Tag: Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way

This song I wrote in 10 minutes…it took me 10 years to think it up though…Waylon Jennings 

This is country music that I really like. Waylon was part of the Outlaw country movement of the 1970s and he was a badass. This song is a tribute to Hank Willaims and also questions the extravagance of the modern country stars of the 70s with their “new shiny cars” and “rhinestone suits”.

The song peaked at #1 on the Billboard Country Charts and #21 on the Canadian RPM Country Tracks…it also made it in the Billboard 100 at #60 in 1975.

Waylon acted more like a rock star. He took that Outlaw title to heart. He used the Hells Angels as bodyguards and hung out and partied with them. Lynyrd Skynyrd was known as rough and fighters but when they shared a plane with Jennings and the Angels… they gave them plenty of room and stayed quiet like school boys.

In the seventies, Waylon took a pistol to a recording studio one time because he didn’t like studio musicians. He knew they were great musicians but they didn’t give any new ideas so he was joking around with the pistol about shooting someone’s fingers off if they didn’t play well. It wasn’t serious and everyone there knew it was a joke… but rumors got around that he was serious. Later on in 1975 at the Grammys… Waylon Jennings and John Lennon met backstage. They started talking to each other and really hit it off. Waylon was surprised because he told John that he was very funny but he thought he was some kind of madman because of John’s press. John then told him that people in England thought Waylon shot people.

Lennon wrote him a letter after that and there was even talk of Waylon recording a song by Lennon (Tight A$ on Mind Games). Not much came of it but the letter was found when Waylon passed away and sold at auction.

Waylon was hired to play bass for Buddy Holly on that last tour and he gave up his seat on the plane for J.P. Richardson (The Big Bopper) and ended up saving his own life. So he was in rock and roll before country.

Also…if you see the live clip…Waylon used that guitar for years. My guitar tech was Waylon’s guitar tech. The guitar was at the shop one day and Turner (the tech) told me to come over and play it. Of course, I did…I’ve never seen a guitar with leather…and I’ll never forget it. It was sometime in the late eighties or early nineties. He used that guitar from the 70’s to the mid-nineties.

Waylon Jennings: “I met John Lennon, and we were cutting up and everything at one of the Grammy things, and I said, man, you’re funny. I didn’t know you were funny,’ I said, ‘I thought you were some kind of mad guy or something like that.”

John Lennon: “Listen, people in England think you shoot folks.”

Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way

Lord it’s the same old tune, fiddle and guitar
Where do we take it from here?
Rhinestone suits and new shiny cars
It’s been the same way for years
We need a change

Somebody told me, when I came to Nashville
Son you finally got it made
Old Hank made it here, and we’re all sure that you will
But I don’t think Hank done it this way
No, I don’t think Hank done it this way

Ten years on the road, makin’ one night stands
Speedin’ my young life away
Tell me one more time just so’s I’ll understand
Are your sure Hank done it this way?
Did ol’ Hank really do it this way?

Lord I’ve seen the world, with a five piece band
Looking at the back side of me
Singing my songs, and one of his now and then
But I don’t think Hank done ’em this way
I don’t think Hank done it this way 
Take it home