S4 E9: Waylon Payne on "Both Sides Now"

One by Willie

John Spong

Music, Music Commentary

4.8 • 833 Ratings

🗓️ 21 July 2023

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, Americana singer-songwriter Waylon Payne talks about Willie’s 1970 cover of Joni Mitchell’s iconic “Both Sides Now.” Waylon, an NPR-darling as an artist now, grew up in Willie World; his mom, Sammi Smith—of “Help Me Make It Through the Night” fame—played package shows with Willie in the ‘70s; and his dad, Jody Payne, was Willie’s lead guitarist for almost forty years. Waylon walks us through all that, describing the way Willie songs were his lullabies as a kid, the incredibly difficult personal trials when he says Willie saved his life, and the time Willie paid his songwriting the highest praise possible. Note: the compliment wasn’t remotely suitable for small ears.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Texas Monthly.
0:11.5	Hey there, I'm John Spong with Texas Monthly magazine, and this is One by Willie,
0:16.7	a podcast in which I talk each week to one notable Willie Nelson fan about one Willie song that they really love.
0:23.6	This week, singer-songwriter Waylon Payne talks about Willie's 1970 cover of one of the songs that established Joni Mitchell as an iconic generational songwriter, both sides now.
0:35.9	Now, Waylon knows a little bit about icons. His mom, Sammy Smith,
0:40.0	sparked a revolution in country music with her 1971 hit on Chris Christofferson's
0:44.8	Help Me Make It Through the Night, and his dad, Jody Payne, was Willie's lead guitar player for 36 years,
0:51.7	so Wayland's equal parts, country royalty, an extended member of the Nelson family.
0:56.6	But he's also a badass artist. NPR ranked his most recent album, Blue Eyes, the Harlet,
1:02.4	the Queer, and The Pusher and Me, and its year-end top 10 overall in 2020. So mixing in all that,
1:09.7	Wayland's going to talk about the way
1:11.1	Willie records were his lullabies when he was little,
1:13.7	a couple of impossible personal times
1:16.0	when he credits Willie with saving his life,
1:18.5	and that time that Willie paid his songwriting
1:20.5	the highest praise possible.
1:22.5	Note that you'll probably want to cover your kids' ears
1:25.0	when Whelan gets to that part.
1:26.9	So let's do it.
1:29.0	It's art.
1:42.2	Well, we do.
1:43.1	We always start at the same place. What's so cool about Willie's
	...

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