Visiting Waylon Jennings' Grave With One of His Biggest Fans
May 26, 2025
Waylon Jennings' grave at Mesa Cemetery in Mesa, Arizona.
I knew of Waylon Jennings' music long before I ever stood at his grave. So when Desert Danny, a longtime Waylon fan, wanted to visit his grave at Mesa Cemetery, I tagged along. I'm no Waylon expert… these are just my own thoughts and impressions.
About ten years ago, I used to hear his music regularly at the Silver Pony in South Phoenix, back when it still had the atmosphere and crowd of an old Western bar. It's still called the Silver Pony today, but the ownership has changed and the feeling of it is completely different now.
Waylon's music still takes me back there.
"I'm a Ramblin' Man." "I May Be Used (But Baby I Ain't Used Up)." And especially "Luckenbach, Texas." I loved the part about selling the diamond ring, buying boots and faded jeans, and getting the heck away.
Interestingly, I read that Waylon himself wasn't fond of "Luckenbach, Texas." He didn't write it and hadn't even been to Luckenbach when he recorded it but he knew the song would be a hit.
Black hat, Beard, & a Deep Voice
Waylon looked the part of an outlaw and seemed to have earned the reputation. I enjoy reading about how he pushed back against Nashville's control over artists and their music.
For such a tough outlaw though, he seems to have had a genuinely kind heart and I’m a sucker for that combination. I think a lot of country artists today could take a note from that. His style, the vices and outlaw attitude are easy to copycat but true character is much harder to fake.
What I Admire About Waylon
Waylon struggled badly with addiction, but eventually recognized that he wasn't only hurting himself, but also his family. Realizing his vice was hurting someone besides himself mattered enough for him to finally quit.
There’s another side of Waylon's character that I also appreciate. Growing up in West Texas, he didn't seem interested in letting racial lines tell him what music he was supposed to like. His influences included artists like B.B. King and Bobby “Blue” Bland alongside all the country singers that he loved, and earlier in his life as a radio DJ he would play Black rock-and-roll artists even when some listeners didn't approve. I relate to that. Since childhood, I've never let race dictate what kind of music I'm supposed to like. I've always listened to whatever calls to me and gone to see the artists I enjoy, regardless of what society might expect me to listen to. If I hear it and enjoy it, I'm playing it. The fact that race is even supposed to factor into what music someone likes has always been incomprehensible to me. It just doesn't make sense.
And one last thing… There's an old story that Waylon offered to donate skin to Richard Pryor after Pryor was badly burned, apparently forgetting one detail: they weren't the same color. That's both funny and just sweet. Someone was hurt and Waylon was only thinking about how he could help.
Visiting Waylon
Waylon Jennings died in Arizona on February 13, 2002, at 64 years old. He's buried at Mesa Cemetery in Arizona. His shiny black marker lies in the Sonoran Desert ground with his face and cowboy hat etched into the stone.
Desert Danny visiting Waylon Jennings’ Grave.
This was really Danny's visit though. As a longtime Waylon fan, he spent some time at the grave, checking out the little tributes people had left and adding one of his own. There were flowers, coins, little painted rocks and other small things people had left behind.
His grave marker calls him “A Vagabond Dreamer” and “A Revolutionary in Country Music.” Both seem fitting. Waylon was complicated… he was flawed, stubborn and wild. But underneath the outlaw image was a softer side, a man who cared about people, recognized his own faults and didn't seem too concerned with the boundaries society put around him.
He could be tough without being hard-hearted and maybe that's what I like most about him.
If You Go
Waylon Jennings is buried at Mesa Cemetery in Mesa, Arizona. His grave is a flat, polished black marker featuring his portrait in his signature cowboy hat. The cemetery is open to visitors, and fans often leave flowers, coins, painted rocks and other small tributes at his gravesite.
Location: Mesa Cemetery, Mesa, Arizona
Gravesite: Waylon Jennings (1937–2002)
Remember: This is an active cemetery, so be respectful of other graves, visitors and services taking place.
