From the Don Rhodes Archives: Waylon Jennings, 1979

In early November I received a phone call from Linda Rhodes Humphreys, sister of the late and legendary Don Rhodes. For more than 50 years Rhodes wrote about the world of country music in his “Ramblin’ Rhodes” column in the Augusta Chronicle. 

She told me she had a few boxes of Don’s memorabilia from his years of covering country music and Augusta. She dropped them by and, after taking some time with these coveted pieces of country music history, we decided we needed to share some of these items – and Don’s legacy – with readers. 

One that really stuck out was a concert ticket stub. Don kept a lot of these, but this one was special. 

The ticket was for a concert on Friday, December 14, 1979 - Section 1, Row H, Seat 14, Portal 28. It cost $8.50. Why was the ticket special? It was the first concert to be held in the Augusta-Richmond County Civic Center. The artist was Waylon Jennings.  

In 1979, Waylon Jennings was one of the hottest names in country music. The outlaw movement was on fire and, in 1979, Jennings released his first greatest hits collection, an album that went on to sell over 500,000 copies. That same year, Jennings contributed the theme song and narration to the hit television show, “The Dukes of Hazzard.” Having Jennings play the first concert at the new arena was a big deal. 

It was not, however, planned. 

There were three shows scheduled for the opening weekend of the Civic Center – one each on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. The show slated to be the first, was Aerosmith and Mothers Finest. That concert was cancelled when, a week prior, Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler collapsed on stage at a show in Portland, Maine. 

So, the next night, Jennings became the first act to play the Civic Center. The second, originally scheduled to be the third, was Parliament Funkadelic. Parliament drew a crowd of 7318. Jennings attracted about 7000. In a few years, we will be looking forward to another act being the first on a new stage at what is now referred to as the James Brown Arena. It certainly lends a sense of poignancy to that evening, now more than 45 years gone, when Rhodes crossed paths with Jennings, two legends now gone. I am looking forward to sharing more items and memories from the Rhodes archives in the weeks to come.