People Magazine
Inside Country Music
May 21, 1984
by Chet Flippo
When country’s greatest star, the late Hank Williams, went into the studio to record an album, he was treated like a serf. Fred Rose, the autocratic producer and co-writer, had already decreed what songs would be cut and which musicians would perform on those cuts. A true feudal system, Hank was the first country superstar and never made much more than $100,000 a year. He didn’t know that he could complain — though had he lived to see Kenny Rogers take in more than $20 million last year, he might have figured it out.
The drastic change – that is to say, the commercial change — began early in 1976 with Wanted: the Outlaws. That was the first Nashville album to go platinum. And it was strictly a patch job designed to pick up a few extra bucks with a handful of songs already in the can. Jerry Bradley, then running RCA in Nashville, had a keen eye for packaging a concept. He saw that Willie Nelson had abandoned Nashville for Texas, and that Willie’s buddy, Waylon Jennings, was wearing not only leather and long hair but a fierce spirit of musical independence that was drawing a new, young multiclass audience.
For the Outlaws album, Bradley put together some cuts by Willie, Waylon, Jessi Colter (Waylon’s wife) and Tompall Glaser, fronting the package with an album cover that looked like a Wild West wanted poster. The songs were not among any of the artist’s finest work, but the album’s image was perfect. After years of country stars singing syrup and looking like mannequins, here were some mavericks daring to get down and dirty, if need be.
The surprise was that the music had not changed — Willie had always sung eclectic country blues and Waylon had played a hard, rock-tinged sound ever since his stint in Buddy Holly’s band — but that the audience had. It was a weird mix of hippies and rednecks, stumbling over this “progressive country” after rejecting the soft country and soft rock that were the alternatives. The outlaw phenomenon took off, and amazing thins happened. Urban cowboys sprang up all over the pace. This was not such a country-to-pop crossover hit as a Certified New Thing. Utopia reigned as rednecks grew their hair long and hippies cut there’s short, and everybody danced arm-in-arm with honky-tonks everywhere.
After years of slumber, Nashville was cashville. Out went the violins, back were the fiddles, albeit mixed with ringing electric guitars and a solid rock beat. Into town came the money merchants, sniffing a trend. In 1977 former pop singer, jazz singer and folk singer Kenny Rogers tested country’s water with Lucille — and he found something he never had before: a big career. Country became a genuine big business.
“Then there’s Willie Nelson, who is in his own time zone and can do whatever we wants.” — Chet Flippo