Why Didn't Waylon Narrate the
Reunion?
I know people have wondered why Waylon Jennings, the
official Dukes Balladeer, didn't do the voiceovers for the new Dukes
Reunion movies. One day while I was in the library, I stumbled across
a copy of his autobiography (which is so large it has an index), and
found a passage in there about his work on the Dukes show and writing
the theme song. I've typed up the excerpt I'm talking about below (minus
a few choice words). I believe this provides a little insight into why
he didn't do the Reunion movie. It seems to me that he wasn't much of
a fan of the Dukes and wasn't very fond of his work there.
Of course, that's probably not the only reason. Maybe CBS (or whoever)
didn't even ask him or something. I remember reading an article when
he released his 72nd album. Apparently rumors had been going around
that he stopped touring due to health problems. He denied the claims,
but who knows, right?
excerpt from Waylon by Waylon Jennings
© 1996 by Waylon Jennings (Warner Brothers, Inc.)
"The South never had a chance in the Civil War
…
"There was no chance that The Dukes of Hazzard television show
would prove too smart for its target viewers. A moonshine excuse for
car chases and watch ing Catherine Bach… in her trademark cut-off
jeans… it was incredibly popular. Bo and Luke Duke’s ongoing
war with Mayor Boss Hogg and Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane provided about
the only plot line needed. I was the narrator, or 'The Balladeer' as
they called me, and though I never appeared onscreen for six years,
beginning in January, 1979, I got to say things like 'Happy as a pig
eatin’ slop'…Down home. Yee-hah!
"The idea for the series grew out of a movie called The Moonrunners,
which in itself was a sequel to Thunder Road, the Robert Mitchum classic
about backwoods stills and corn-likker cookin’. His son, Jim,
had starred in The Moonrunners and Ralph Mooney and I had done the sound
track. CBS, looking for a Beverly Hillbillies crossed with Starsky &
Hutch called to ask if I would provide the voice-overs for the Dukes…
"They liked the way I sounded so they asked me to write a theme:
'Just the good ol’ boys/ Never meanin’ no harm…Been
in trouble with the law/ Since the day they was born.' They thought
it was good but they said all it needed was something about two modern-day
Robin Hoods fighting the system. So I wrote 'Fighting the system like
two modern-day Robin Hoods,' and they didn’t even know they wrote
the… line. It was my first million-selling single and one of the
easiest records I ever cut. Even today when I look out on my driveway
and see General Lee, the orange Dodge Charger they gave me with the
rebel stars and bars painted on its roof and a big 01 bull’s-eyeing
the door, it makes me laugh. Great car for eluding a sheriff."
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