 1980: “Singer Waylon Jennings’ Visit Dying Man’s Dream Come True,” Tennessean, May 25, 1980.
245 “I was just standing back”: Author interview with Albright.
245 “The thing I remember”: Author interview with Payne.
Sources
* * *
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