The lawsuit was dropped when-following a suggestion by Waylon-the old folkies were allowed to open a show for the new Highwaymen in Los Angeles. However, the use of that name led to a bit of legal trouble, with members of a 1960s folk group that had called itself the “Highwaymen” suing the country supergroup in 1990. The four artists billed themselves as the Highwaymen when they started touring together in 1990. “Highwayman” was the band’s only number-one single, and it was honored with a Grammy Award. Marty Stuart, then Cash’s son-in-law, had suggested that the quartet record the song.
The song follows a soul through its embodiments as a highwayman, a sailor, a dam builder, and a starship pilot. The name of the group was subsequently borrowed from the hit title song, an unusual ballad about reincarnation written by Jimmy Webb. On the Highwayman album, released by Columbia Records in 1985 and produced by Chips Moman, the four singers were credited only by their individual names.
On other songs on their albums, only one or two of them sang up front, though the others provided background vocals. On many of their released songs, the four men shared vocals as they took turns singing the lyrics in their own styles. The combination of these dissimilar people and diverse artists served the Highwaymen well and became a key to the group’s magic and success. There were also political differences, with Kris mixing his left-wing politics with his music, much to Waylon’s annoyance (according to later comments by Waylon’s wife Jessi Colter). And John was simply a living legend whom everybody knew. Kris was undoubtedly the best songwriter. Willie was probably the best overall musician. Waylon probably had the best singing voice in the group. John had seemingly been everywhere and done everything.
#AMERICAN MASTERS THE HIGHWAYMEN MOVIE#
Kris was a Rhodes scholar and movie star who had scored several hits on the pop charts. Willie was the wise pot-smoking hippie guru. Waylon was the outlaw rebel/good ol’ boy with the rock’n’roll attitude. They had so much fun that they decided to record together when they got back to the states.Īlthough the four Highwaymen were longtime friends who always admired and respected each other, they each had strong, independent, highly individualistic personalities and musical outlooks. They spent a lot of time jamming together when not filming.
#AMERICAN MASTERS THE HIGHWAYMEN TV#
There was no marketing guy who came and said, ‘This will be a good idea.’” The idea originated in 1984, when the four men were in Switzerland filming a Johnny Cash Christmas TV show. In the words of Rosanne Cash, John’s daughter, the Highwaymen “came out of pure friendship. Since the deaths of Jennings, in 2002, and Cash, in 2003, Nelson and Kristofferson have gotten together from time to time to play music. All four men had been friends for decades prior to their musical collaboration, and their friendships and occasional musical partnerships continued after the supergroup disbanded. When the Highwaymen performed concerts, they often mixed in their solo material with that of the group on stage. They released three studio albums between the mid-1980s and mid-1990s: Highwayman (1985), Highwayman 2 (1990), and The Road Goes On Forever (1995). The Highwaymen were a “supergroup” of four country-music giants-Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, and Kris Kristofferson. The Highwaymen in concert featuring (L to R) Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson.