A legend like Waylon Arnold Jennings deserves much, much better than the tripe I am about to put on digital paper, but that's all he getting from me today.

Born in Texas today in 1937, Waylon learned to play guitar before he was 10 and eventually became a DJ in Lubbock. He caught the attention of some nobody called Buddy Holly and joined his band as a bass player. On The Day The Music Died he gave up his seat on the ill fated flight that took the lives of Buddy, Richie Valens and The Big Bopper.

Fast forward to the early 1970s and Waylon, along with a little help from his friends, invented a new genre of country music called Outlaw Country. With a bit more of a rock and roll sound, and a big middle finger to the staid Nashville establishment, Outlaw Country ruled the country music airwaves.

He led a Hank Williams Sr.-type lifestyle during that time, as weed, speed, cocaine and booze had him speeding his young life away, all while a five piece band was staring at the backside of him. Counting as friends such luminaries as Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Neil Young, Johnny Cash and Hank Junior, Waylon was about as big of a star as you could be, regardless of genre.