THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 19, 1995 TAG: 9510190054
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY FRANK ROBERTS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines
AWARDS - Waylon Jennings has got 'em, but he doesn't believe in 'em.
``They put us in competition with each other,'' he said during a phone interview from Michigan. ``This should be a happy business. We shouldn't have to compete, toot our own horn.
``I never could get into that. I didn't get many awards.''
Jennings settled for two Grammys and four Country Music Association awards over a 31-year period.
``These days, it's sad,'' he said. ``People get awards - you won't hear from 'em five years from now.''
Jennings himself is a patriarch of country music who has 16 No. 1 hits.
``My boxed set has been out about two years - 40 cuts - beats all I ever saw. I've got about 1,000 songs,'' Jennings said. ``Sometimes I run into songs I forgot I made.''
Jennings fans will have the opportunity to hear him and his wife, Jessi Colter, in concert in Edenton, N.C., on Sunday.
Save some money for his biography, which is due next fall.
``I'm real proud of it. There's a lot of humor. I didn't know I was that funny. I was trying to be sexy, but it turned out funny,'' Jennings said. ``Tell you what to look for - the ins-and-outs of Nashville. People want to know. Folks hear how rough it is, but there's another side of the story.''
He promises that ``Waymore'' - that's the working title - will not be a scathing, tell-all book. One reason: ``Everything I knew back then I forgot.
``I was teasing John Cash the other day, told him I could own his house with what I know about him,'' Jennings said. Jennings' other well-known pals include Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson.
Along with Jennings and Cash, Nelson and Kristofferson made country history with their group, the Highwaymen. Another part of country history are the Jennings-Nelson standards ``Mamma's Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys'' and ``Good Hearted Woman.''
That describes Jennings favorite subject, his attractive singer-pianist wife, Colter. ``The best thing that ever happened to me,'' he says.
During the past few months, the couple has hosted several hourlong programs on The Nashville Network, filled with friends, children and gospel music.
``We had no script,'' Jennings said. ``It was loose and everybody could tell it. We did two of those shows in one day. Try to get a hillbilly on a schedule and he'll leave you standing there.
Whatever he did, it worked; TNN has asked him to do a special.
Jennings is not particularly fond of doing interviews, but when you can entice him to do so, he is pleasant, warm and funny.
He does not define country music that way.
``I feel sorry for today's artists. The producers - others - are in control,'' Jennings said. ``Songwriters suffer a lot. First thing they ask, `Can you dance to it, will it make a good video?' Then, they ask if it's a good song. It used to be that the song was the first thing they worried about.
``They send these guys to school to learn how to dance,'' Jennings continued. ``I don't think they wanna do that. I think they're like I was at that age - play the guitar and sing.
``Still, there are a lot of good ones today,'' Jennings acknowledged. His favorite is Mark Chesnutt.
``He reminds me of Willie,'' Jennings said. ``He sings it the first time - sings it again just the same.
``The girls (singers) are coming on good,'' Jennings said. ``I was laughing with Kathy Mattea. She said: `You guys gotta twist around; we don't have to.' ''
Jennings' life has sometimes been hectic, thanks to a combination of circumstances and, sometimes, poor judgment.
These days, though, he is content - enjoying the present, looking forward to the future, letting historians worry about the past. ILLUSTRATION: Waylon Jennings appears Sunday in Edenton, N.C.
CONCERT FACTS
Who: Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter
When: 2 and 5 p.m. Sunday
Where: Swain Auditorium, Edenton, N.C.
Tickets: $20 to $30, available by calling the Chowan Arts Council
at (919) 482-8005
by CNB