Waylon Jennings is known for exiting when things get too much, or when he no longer agrees with what's going on. Well, it turns out that he even left the recording of Michael Jackson's "We Are The World."
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This super group of super stars had 46 of the biggest names in music, including a few country names. Willie Nelson, Kenny Rogers, and Waylon Jennings were on the recording. However, Jennings, in his usual fashion, left when the recording became too much.
When you have dozens of the biggest names under one roof, you're bound to have artistic squabbles. Despite producer Quincy Jones having a sign ordering the artists to leave their ego at the door, some couldn't help but provide their own input on the song.
According to The Independent and the Netflix documentary The Greatest Night in Pop, Waylon Jennings reached his limit when it was suggested that Swahili be added to the song.
The recording session was a stressful one. Recording went on for hours, and many artists got antsy and irritated as the process dragged on and on. The Swahili argument pushed many arguments to the edge, however.
Waylon Wavers Recording After Swahili Argument
At 1 am, an argument broke out after one of Michael Jackson's nonsense lyrics came under scrutiny. At the end of the chorus, "sha-lum sha-lingay" was to be sung. However, Bob Geldof argued that the lyric sounded too similar to an African language, and may come off as offensive.
Building on that, Stevie Wonder called up a friend to grab the Swahili phrase "willi moing-gu" instead. Many artists did not like this addition, with many arguing any lyric in Swahili would be wasted on the western audience, and may come across as insensitive.
Some just couldn't muster up the effort to sing in an entirely new language, however.
It was at this time when Waylon Jennings left. Apparently, he was heard saying "No good old boy sings in Swahili." It's not exactly sure what he meant by this, but he left.
Lionel Richie commented on his exit in the documentary. "Waylon walks out of the door. [He was like] 'I'm not dealing with this. I don't know what that means, but I am not gonna say it.'"
"And we lost Waylon right there."
Ultimately, they settled on "One world, our children." Something Jennings probably would have preferred.
