1977: Waylon and Willie Battle the CMA
The legend of Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson and the Outlaw movement of the late 1970s surrounded their insistence on handling their art their own way. One interesting moment in that process came this week 30 years ago when Waylon and Willie butted heads with the Country Music Association. They asked the CMA to remove them from the award nomination ballot, saying it was improper for artists to get involved in a competition. They specifically did not want to compete against each other.
To put that in context, think about how people react year after year at awards shows. Carrie Underwood cries, Kenny Chesney has to stop and regain his composure and Brooks & Dunn seem to grow more shocked every year. Waylon and Willie turned down something that most artists hold in high regard, a fact that left some folks on Music Row offended. The two artists were perhaps a bit naïve although they made a good point. Really great music makes an internal connection with people and the idea of putting a bunch of songs or artists on an industry ballot is fairly superficial. It gets even more farcical because there is a political component to it -- executives routinely check the box for their own artists, record companies run advertising and marketing campaigns to solicit votes for their acts and I know one member of the media who used to make his decision based on what artists in the category he could count on for an interview.
The fact is the CMA Awards show helps promote the genre as a whole. It’s good TV exposure and it gives fans and music pros something to talk about. So, on July 13, 1977, the CMA turned down Waylon and Willie’s request to be removed from the ballot. But the two outlaws didn’t have to compete with each other. Willie’s only nomination came as a duet partner for Waylon. Waylon picked up five nominations, yet come October, he didn’t win a thing. They didn’t get exactly what they wanted but they took a stand for something they believed in. They probably didn’t intend it this way, but as it turns out, it was pretty good marketing. It helped to solidify their standing as Outlaws.
©2008 Country Music Television, Inc., a Viacom company. A division of
Brigitte London says:
Thanks for this blog. To put any kind of Art in competition makes no sense. As for the Award shows themselves, they get more visually out of control every year, hoping keep the consumer’s short attention span. Lights, flashing videos, all that going on-who can actually pay attention and feel what the Artist is singing about?
I can remember being a young girl, dreaming of winning a CMA award, until I got older and understood what music was really about.
Now we live in a world where there is currently a “reality” show coming out about country singers trying to make it into the business, to give an even more warped perspective of what it’s like to be an Artist today.
These gentlemen were groundbreaking in their efforts to bring some authenticity where it was desperately needed, and still is.
Appreciate your article and have forwarded it to many friends.
leatherguy says:
I still wanna know when is Billy Ray Cyrus gonna get a new Hairdo ???