Waylon Jennings died on Wednesday, February 13, 2002, at his home in Chandler, Arizona. He was 64. By Saturday night, Hank Williams Jr. was standing on the stage of the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, playing the Grand Ole Opry for the first time in more than 17 years. He had come to sing for Waylon.
Travis Tritt and Marty Stuart sat with him. According to The Tennessean’s report on the show, a fourth stool stood on the stage, a place left for the man they had come to honor.
The Song He Showed Waylon on an Airplane
Hank Williams Jr. opened with “Eyes of Waylon,” a song he wrote by himself and released on his 1995 album Hog Wild.
Hank Jr. told CMT, the day after Waylon died, that he wrote the song on the first leg of an airplane trip. When he boarded his connecting flight, there sat Waylon Jennings and his wife, Jessi Colter. The two old friends got to sit together and talk, and Hank Jr. showed Waylon the song he had finished only hours earlier, a song about Waylon himself.
Hank Jr. said Waylon wouldn’t mind him sharing what happened next: Waylon “had tears in his eyes that day.”
Years later, three days after Waylon was gone, Hank Jr. sang that same song on the Opry stage.
Saturday Night at the Ryman
That Saturday’s Opry honored Waylon Jennings. According to The Tennessean, Porter Wagoner hosted, and he and his band played a medley of Waylon’s biggest hits. Then Porter turned the stage over to a guitar pull with Hank Williams Jr., Travis Tritt and Marty Stuart. Hank Jr. and Travis played acoustic guitars. Marty played mandolin.
After “Eyes of Waylon,” Hank Jr. and Travis Tritt sang “The Conversation,” the song Hank Jr. had written with Waylon and Waylon’s longtime drummer, Richie Albright. The two men first recorded it together on Hank Jr.’s 1979 album Whiskey Bent and Hell Bound, a duet about the legacy of Hank Williams, Hank Jr.’s father.
The three men also played Waylon classics, including “Only Daddy That’ll Walk the Line,” “I’ve Always Been Crazy” and “Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way.” Radio retellings of the night say the tribute ran for more than an hour.
Travis Tritt had his own reasons to be there. He was already booked on the Opry that week. Instead of canceling, he went on and told the crowd that “I’ve Always Been Crazy” was for Waylon. About a year and a half earlier, he had recorded a live album with Waylon at the Ryman.
“My Brother”
Hank Williams Jr. was about 12 years younger than Waylon Jennings, and the bond ran both ways. In his autobiography, Waylon wrote that Hank Jr. “has always been like my little brother.”
In November 2002, Hank Jr. looked back on the Opry tribute and used the same word. It was, he said, “a sad night as I honored my brother, Waylon Jennings.”
How Long Had He Been Away?
Many retellings today say Hank Jr. had been gone from the Opry for more than 20 years. In 2002, Hank Jr. himself put it at more than 17 years, and CMT used the same figure a few months later. Either way, it had been a very long time.
Hank Jr. never joined the Opry. In a 2022 interview, he said plainly that he had never been a member and never would be. That is what made February 16, 2002, stand out. He did not come back for his own career. He came back for Waylon.
What Came Next
Less than a year later, on January 4, 2003, Hank Williams Jr. returned to the Ryman for another Opry tribute, this time to his father, on the 50th anniversary of Hank Williams’ death. His son, Hank Williams III, joined him. It was the first time the two had performed together on a stage.
When Hank Jr. announced that show, the first thing he talked about was the Saturday night he had come back for Waylon.