3 Johnny Cash Songs Covered by Waylon Jennings

Decades before co-founding the Highwaymen in 1985, Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings formed a close friendship since the mid-1960s when both became roommates in Nashville, and their mutual struggles with addictions forged a lifelong bond.

“It was like a sitcom; we were the original ‘Odd Couple,’” Jennings wrote in his 1996 memoir Waylon: An Autobiography. “I was supposed to clean up, and John was the one doing the cooking. If I’d be in one room polishing, he’d be in the other room making a mess…making himself a mess. If I’d be in one room polishing, he’d be in the other room making a mess—making himself a mess.”

Soon after they met, Cash wrote “I Tremble For You,” which Jennings released on his second of three albums in 1967, Love of the Common People. Cash later recorded his own version of the song for his 1979 album Tall Man, and the two would continue to collaborate and perform together, often drawing from one another’s catalogs.

In 1978, the duo also went to No. 2 on the Country chart with their duet “There Ain’t No Good Chain Gang” from Cash’s album I Would Like to See You Again.

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A year after forming the Highwaymen with Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson, the duo also released an album of duets, Heroes, in 1986, featuring covers of Bob Dylan‘s “One Too Many Mornings,” and Tom T. Hall’s “Ballad of Forty Dollars,” along with songs written by Rodney Crowell, Kris Kristofferson, and and an original co-written by Cash, “Field of Diamonds.”

Years after the Highwaymen released their third and final album together, The Road Goes On Forever (1995), Jennings and Cash always remained lifelong friends. “Waylon was a dear friend, one of the very best of 35 years,” said Cash, following Jennings’ death in 2002—and a year before Cash’s death. “I’ll miss him immensely.”

Throughout his career, Jennings surprisingly covered fewer than a handful of Cash’s songs on his albums. Here’s a look behind the three that made it onto his albums by the late 1960s through the late ’70s.

[RELATED: 10 Songs You Didn’t Know Johnny Cash Wrote for Other Artists]

“You Beat All I Ever Saw” (The One and Only, 1967)

Originally released as a single by Cash in 1966, “You Beat All I Ever Saw” went to No. 20 on the Country chart and was first covered by Ernest Tubb before Jennings recorded it on his 1967 album The One and Only. Cash later featured the song on his 1969 album More of Old Golden Throat.

“Folsom Prison Blues” (Jewels, 1968)

Originally written by Cash in 1953, “Folsom Prison Blues” was first released in 1955 and went to No. 4. Cash also released it on his 1957 debut album, Johnny Cash with His Hot and Blue Guitar! The song was partly inspired by the 1951 film Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison and the 1953 song “Crescent City Blues” by bandleader Gordon Jenkins with singer Beverly Maher.

More than a decade later, the song helped reignite Cash’s career when he performed it live inside Folsom Prison (for Live From Folsom Prison) in California on January 13, 1968. That year, Jennings took a stab at the outlaw-driven song on his 1968 album Jewels. Jennings’ version was not as sobering with a more melodic beat and added harmonies, and even a little harmonica at the end.

In 1982, Jennings re-recorded “Folsom Prison Blues” for his album Black on Black. Jennings and Cash also performed “Folsom Prison Blues” together at the inaugural Farm Aid concert in 1985.

“I Walk the Line” (I’ve Always Been Crazy, 1978)

Jennings took on another one of Cash’s most iconic songs, “I Walk the Line,” on his 1978 album I’ve Always Been Crazy. For Jennings, the message of finding boundaries and resisting the temptation in the song resonated since his cocaine addiction had hit its peak at the time and resulted in his infamous drug bust at American Sound Studios in Memphis, Tennessee.

Photo: Waylon Jennings, Country Western Festival, Los Angeles, 1974. (Mark Sullivan/Getty Images)