About the Song
A razor-sharp wink at Music Row—and a mirror held up to every dreamer chasing a song through smoky bars and studio doors.
Before the outlaw image, before the leather and the legend, Waylon Jennings was just another hungry songwriter trying to make it in Nashville—and “Nashville Bum” is the story of that climb, told with equal parts humor, grit, and hard-earned wisdom.
Originally written by Harlan Howard and released by Waylon in the mid-1960s during his early RCA years, “Nashville Bum” stands as a satirical ode to the struggling songwriter, the guy who sleeps on couches, scrapes by, and waits for the next break that may never come. In lesser hands, it might have sounded bitter or pitiful. But with Waylon, it’s delivered like a grin through a cigarette—half-defiant, half-resigned.
At that point in his career, Waylon hadn’t yet broken free from the polished Nashville sound, and you can hear it in the production—backed by soft drums, upright bass, and clean guitar lines. But even then, his voice carried a kind of quiet rebellion. You can hear the sarcasm in his phrasing, the knowing smirk of a man who didn’t quite fit the mold—and wasn’t trying to.
“Nashville Bum” is more than just a clever title. It’s a commentary on the music industry itself, on how dreams are chewed up and spit out. And for Waylon, it was prophetic. Not long after, he’d rip up the rulebook and help lead the outlaw country movement—a new wave of artists who demanded their freedom, musically and personally.
So when he sang about being a “bum,” what he was really doing was setting the stage. Letting Nashville know that he saw through the game—and planned to play it on his own terms.
Because Waylon Jennings was never just another voice in the crowd. He was the one the crowd followed when the music stopped sounding honest.