On Friday nights from 1979 to 1985, Waylon Jennings was part of The Dukes of Hazzard from the first note to the last. He sang the theme, “Good Ol’ Boys,” and as the Balladeer he talked viewers through the chases, often while the General Lee hung frozen in midair before a commercial break. Yet in the opening credits, the camera showed only a man in a vest and rolled-up sleeves strumming a guitar. It never went higher than his neck.
That finally changed on September 28, 1984, in an episode with a title that said it all: “Welcome, Waylon Jennings.”
Waylon Finally Comes to Hazzard County
It was the second episode of the seventh season, which turned out to be the show’s last. Waylon Jennings played himself. The story made him an old friend of Uncle Jesse Duke, coming to Hazzard County with his traveling museum of country music memorabilia, which he hoped to use for a charity exhibit.
Of course, nothing valuable stayed safe in Hazzard for long. Boss Hogg’s scheme left the museum hijacked and the Duke boys framed for the crime. Because of his long friendship with the family, Waylon gave the Dukes the benefit of the doubt, and he helped Bo and Luke clear their names.
The hour ended at the Boar’s Nest, with Waylon on stage and a guitar in his hands. But the song he sang was not “Good Ol’ Boys.” It was “Never Could Toe the Mark,” the title song from the album he had released that June. Some viewers have wondered ever since why the man who sang the show’s theme for six seasons did not sing it the one night he was finally on camera.
The Man Who Showed Up That Fall
The Waylon who walked into Hazzard County in 1984 was in the middle of a big change. That year, after years of drug abuse, he quit cocaine. Never Could Toe the Mark, the album behind the song he performed at the Boar’s Nest, came out while he was working to get sober. Its title track reached No. 6 on the country chart.
How the Balladeer Got the Job
Waylon Jennings had played the Balladeer before. In 1975 he narrated Moonrunners, a movie about two cousins running moonshine for their Uncle Jesse. When that story was reworked into a CBS series, Waylon was asked back to narrate it, and he wrote the theme song himself.
In a conversation with Ralph Emery, he gave a plainspoken read on who the show was really for:
“I knew the kids would have to love this thing.”
A Joke That Went to No. 1
Waylon Jennings recorded two versions of “Good Ol’ Boys.” The short TV version, with its banjo, opened and closed the show. The other, released as a single from his 1980 album Music Man, added an instrumental break and a new verse. In it, he joked that his mama loved him but could not understand why television kept showing his hands instead of his face.
In November 1980, the single reached No. 1 on Billboard’s country chart, and it climbed to No. 21 on the pop chart, the highest pop showing of Waylon’s career.
One Appearance, Then the Last Ride
“Welcome, Waylon Jennings” was the only time he appeared on screen in the entire series. The Dukes of Hazzard aired its final episode on February 8, 1985, and Waylon’s voice carried the Duke boys right to the end.
Do you remember watching The Dukes of Hazzard on Friday nights? What memories come back when you hear Waylon Jennings singing “Good Ol’ Boys”?