WAYLON JENNINGS: “IF I WAS EVERYTHING PEOPLE MAKE ME OUT TO BE, I’DA BEEN DEAD A LONG TIME AGO.”

"Waylon Jennings is a hoss.” The words came from one of the hangers-on in a coach’s office adjoining the gymnasium of a Catholic junior high school in Gallup, N.M. I was sitting around, waiting to meet the man himself, and I pondered those words as they applied to the renegade country singer who is this year’s prime candidate for crossing into popular music.