Shooter Jennings Says Some Fans Think He Ruined Turnpike Troubadours

Jennings — by way of his production work with artists as varied as Brandi Carlile, Lukas Nelson, and Guns N’ Roses’ Duff McKagan, and his own eclectic solo albums like 2010’s Black Ribbons — has succeeded in outrunning his father’s long shadow. In fact, when he started his country career in 2005 with Put the O Back in Country, he was blind to any expectations.

“When we cut Put the O Back in Country, I had no pressure, and there was no shadow. I moved to L.A. when I was 21 years old to be in a rock band,” he says, “and nobody knew who I was.”

According to Jennings, few were even aware of Waylon — save for the guitarist in the influential grunge band Alice in Chains, whom he met one night at the Sunset Marquis hotel. “The only person who knew who Waylon Jennings was, was Jerry Cantrell. He goes, ‘You’re Waylon’s kid? Right on.’ And he was so nice to me from that point on,” Jennings says. “But otherwise no one really knew who he was or really cared.”

Jennings recently produced and released Songbird, a posthumous album by Waylon Jennings made up of secret recordings the younger Jennings discovered a few years back. He intends to release two more volumes of the project.

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