Waylon Arnold Jennings was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. He is considered one of the pioneers of the outlaw movement in country music.
Jennings started playing guitar at age eight and performed at fourteen on KVOW radio, after which he formed his first band, the Texas Longhorns. Jennings left high school at age sixteen, determined to become a musician, and worked as a performer and DJ on KVOW, KDAV, KYTI, KLLL, in Coolidge, Arizona, and Phoenix. In 1958, Buddy Holly arranged Jennings's first recording session, a cover of Jole Blon, and hired him to play bass. Jennings gave up his seat on the ill-fated flight in 1959 that crashed and killed Holly, J. P. "the Big Bopper" Richardson and Ritchie Valens.
Jennings then returned to Texas, taking several years off from music before eventually moving to Arizona and forming a rockabilly club band, the Waylors, which became the house band at "JD's", a club in Tempe, Arizona. He recorded for independent label Trend Records and A&M Records, but did not achieve success until moving to RCA Victor in 1965. In 1972 he acquired Neil Reshen as his manager, who negotiated significantly better touring and recording contracts.