The story of Waylon Jennings and his little 1975 trip to the CMA Awards is pretty well-known now, because let’s just say, it didn’t exactly go the way the Country Music Association probably hoped from one of their big winners that night.
Waylon was nominated for Entertainer of the Year, Male Vocalist of the Year, Song of the Year and Album of the Year, and he won the award for Male Vocalist of the Year.
Of course, he famously hated award shows like this (he famously stormed out of the 1970 CMA Awards because they cut his perofrmance short due to time restraints), and this CMA Awards experience five years was no different in terms of his negative feelings towards the whole thing.
In his 1988 autobiography Waylon: An Autobiography, he explained his perspective:
“Now they needed me again, because I was up for Best Male Vocalist, Song of the Year (“I’m a Ramblin’ Man”), Album of the Year, and Entertainer of the Year.
As I walked in with Jessi, scratching at my tuxedo, her telling me I should have hit them, Neil came over to me. ‘You won Male Vocalist,’ he whispered. ‘Jessi didn’t win anything.’”
And obviously knowing that his wife Jessi Colter didn’t win anything beforehand thanks to his manager Neil Reshen, Waylon was content just to leave:
“So much for secrecy. If nobody’s supposed to know the awards before they opened the envelope, how did word get around?
My heart went out to Jessi, and though my first instinct was to get the hell gone, I thought that maybe by staying I could raise some of the larger problems that faced country music, such as its closed mindedness and suspicion of change.”
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That frustration was certainly reflected in his speech (if that’s what you wanna call it), which was extremely short, saying in classic Waylon fashion:
“Thank you, they told me to be nice, I don’t know what they meant by that. Thank you.”
But there’s a small detail that makes the lore of this evening even better.
Apparently, the Citation of Merit for his nomination for Album of the Year was presented to Waylon on his bus one night in the fall of 1975, not long after the show took place. As you can probably imagine, Waylon could not have cared any less.
He left a little note that simply read:
“F**k you.”
And he signed his name underneath it… I mean, the man might’ve hated his “outlaw” nickname, but that’s exactly what he was. I can think of no artist in the game right now who would do something like that (yes, times have also changed), but the fact remains that he was a one-of-a-kind artist and person who was never, not once, afraid to do or say exactly what he wanted.
The guy who now owns that certificate shared even more about that story on Facebook a little over 10 years ago now, saying that after leaving his mark on the certificate, he threw it on the floor.
Yes, there is photographic evidence, and it’s the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen:
Yeah, there wasn’t a whole lot of love lost between the CMA Awards and Waylon over the years… I think it was already clear how he felt about the Nashville establishment in general, and I’m surprised they even attempted to give this to him after what happened at the show.
In fact, after everything that transpired the powers-that-be over at the Country Music Association back then actually told Waylon that he’d “never” get into the Hall of Fame.
I assume they were just as frustrated with him as he was with them, but they obviously couldn’t have been more wrong (though Waylon didn’t care about getting into the Hall of Fame anyways, so it’s kind of a moot point but I digress…).
But about 10 years after the 1975 debacle, Waylon did return to the 1984 CMA Awards for a full performance to debut his song “America.” If he ever had any bad blood with the show, you’d never know it by watching this all-time great performance:
And in case you’ve never seen his iconic acceptance speech (I use that term very loosely), do yourself a favor and change that right now:
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