Born in 1937 in Littlefield, Texas, he grew up listening to folk songs and the music of seminal artists like Jimmie Rodgers and later, to singers that ranged from Hank Williams, Ernest Tubb and Webb Pierce to B.B. King and Bobbie "Blue" Bland. He was a disc jockey at 14, and had already formed his own band at the age of 12, making guest appearances on local station KDAV's "Sunday Party," where he met Holly in 1955.

"Mainly what I learned from Buddy," Waylon says, "was an attitude. He loved music, and he taught me that it shouldn't have any barriers to it."

Waylon who gave up his seat to the Big Bopper on the plane that would crash, killing Holly and Ritchie Valens as well. By the early- to mid- '60s, Waylon was headlining a club called JD's in Phoenix, putting out a sound that combined his "chicken-picken" Telecaster guitar style, with his rough-edged, soulful vocals and an eclectic repertoire that often borrowed from rock and rockabilly.

This combination was as popular as it was groundbreaking "We got long-haired people, lawyers, doctors, and all the cowboys," he says. Word got around, and after a short stint at Herb Alpert's A&M Records, he was signed to RCA by Chet Atkins.

By 1968, he had hit the top five with "Only Daddy That'll Walk the Line" and "Walk On Out Of My Mind," and a year later he won a Grammy for a version of "MacArthur Park." He also recorded with the Kimberleys, and recorded several songs for the soundtrack album of "Ned Kelly," a feature film starring Mick Jagger.

Still, the Nashville "system," in which producers often stamped their own ideas and formulas onto artists, was something Waylon was struggling against mightily.

"Every business has its system that works for 80 percent of the people who are in it," he says, "but there's always that other 20 percent who just don't fit in. That's what happened to me, and it happened to Johnny Cash, and it happened to Willie Nelson. We just couldn't do it the way it was set up. It wasn't until I started producing my own records and using my own musicians and working with people who understood what I was about that I first started having any real success."

When it came, though, it came hard and heavy. Albums like 1973's "Lonesome, On'ry and Mean" and 1974's "This Time," which he co-produced with Willie Nelson, caught the attention of critics outside of country circles and reasserted him as one of the genre's truly innovative stylists. He also teamed up with Nelson for the first of the Fourth of July picnics in Texas that solidified the demographic mix that would turn into country's modern audience.

In 1975, Waylon was named the Country Music Association's Male Vocalist of the Year, and in 1976, he helped found a movement that would change the face of country.

In that year, Waylon, Willie, Jessi Colter (who married Waylon in 1969) and Tompall Glaser teamed up for "Wanted: The Outlaws" that became the first platinum (one million units) album ever recorded in Nashville. It also helped Waylon and Willie sweep that year's CMA Awards, winning Best Album, Best Single and Best Vocal Duo (for "Good Hearted Woman").

This period found Waylon hitting Billboard's Number One singles spot with song after song, from 1974's "This Time" through "Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way," "Luckenbach, Texas," "Wurlitzer Prize," "I've Always Been Crazy," "Amanda," "Ain't Living Long Like This," and "Just to Satisfy You," among other. In 1978, he won his second Grammy for Best Country Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group for "Mamas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboy," with Willie Nelson.

His albums were great chart and sales successes as well, with eight consecutive LP's going gold (there have been 13 altogether). "Ol' Waylon," released in 1977 became the first country album by a solo artists to go platinum, and Greatest Hits, two years later, entered uncharted territory by going quadruple platinum.

His contributions to the country music industry he helped shape continue unabated. The man who has done so much to define the edge and the attitudes that are part of the parameters of country music today, remains one of the true GIANTS of this business.