Flashback: Waylon Jennings, Neil Young Sing ‘Country’ Duet

In 1984, Young returned to Nashville (more accurately, Franklin, Tennessee, south of Music City) to record Old Ways, his 13th LP. An homage to country music and the Nashville Sound, the album featured guest appearances from Jennings and Nelson and was released in August 1985.

During one of his Nashville trips, Young, whose TV appearances were few and far between, joined Jennings as a guest on the popular TNN talk show, Nashville Now, hosted by Ralph Emery. For their appearance on the show, captured in the interview and performance clip above, Jennings and Young were joined by Faron Young and Little Jimmy Dickens, with Waylon telling stories about his early career as a disc jockey and detailing his recent friendship with Neil Young, which also included several tour dates for the pair. Leaving the guest couch, Young would play “Amber Jean,” (edited out of this clip) a song about his young daughter that he would later include on the 2011 LP, A Treasure. Jennings continued with a story about Nashville’s Sue Brewer, who befriended many young songwriters and during her lifetime gave them a place to congregate on Music Row, explaining that he was among the artists doing a television special in tribute to Brewer, who died in 1981.

At around the 5:57 mark, Jennings and Young take the Nashville Now stage for an exuberant performance of “Are You Ready for the Country,” which (although they’re pretty tough to make out) features Spooner Oldham on keyboards, Tim Drummond on bass, Ben Keith on steel guitar, Anthony Crawford on guitar, Karl T. Himmel on drums, and a superb fiddle break from Rufus Thibodeaux.