- [Voiceover] They were the super group.
Their members changed country music.
The Highwaymen,
Willie Nelson,
Waylon Jennings,
Johnny Cash,
and Kris Kristofferson.
♫ I was a highwayman
♫ Along the coach roads I did ride ♫
- Well, I had three of my
favorite people out there,
and it was just some of
the best times of my life.
♫ I was a sailor
♫ I was born upon the tide ♫
- I was up there on stage with my heroes.
The people that I worshiped.
- These were the icons of American music,
not just country.
They had built empires of their own.
♫ And when the yards broke off
they said that I got killed
♫ But I am living still ♫
- Waylon was the first one to say,
"Hey, I'm not gonna do
things the normal way."
"I'm gonna do them my way."
- He bucked against the
Nashville music community
and the way things were cut and dry.
- And that more or less broke
the system in this town,
where the record
companies own the studios.
♫ They buried me in that
great tomb that knows no sound
♫ But I am still around ♫
- We both decided about the same time,
that there was another way,
a way that we'd been
doing it all our lives,
and we wanted to try it that way.
♫ I fly a starship
♫ Across the Universe divide ♫
- Each time they'd get up to do a show,
"This is the last time, and
we're gonna give it hell,"
and this is what great athletes do.
♫ Let's go to Luckenbach, Texas
♫ With Waylon and Willie and the boys ♫
- It was four of the last
great American heroes
from the twentieth century,
that rode into town.
And made us love country music.
And it made us love American music.
And, you know what,
it was a victory lap and everybody won.
Especially us, the listener.
♫ An' blue eyes cryin' in the rain
♫ Out in Luckenbach, Texas
♫ Ain't nobody feeling no pain ♫
- For me, it was heaven.
- [Voiceover] Look for their story,
The Highwaymen: Friends Till the End,
on American Masters.
(applause)
