Waylon Arnold Jennings (June 15, 1937 – February 13, 2002)

Jennings was a country music singer, songwriter, and musician.
best known as one of the founding pioneers of the Outlaw
Movement in country music.

Jennings started to play guitar at age of eight and first performed
at age 12 on KVOW radio, after which he formed his first band, The
Texas Longhorns. Jennings left high school at age 16, determined
to become a musician and worked as a performer and DJ on KVOW, KDAV, KYTI, KLLL, in Coolidge, Arizona, and Phoenix.

In 1958, Buddy Holly arranged Jennings’s first recording session,
and hired him to play bass. Jennings gave up his seat on the ill-
fated flight in 1959 that crashed and killed Holly, J. P. “The Big
Bopper” Richardson and Ritchie Valens. Jennings died in his sleep
from complications of diabetes at the age of 64, at his home in Chandler,
 Arizona.

Waylon Jennings and Buddy Holly, taken in a Photo Booth
(1959).

Waylon  Jennings and Buddy Holly during the Winter Dance
Party Tour in 1959.