Name: Johnny Cash & Waylon Jennings On Their Drug Addictions | David Letterman
Uploaded: 2025-06-04T15:00:50.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Johnny Cash & Waylon Jennings On Their Drug Addictions | David Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2025-06-04. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Johnny Cash & Waylon Jennings On Their Drug Addictions | David Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2025-06-04. Transcript available.

you look good thank you very much how do you like being in new york city just
great yeah do you come
here often yeah i have an apartment here oh really yeah my wife and i've had an
apartment here about
uh seven or eight years you know this afternoon when i saw you and some friends
of yours come down
the uh the sixth floor hallway there is such an overwhelming presence that that
you give off or
that you have it's just i can't imagine you walking down the streets of this
city without being just
besieged by folks do you have trouble with that well not really trouble we you
know i don't lock
myself away i enjoy my freedom i enjoy i enjoy new york city you get out and mingle
with the folks yeah
i go to movies yeah i do all that i like to do you find that they come right up
to you or are they a
little bit because in all honesty when i saw you and some of the other folks on
the staff you feel
like oh my god and you you kind of want to stand back well like there may be
trouble
no no trouble yeah no um i enjoy meeting people yeah you know that's what my
music is all about
people yeah uh i was talking to you in the makeup room about a television show
you did in 1969 i guess
it was just called the johnny cash show done out of nashville yeah one of the
best music shows
probably ever right well thank you we had we did 60 in all we did 10 summer
replacements of a show
called operation entertainment in 1969 then we did two seasons 70 and 71 from
the old grand old
opry house it was the first uh network show out of nashville and it was pretty
much just all music
wasn't music and some talk yeah it was yeah nobody coming out in duck suits or
anything it was just all
yeah no it was uh it was we really did it the hard way the temperature in that
building would get over
100 100 degrees in the summer and it was you couldn't air condition the
building it was so old and uh but
the facilities were uh were good it's nice we just started on the show we had
uh we had just about
everybody we had bob dylan on the show we had mahaya jackson bob hope louie armstrong
we had uh folk
singers like jack elliott pete seager with glenn camel waylon jennings we had
uh country artists
we had peggy lee we had you know everybody we also had uh the first uh uh
network appearance by
people like uh kenny rogers in the first edition um um also on that show was
the who uh credence
clearwater revival they did their first appearance on my show this this was
serious stuff wasn't it
because they're at in those days there i don't correct me if i'm wrong i guess
but i don't recall
any other show maybe that was that open to that wide uh range of musical talent
well music is for
everybody and uh although i'm a country uh known as a country artist and it was
a network show and i
wanted to see some people out on the show that i knew that the people wanted to
see yeah um i brought
this magazine out because i heard that every time you got a country artist on
the show you send over
to the office of country music magazine to find out everything that you can
about that person so i just
brought you the latest issue that's very nice of you now you don't happen to
have a piece of this
thing do you is that oh okay no i don't listen uh now talk a little bit about
the uh the story you
were telling me before about one night at your house in nashville when people
would come in to do
the show they may often stay that was january 1969 and uh bob dylan was there
he was doing his
staying at your house he was doing his nashville skyline album and uh that's
when we did a lot of
things in the studio together they've been bootlegging that lately but uh
anyway dylan was there and
christopherson and joanie mitchell and graham nash and shell silverstein and i
was telling you that
that that night in my house the first time these songs were heard um joanie mitchell
sang both sides
now uh graham nash sing marrakesh express shell silverstein sang a boy named
sue and um bob dylan
sang lay lady lay and christopherson sang me and bobby mcgee good heavens it
was the first time any of
those songs for her that was good heavens did you have snacks
i'll tell you what uh when we come back now you are gonna sing something for us
tonight i'd love to
all right a new song i want to do for you chris wrote it okay well we'll talk a
little bit about
about that and some other stuff we'll be right back with john all right
they're terrific and uh we've added uh tell the folks who we've added here
tonight marty stewart
works with me and plays uh mandolin guitar fiddle he's playing mandolin tonight
what are you what
are you going to sing john i want to do a new song written by chris christopherson
i've been working
with chris and william nelson and waylon jennings lately and chris has written
the best songs i think
he ever wrote and recently you know and i've recorded two or three of them i'd
like to do one
this song uh paints a picture it's from inspired by the movie grapes of wrath
it's called here comes
that rainbow again all right johnny cash folks here comes the rainbow again
the scene was a small roadside cafe the waitress was sweeping the floor
two truck drivers drinking their coffee and two oaky kids by the door
how much are them candies they asked her how much have you got she replied
we've only a penny between us then stood for a penny she lied
and the daylight grew heavy with thunder and the smell of the rain on the wind
ain't it ain't it just like a human here comes that rainbow again
one truck driver said one truck driver said to the waitress
one truck driver said to the waitress
one truck driver said to the waitress
one truck driver said to the waitress
after the kids went outside
one truck driver said them candies ain't two for a penny so what's it to you
she replied
she called hey you left too much money so what's it to you they replied
and the daylight grew heavy with thunder
and the smell of the rain on the wind
ain't it just like a human here comes that rainbow again
wayland city
when wayland you were here was it just about a year ago
about a year ago i think so yeah and at the time we uh um
we're talking a little bit about there was a period in
your lives when you guys were roommates yeah
now where did this take place what was uh let's get johnny's uh recollections
well not the uh the madison apartments in madison tennessee
i had the apartment in the middle here
well you did i did the cleaning and you you were the cook
i'll never forget john man i never saw anything as funny in my life
and houston you used to come over at that apartment and uh those are great
times you know
good good biscuits yeah yeah i'll tell you
interesting article in here about ernest tubbs
uh but you know you know also what i wanted to say i think uh when you were
here uh johnny was a
little under the weather yeah i was really worried about him yeah yeah
he came out of it like a champ though under the weather you was that when i was
in alcohol and drug
treatment center
you're in the hospital oh no you're i was i was still on drugs you was off of
them oh yeah
i may i'll tell you i may have been off of them but that that was a period of
my life when
the only person that would talk to me as a lord and the only woman that would
have me was betty ford
that's where i wound up
you know you bring up an interesting point there's an article uh a little
mentioned here in one of the
new york city papers i was trying to give you an opening to ask me about all
that oh i'm sorry
no do you want to talk about it all right go ahead and talk about it tell me
all you want to know what
all i want to know about it well no what is it you want to ask no no you know
you're you're go
ahead and i think what you got to say is probably more interesting than what i
didn't have anything
to say really i was kidding you no you weren't all right i wanted to say this
that uh
that uh one out of six people these people don't want to hear about alcohol and
drug abuse and how
to control it and stop it they don't they don't want to hear that not on this
show no um not this
later well you know i'm interested in wayland's remark that when he was on the
show you were off
drugs but he was still on so in a certain respect this is your first appearance
on the show then isn't
so so i'm not sure we got our money's worth that night you probably got more
than you bargained for
but anyway everything's uh good in your life again just great now at what
length of time how
many years did you go by under this haze and blur and stuff well i remember
most everything i had
periods of blackout when i would you know you can always find excuses for
taking drugs and sometime
it was a pain a broken bone that i would take mood altering painkillers you
know but how often
would you get a broken bone well i kept uh i kept a hammer in one pocket
no you know i i read an article about me in one of these uh papers recently
about johnny cash was on
mood altering pain medication because of his cowboy boots the high heels gave
him back pain
and i said i never thought of that either and you know why and i thought about
all the all the excuses
we use for taking drugs like like your wife left you or your wife didn't leave
you yeah
or your dog died or your dog didn't die or it's monday or it's saturday
anything goes anything is a good
reason was a good reason for taking drugs to answer your question i started
taking them in 1958 amphetamines and
barbiturates 1958 yeah 59 to to get up and come down you know and then uh i
controlled it pretty well
for a while like you can do but uh pretty since like the alcoholic drinks out
of the bottle and finally
the bottle starts drinking out of him the pills were starting to take me in
1967 with the help of june and
and and my faith and my religion and uh willpower uh i managed to stop for a
long long time but
it was a broken bone it got me started back to taking uh medication again pain
medication and then
uh it would make me nervous so i'd take something to go to sleep and then i'd
take something to get
up in the morning you know got to be a cycle again chris christopherson was
here here not too long ago
and he seemed to indicate that he was kind of uh no longer on autopilot and
that that he seemed to be
things were you know a little clearer to him did you notice a big difference
when you got things
squared away as far as the performing and and writing and oh yeah yeah i
remember everything the last 14
months i it's it's a it's a beautiful life the straight life is now waylon does
this does this uh do you
have a similar story here was this pretty much the deal i was on drugs for 21
years almost solid you
know and uh i uh like john i had blackout times too but uh i remember most of
it too i've been off
for like um going on my 11th month now well good now the two of you
don't screw it up all right i ain't going to 11 months i wouldn't change i'll
tell you i wouldn't
change it anything and i mean uh uh and i and i had it bad you know well 21
years yeah that's not
just like a casual flirtation it's like a paul kennerly a songwriter in nashville
he's from england
and uh he asked me how much how much drugs i did today and uh and i told him
you know it was over
a thousand dollars a day and he said he said don't you think that was a trifle
excessive
oh my god good heavens yeah you can't believe what that can do for your taxes
too
now this i'm guessing is going to be uh one hell of a show this is uh waylon jennings
and johnny cash
tomorrow night through sunday night any any anybody else that we ought to
mention june carter and jesse
coulter oh so you guys are being chaperoned not a bad idea uh johnny it was a
real pleasure to meet
you quite a thrill and waylon nice to see you again come back in the time uh we
get applause here for
station identification we'll be back with leon spink