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On a recent sunny morning at the Parthenon in Nashville, a passerby paused to listen to a musician sitting on the steps, strumming his guitar and singing. The man extended some cash offering the player a tip.
The musician lowered his guitar and gracefully declined the monetary gesture, thanking him and telling him he was a good person for offering.
The man obliged, then stepped away and quietly googled the name “Waylon Payne.” After a minute, he came back, apologized and asked for an autograph and a photo with the acclaimed singer, who was having his photo taken for this story.
This is classic Payne, whose story, career, background and childhood are legendary, although not obvious at first glance. Payne is the child of Grammy-winning singer Sammi Smith (“Help Me Make it Through the Night”) and guitar player Jody Payne who spent the bulk of his career touring with Willie Nelson, who Payne says has been a constant force throughout his life.
After spending the bulk of his life around Nelson and “the boys” as he calls them, for the first time in his career, Payne is now embarking on tour as Willie Nelson’s guitar player.
The letter that changed everything
In part because of his parents’ careers, Payne was mostly raised by an aunt and uncle in rural Texas. In fact, he didn’t even meet his father until he wrote his dad a letter at age 16. While his mom and dad were among the pioneers of the outlaw country movement of the early ’70s, Payne groomed his musical chops singing Amy Grant and Sandi Patty songs in the Baptist church.
“They did not encourage me to sing country music because it was like look at the example your parents are setting. They can’t even raise you. We are raising you,” Payne told The Tennessean. “‘Help Me Make It Through the Night’ is a very seductive song. It was banned. Preachers preached about it, so to be raised by someone singing that song… it was different being a country singer back then. I think everyone thought they were thugs and losers.”
Although he was raised by extended family, Payne’s mother spent as much time with him as her schedule allowed and the two developed a very close bond.
“When I was able to be with her, I was with her. Summers and whenever she could have me,” Payne said. “A lot of those times included being around Willie, Waylon, Kris, Johnny. Waylon (Jennings) and Jessi (Colter) were my godparents. Those were her friends. I’ve always been around it. It’s always been there.”
In fact, Payne is named after Waylon Jennings.
Then Waylon met Jody Payne
Payne says his dad got the letter on a Thursday, and Friday afternoon after school he showed up.
“It was very apparent that my mama wanted to protect me, I guess. But I got curious and wrote him a letter. Who knows what it said. Something like, ‘Hey, I’m your kid.'”
That night, Jody Payne took Waylon to the Willie Nelson show at the legendary Texas honky tonk Billy Bob’s.
“When I did meet Daddy, I dove on in. I didn’t hold back. We partied together. We all smoked weed. We did miles of cocaine. I never did anything with Willie other than smoking weed, but me and my daddy partied. He was about music and being Jody Payne. He was fabulous. He was really awesome.”
Payne says since age 16 there haven’t been too many years when he hasn’t been with Willie and the boys, either singing with them on stage or riding on the tour bus across the country with his dad.
Willie saved his life. Several times.
As a young child, Payne remembers sitting on Nelson’s lap, playing with his beard. And when Payne came out as gay, he was disowned by all of the important people in his life — except Nelson.
“I was kind of devastated,” he remembers. “That included my mom for a minute because she was like ‘no no no…’ everybody was like ‘no, no, no.’ But Willie and Daddy and the boys, they didn’t care. They were like, ‘Come on. We’ll take care of you.’ I was homeless. I rode the bus with them sometimes a couple summers at a time. I grew up on those buses. I learned how to be a man. Or the best man I could be under those circumstances. They were just loving. They took care of me. They didn’t care.”
After embarking on his own musical career, Payne’s sexuality got him shunned in ’90s Nashville. “I couldn’t get arrested in Nashville because I was gay. Nobody would give me the time of day. It was unheard of,” he said.
So Payne went to California, ended up making his first record there and landed a record deal with Universal. That same day, Nelson gave Payne an opening slot for four dates at the legendary Fillmore in San Francisco. He also began acting and landed the role of fellow country music artist Jerry Lee Lewis in the hit movie “Walk the Line.”
Payne’s upward trajectory would change drastically after he began dating someone with a crystal meth problem.
“I had been partying with my dad for so many years, I didn’t think it was that big of a problem,” he said. “But unfortunately it bit me this time. It took over my life for a number of years.”
After losing his record deal and his mama, who died in 2005, Payne hit a new low. Payne returned to Texas, rented a condo on Nelson’s ranch and tried for years to get sober.
Then Nelson showed up one day.
“Willie was always very encouraging and at one point he came over and put his boot up on the kitchen table and said, ‘Now listen, you can be gone in a heartbeat. You need to pull your shit together’ basically.”
Payne has been sober ever since.
When asked why he thought Nelson stepped in to save him, Payne says he doesn’t really know.
“Maybe he just cared about me. Maybe he loved my parents. Maybe he loved me. I’m not sure. But I’m glad he didn’t throw me out. I think he just knew I was really sad. It was obvious what I was going through, I just don’t think anybody knew how to help me. Sometimes a firm hand and firm voice. He didn’t really do anything, other than be supportive of me.”
In Nelson’s words, “Waylon, like both his parents, is an amazing performer and a great human,” he told The Tennessean via email.
‘On the Road Again’
Beginning Sept. 8 in Raleigh, North Carolina, Payne will join Willie and the boys on tour as the band’s guitar player, filling the shoes of his father who died in 2013. The Outlaw Music Festival comes to Franklin’s FirstBank Amphitheater Sunday, Sept. 10, and will take Payne through Sept. 23 at Farm Aid.
“I don’t know what made them think of me, but I’m sure glad they did,” Payne said, smiling. “I’m sure it had something to do with Willie’s wife Annie, so thank you to her.”
Payne has also recorded new music with Nashville producer Frank Liddell, who also did Payne’s last record, 2020’s “Blue Eyes, The Harlot, The Queer, The Pusher & Me.”
“I’ve worked real hard to get here and I want to sit down and make music with my hero and I can’t think of anything better than sitting next to him even if it’s only for two weeks. If they want to make it permanent, I will say ‘yes.’ I mean, who’s got anything better to do than play with Willie Nelson?”
If you go
What: Outlaw Music Festival featuring Willie Nelson and Family
Where: FirstBank Amphitheater, 4525 Graystone Quarry Lane, Franklin, Tennessee
When: Sunday, Sept. 10
Tickets: Prices range from $57 to $211 and can be purchased through Ticketmaster
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