Originally published July 1973

"Waylon Jennings is a hoss.” The words came from one of the hangers-on in a coach’s office adjoining the gymnasium of a Catholic junior high school in Gallup, N.M. I was sitting around, waiting to meet the man himself, and I pondered those words as they applied to the renegade country singer who is this year’s prime candidate for crossing into popular music. Why not a “hoss,” I decided. That’s a term that hasn’t found much favor anywhere in recent years, even in the South and West where it originated.