For a man who had spent decades as one of country music’s most recognizable outlaws, it was a deeply personal request. Those old hymns belonged to a world Jessi Colter had known long before Nashville, hit records, and the difficult years of marriage to Waylon Jennings.
And according to Jessi Colter’s own account, that Christmas in 2001 came just weeks after a conversation the couple had been approaching for years.
A Preacher’s Daughter and a Country Music Outlaw
Jessi Colter grew up in Arizona, surrounded by church music. Jessi Colter’s mother was a Pentecostal preacher, and piano playing became part of Jessi Colter’s life at an early age.
Waylon Jennings came from a different musical world. By the time the couple met in the 1960s, Waylon Jennings had experienced three failed marriages and developed a reputation for living hard on the road.
Yet the differences did not keep the couple apart.
On October 26, 1969, Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter married at the church of Jessi Colter’s mother in Arizona. Remarkably, Jessi Colter’s mother performed the ceremony.
Both would eventually become major figures in country music. Jessi Colter found enormous success with “I’m Not Lisa” in 1975, while Waylon Jennings helped reshape Nashville’s sound through the outlaw country movement.
But their private life was considerably more complicated than the image fans saw on stage.
The Years That Nearly Broke the Marriage
Waylon Jennings struggled for years with addiction. The long touring schedules, pressures of fame, and personal difficulties created serious problems at home.
Jessi Colter later acknowledged that the situation became so painful that leaving the marriage seemed possible.
In March 1984, Waylon Jennings decided to confront the addiction. The couple canceled professional commitments and withdrew to a rented house in the Arizona desert.
It was an extremely difficult period. Jessi Colter later described the experience as physically and emotionally painful, but Waylon Jennings succeeded in ending the dependency.
Jessi Colter was careful to explain that the approach was not something others should imitate. What mattered was that Waylon Jennings had finally made a personal decision to change.
Although that chapter ended, serious health problems continued to affect Waylon Jennings in the years that followed.
The Conversation at Thanksgiving in 2001
By Thanksgiving 2001, Waylon Jennings was facing severe health difficulties and spending time in the hospital.
Jessi Colter had returned to the Christian faith of childhood years earlier. Over time, faith had become an important source of strength, but Jessi Colter understood that Waylon Jennings could not be pressured into accepting the same beliefs.
During a hospital visit that Thanksgiving, Jessi Colter finally asked whether Waylon Jennings was ready to accept the Lord.
According to Jessi Colter’s later account in Guideposts, Waylon Jennings seemed to have anticipated the question.
Waylon Jennings asked what accepting that faith would require. Jessi Colter explained, and Waylon Jennings responded with words of acceptance.
For Jessi Colter, it was an emotional moment after many years of uncertainty, prayer, and difficult conversations.
The importance of that exchange would become even clearer during the following Christmas.
The Hymns of Their Last Christmas Together
Christmas arrived with Waylon Jennings still struggling physically. Family members visited, friends offered support, and medical equipment remained part of everyday life.
During those holiday gatherings, Waylon Jennings made a simple request.
Waylon Jennings wanted Jessi Colter to play the piano and sing the hymns remembered from childhood.
These were not songs chosen for a concert audience or a commercial recording. They were the familiar religious melodies Jessi Colter had grown up playing in church.
The request carried a special meaning because of the couple’s history. More than three decades earlier, Jessi Colter had married Waylon Jennings in a church led by Jessi Colter’s mother. Now, during their final Christmas together, those same religious traditions had returned to their family life.
On February 13, 2002, Waylon Jennings died at home in Arizona at the age of 64.
The Music Jessi Colter Carried Forward
Years after Waylon Jennings’ death, Jessi Colter released an unusual collection of sacred music called The Psalms.
The album had roots stretching back to 1995, when musician and producer Lenny Kaye visited the couple’s Nashville home while working on Waylon Jennings’ autobiography.
Lenny Kaye encountered Jessi Colter at the piano, spontaneously turning passages from the biblical Psalms into melodies. The experience stayed with Lenny Kaye.
Those performances eventually inspired recording sessions in 2007 and 2008. The completed album was released on March 24, 2017.
The Psalms was not simply a tribute created after Waylon Jennings’ death. It grew from a musical and spiritual practice Jessi Colter had maintained while Waylon Jennings was still alive.
That history gives the final Christmas a particular significance. The piano had been part of Jessi Colter’s childhood, professional career, marriage, and later recordings.
And during Waylon Jennings’ last Christmas, the music requested was not one of the country hits that had made the couple famous.
It was the old church hymns Jessi Colter had known since childhood.