When someone is famous, even if they are deceased, all kinds of rumors, innuendo, and gossip tend to swirl around them. Even their death does not halt it. Sometimes, the untrue information perpetuated about celebrities gains more traction posthumously. Take country music legend Waylon Jennings, for example. He passed away in 2002 but the false narratives about him are still circulating, according to his son, Shooter. He was a guest recently on The Drifting Cowboy podcast. Shooter pushed back hard against one especially wacky story about his dad that involves Cocaine Bear. Yes, you read that correctly!
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What Was Cocaine Bear?
According to lore, forty years ago, a bear in Georgia succumbed after ingesting a large quantity of cocaine. It was allegedly discarded from above by a drug smuggler in an airplane. There was even a movie about this bizarre incident two years ago. The animal was supposedly stuffed and displayed at the Kentucky for Kentucky Fun Mall. What riled Shooter Jennings is that people think that this unfortunate creature formerly belonged to Waylon Jennings and was housed in his Las Vegas residence.
Shooter Jennings Set the Record Straight
On The Drifting Cowboy podcast, Shooter robustly denied this alleged falsehood. "No, no. That was never true. Those people [from the Kentucky for Kentucky organization] made that up, or someone made that up and told those people that. There was a whole story about how he had this cocaine bear in this house that he had in Vegas. And I go, we didn't have a house in Vegas... what are you talking about? Like, what is anyone talking about? And it was the weirdest thing, because no matter what I said."
He went on. "And I think that little Kentucky for Kentucky place had that thing in there, and had this story whether they made it up or not, but they were using it for a touristy thing and somehow sold it to this movie. It was the wildest thing I'd ever heard in my whole life. I guess they debunked the entire story, because originally they found the actual cocaine bear, when they did, it was heavily decomposed because it had died in the middle of the woods and ate this cocaine or whatever."
Hearing People Concoct Wild Stuff About His Father Irks Shooter
He loathes hearing all sorts of inaccurate things about his father. He said, "...[M]y biggest beef is, or I guess the thing that bothers me the most, is when people misrepresent my dad. Because when somebody's dead a long time, it happens that way. People spread these stories, and their persona shifts over time...."
Shooter added, "...I can't them just say this [expletive] and it not be true. Like, we didn't have a house in Vegas. What is everybody talking about? It was the craziest thing ever. To have a bunch of people push back was ever crazier."
