Ep514: Waylon's Lost Tapes - Shooter Continues the Jennings Legacy
The Vinyl Guide - Artist Interviews for Record Collectors and Music Nerds
Nate Goyer
4.7 • 579 Ratings
🗓️ 25 August 2025
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Shooter Jennings reveals the story of hundreds of unreleased recordings his father Waylon made between 1974-1984, including stunning covers now being released as "Songbird" - plus more musical stories from the lives of the Jennings family.
Order the new "Songbird" LP here.
Topics Include:
- Shooter Jennings discusses upcoming Songbird release featuring his late father Waylon's unfinished recordings
- Most songs were actually complete with vocals and instruments already recorded professionally
- Waylon privately recorded after 1974 RCA battle, keeping hundreds of tapes unlabeled
- Tapes digitized in 2008 but sat untouched until Shooter systematically catalogued everything recently
- Discovery process was emotional journey revealing Waylon's constant studio experimentation and joy
- Found treasure trove including Fleetwood Mac's "Songbird" cover and multiple complete albums worth
- Shooter mixed everything on vintage 1976 analog console maintaining authentic original sound
- Three planned album releases starting with Songbird, featuring different themes and flavors
- Tony Joe White plays harmonica, Jessi Colter sings, original band members returned
- Cataloging required detective work, Googling lyrics, consulting surviving band members for identification
- Growing up as Waylon's son meant different childhood, touring summers, recognizing fame
- Family record collection included Beatles, Harry Nilsson, later Waylon bought entire collections
- Teenage Shooter brought home Nine Inch Nails, Nirvana; parents showed concern but support
- Waylon's deep friendship with Buddy Holly, plane crash guilt haunted him for years
- Eventually found closure visiting crash site, could finally look at wreckage photos
- Parents advised being authentic, not copying others; mother worried about rough crowd
- Shooter's career shows risk-taking from country to experimental electronic and industrial music
- Produced diverse artists from Duff McKagan to Marilyn Manson, always seeking creative challenges
- Early collaboration with father on Fenixon project mixed country with industrial influences
- Vinyl remains important, frequent Amoeba Records visits, special Record Store Day releases planned
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Vinyl Guide, the podcast for record collectors and music nerds. |
| 0:10.0 | Here's your host, the biggest record nerd of them all, Nate Goyer. |
| 0:13.0 | Well, hey everyone, it's Nate. |
| 0:16.0 | Welcome to episode 514 of the Vinyl Guide. |
| 0:20.0 | 514, geez. |
| 0:23.0 | We were just doing 500 just recently. |
| 0:25.6 | Boy, times do fly, don't they? |
| 0:31.1 | Yes, episode 514, the Vinyl Guide, the podcast for record collectors and music nerds. |
| 0:32.3 | Welcome, everyone. |
| 0:34.6 | This week on the show, very stoked about this. |
| 0:36.7 | We have Outlaw Royalty joining us. |
| 0:41.5 | Shooter Jennings, who is the son of Wayland Jennings and Jesse Coulter. |
| 0:44.0 | However, he's made quite the name for himself. |
| 0:46.4 | He's released multiple solo albums. |
| 0:50.5 | He's producing the likes of Duff McCagan, Marilyn Manson, and more. |
| 0:56.4 | And Shooter also makes a lot of brave and wild choices with his musical output, |
| 1:03.1 | vacillating between country and heavy industrial, even dance music. He's not a guy you can categorize, I mean, at all, which is very fascinating. Shooter and I speak about that today. |
| 1:09.7 | We also talk about growing up with |
| 1:11.9 | Waylon and Jesse and all the records they had around the house. We talk about how Waylon Jennings |
| 1:16.7 | discovered a love for Primus. We even hear Shooter recount the tales of Buddy Holly. His father |
| 1:24.2 | shared with him. In case you were unaware, Wayland Jennings was a longtime friend of Buddy |
| 1:29.0 | Holly. He was even due to be on that plane that took Buddy's life and lived with a lot of guilt for |
... |
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