“It was such a f**k you to the people who thought I should do what was expected of me.”Īll of this leads up to the rollicking surprise of Jennings’s new album, Shooter, a God’s honest country-rock record heavily influenced by Jennings’s love of mid-seventies-, early-eighties-era Hank Williams, Jr. “That’s the moment I went all the way,” he says with a smile. In 2016, he released Countach (for Giorgio), an homage to the Italian dance music legend Giorgio Moroder. He put out Black Ribbons, a concept album about a dystopian future that features readings by Stephen King. His 2005 debut, Put the O Back in Country, and 2006’s follow-up, Electric Rodeo, owe as much to Guns N’ Roses as they do to the country sounds of his father. Jennings is, of course, the son of outlaw-country pioneers Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter, and over the course of seven solo albums, he has displayed his own fiercely independent streak. He’s turning thirty-nine, and his wife, Misty, has flown in from their Los Angeles home to join him, a welcome visit amid the touring grind. “Happy birthday,” Jennings tells the crowd, before ripping into the opening chords of one of his earliest songs, “Steady at the Wheel.”ĭuring the show, Jennings doesn’t let on that it’s also his birthday. Wearing a black long-sleeved shirt rolled up to the elbows, dark blue Wranglers, and his always-on shades, Jennings makes his way to the stage, where his burly stage tech Faren Miller hands him a guitar. Empty Red Bull cans and McDonald’s wrappers lay strewn about inside, and a vintage Nintendo game console is rigged up to the small screen overhead. The van has barely enough room for Jennings and his seven-person band and crew and is doubling as a dressing room, since there’s nowhere else to retreat to near the outdoor stage.
Cl utching a red Solo cup filled with Jack Daniel’s and Coke, Shooter Jennings is sitting inside a Sprinter bus, basically a glorified minivan, at the annual Founders Day Festival in Rockwall, Texas.
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