Don't mess with Waylon Jennings.
If you tamper with his tunes, the country music legend is likely to "bust you right in the mouth," he said in a telephone interview from Austin, Texas. Obviously, Jennings hasn't mellowed toward the fancy record executives who wanted to monkey with his new record, "Too Dumb for New York City, Too Ugly for L.A." (Epic)."When they start trying, that's when they get into trouble. If that's outlaw, then that's what I'll always be."
The problem is that record executives "get a four-year degree and think they know all about country music," he says. "All of a sudden, they're an expert on what you do from the heart. The industry doesn't do that to rock artists, but they think country artists are dumb. They have no respect for what we do, and they try to take control. They want to matter in a business where, as individuals, they don't matter."
Executives kill music when they try to control it, Jennings says. "They make decisions on whether something is good based on if it's a radio song. They try to come in and tell me what to do and what to record."
But to his way of thinking, he knows better than they do what folks want to hear. "We play to audiences every night, and they love the new songs we try out," Jennings says. "Then a record company says, `You can't do that.' Well, I'll record what I want, and it don't matter to me what they say."
He drew the new album's title from how he feels as a country boy traveling to big cities. "If you go to New York, especially if you're from the South with a Southern accent, it don't take long for them to make you feel dumb. Then you get off a plane in L.A. and there are all them pretty people. There was a time when ugly people had a place in Hollywood; now they make pretty people ugly with makeup!"
The new record contains one of the most political songs Jennings has ever written, "Just Talkin'," which he calls "my contribution to `Throw the bums out."' The idea came after he saw Paul Simon in concert and admired the way he "sounds like he's talking to you; I said, `I want to write a Paul Simon song."'
But he emphasizes he isn't trying to influence anyone's political ideas.
"No law says you have to be right to rhyme. This country is in a lot of trouble, but I don't think entertainers should get into politics because most don't know much about it."
Jennings does not hesitate, however, to express his opinions about fellow country musicians.
He thinks Garth Brooks should receive an award for drawing young listeners to country music. "I'm not a fan of his, but I'm glad for what he did."
Randy Travis is "a good old boy,"and Travis Tritt is a "good guy and the most talented one out there. He's a wonderful songwriter, singer and musician."
And what does Jennings think of newcomer Billy Ray Cyrus? "I try not to think about him," he says dryly. "He can't sing, and eventually he'll have to face up to it. He sounds like his shoes are too tight."
No matter what he personally thinks of his competitors, he says, the music industry has plenty of room for everybody. "I just want everybody to have fun and be happy."
The best thing about the new wave of country music is that all the artists are "squeaky clean," says Jennings, who kicked his own $1,500-a-day cocaine habit in 1984.