Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings created a hit with “There Ain’t No Good Chain Gang.” The country legends teamed up to record the track in 1976 at the House of Cash studios in Hendersonville, Tennessee, per This Day in Country Music History. Two years later, upon its release in 1978, the track found its way to the No. 2 spot on Billboard‘s Hot Country Songs chart.
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Penned by Hal Bynum and Dave Kirby, the track is written and sung from the perspective of a prison inmate. Throughout the song, the inmate in question, who’s writing a letter to his family, shares what he’s learned while behind bars.
“There ain’t no good in an evil hearted woman / And I ain’t cut out to be no Jesse James / And you don’t go writing hot checks down in Mississippi / And there ain’t no good chain gang,” the men sing in the song’s chorus.
“There Ain’t No Good Chain Gang” appeared on Cash’s album, I Would Like to See You Again. The LP also featured another duet from Cash and Jennings, “I Wish I Was Crazy Again.”
In addition to those duets, Cash and Jennings released a joint LP, Heroes, in 1986. The men also collaborated with Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson in supergroup The Highwaymen.
Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings’ Friendship
Personally, the men were great friends, even sharing an apartment outside Nashville, Tennessee, at one point.
“We were very close. We were very good friends,” Cash said during a 2002 appearance on Larry King Live. “When we shared the apartment together, I could’ve afforded a better apartment. I could’ve afforded my own apartment without having to room with Waylon, but I thought it would be fun, which it was.”
Jennings died in 2002 from complications of diabetes. Afterwards, Cash shared a tribute to his late pal.
“Waylon was a dear friend, one of the very best of 35 years,” he said. “I’ll miss him immensely.”
Photo by Lynn Goldsmith/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images
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