Waylon Jennings was a titan of country music. He helped found the outlaw movement that pushed back hard and fearlessly against the Nashville establishment, Among Jennings' close friends were fellow country stars Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson. He was firmly in their exalted league and was a respected presence in the music industry. That said, Jennings had a skirmish with one of Elvis Presley's bodyguards because of something involving Jennings' wife, singer Jessi Colter. What was the reason for the ugly dust-up?
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The Last Time Presley And Jennings Saw Each Other Was Memorable
Per nodepression.org, "The King and the Outlaw were well acquainted and had crossed paths several times since 1955 when Elvis opened a Pontiac dealership in Lubbock." The final time they saw each other was at the Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas. Elvis dispatched two of his bodyguards to ask Jennings and Colter to come visit him in his suite.
One of the bodyguards, a close buddy of Elvis's named Sonny West, was casually toying with a handgun. He aimed it at Colter. Jennings went wild. Per the outlet, he snapped, "Hoss, if you point that thing at my wife again, you better grease it up, cause I'm gonna stick it up your [expletive]." The King chuckled and that was the end of the firearm horseplay in Vegas.
What He Thought Of Elvis
Jennings was incredibly impressed with the young whippersnapper of rock and roll. Per Elvis Australia, the outlaw was admittedly "crazy" about Elvis. He sounded and looked like absolutely no one else. Jennings gushed like a gobsmacked fanboy at the very sight of him. Years later, he would sing a song called "Nobody Knows I'm Elvis." The satirical lyrics say in part, "Nobody knows I'm Elvis / Nobody knows this is me / After all of my tries...I've got / The perfect disguise...."
Jennings' Marriage To Jessi Colter Was A Positive Turning Point For Him
Per Wide Open Country via Rolling Stone, "When I met Jessi, I was pretty well at my lowest point. I weighed 138 pounds, and I was bent on self-destruction. Wallerin' in self-pity was the biggest part of it, stayin' depressed all the time and stoned. Jess was the best thing that ever happened to me."
Colter said pretty much the same thing. Per the outlet via CMT, "It was fun. It was exciting. It was a wild ride in the early years, and yet he kind of made things settle. He had strength about him — something about him that almost would stamp things. That's just how it was."
The two recorded a duet of Elvis's hit, "Suspicious Minds," that was accorded a Grammy nomination. They were married from 1969 until Jennings' death in 2002.
