I've been in a Waylon mood as of late. I was watching some early live videos of him when I came across this:
That video has a few million views, so if you're a Waylon fan you've probably seen it. But I heard something that caught my attention... starting at about 0:25, Cash mentions that he and Waylon were roommates a few years prior, sharing an apartment in ... Madison.
Now, there are a lot of towns named Madison. Even a good number of them could be contenders for Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash to have shared an apartment earlier in their careers. But there is a Madison neighborhood in Nashville (was once incorporated, now it's metro). In fact, the Madison neighborhood of Nashville is sort of my old stomping grounds, and if you know the area, that ain't no brag. I have lived in and worked in Madison over the years. And still, I pass through Madison almost every single day.
Johnny talks about "Madison" like everyone in the audience should know the area. So where was The Johnny Cash Show recorded? Could really only be Nashville or somewhere around Los Angeles. And this was before the outlaw movement, so it could have surely been Nashville. I did some checking - and indeed the show was filmed in Nashville - at the Ryman, of course.
That lead me to wondering where the apartment was located, and if it was still there. I did some Google searching and actually found an article about it from 2014 that gave the address and named the major intersection near it.. but said that the apartment building had long since been torn down. Nevertheless, later that day as I was in Madison, I drove over by that intersection...
...and that's when it hit me.
Remember this Waylon album cover from 1966? hmmmm. Could it be?
As I sat there in my truck, I grabbed my phone and googled Waylon Jennings Leaving Town to examine it closely. Not a lot there to see, but then the back album cover popped up:
Yep - I recognized the church buildings in the back ground... and in fact, I preached at one of those churches once. So I snapped a 2023 picture...
You can see that the GoodYear building is still there (from above Waylon's right shoulder in the second pic), though no longer a brand-name retailer. In fact, there's not much brand named retail in the whole area. I seemed to be about 15 feet to the left from the exact spot where the picture was taken.. or thereabouts... but remember when I said that it wasn't a brag to drop say that you've lived/worked in Madison? Well... let's just say that it didn't appear to be a safe or smart decision to leave my truck and walk over there.
That video has a few million views, so if you're a Waylon fan you've probably seen it. But I heard something that caught my attention... starting at about 0:25, Cash mentions that he and Waylon were roommates a few years prior, sharing an apartment in ... Madison.
Now, there are a lot of towns named Madison. Even a good number of them could be contenders for Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash to have shared an apartment earlier in their careers. But there is a Madison neighborhood in Nashville (was once incorporated, now it's metro). In fact, the Madison neighborhood of Nashville is sort of my old stomping grounds, and if you know the area, that ain't no brag. I have lived in and worked in Madison over the years. And still, I pass through Madison almost every single day.
Johnny talks about "Madison" like everyone in the audience should know the area. So where was The Johnny Cash Show recorded? Could really only be Nashville or somewhere around Los Angeles. And this was before the outlaw movement, so it could have surely been Nashville. I did some checking - and indeed the show was filmed in Nashville - at the Ryman, of course.
That lead me to wondering where the apartment was located, and if it was still there. I did some Google searching and actually found an article about it from 2014 that gave the address and named the major intersection near it.. but said that the apartment building had long since been torn down. Nevertheless, later that day as I was in Madison, I drove over by that intersection...
...and that's when it hit me.
Remember this Waylon album cover from 1966? hmmmm. Could it be?
As I sat there in my truck, I grabbed my phone and googled Waylon Jennings Leaving Town to examine it closely. Not a lot there to see, but then the back album cover popped up:
Yep - I recognized the church buildings in the back ground... and in fact, I preached at one of those churches once. So I snapped a 2023 picture...
You can see that the GoodYear building is still there (from above Waylon's right shoulder in the second pic), though no longer a brand-name retailer. In fact, there's not much brand named retail in the whole area. I seemed to be about 15 feet to the left from the exact spot where the picture was taken.. or thereabouts... but remember when I said that it wasn't a brag to drop say that you've lived/worked in Madison? Well... let's just say that it didn't appear to be a safe or smart decision to leave my truck and walk over there.
