Waylon Jennings & Neil Young Pair Up For Powerhouse Duet Of ‘Are You Ready For The Country’
on Mar 23, 2016 • Updated Jan 24, 2023
It isn’t an uncommon thing for country artists to cover songs that were previously written and recorded by someone else. What is a far more uncommon occurrence is when two artists team up to perform a song they both recorded.
But at one point in time, Waylon Jennings and Neil Young managed to come together in order to perform a song called “Are You Ready For the Country.” Originally written by Young and released in 1972, Jennings recorded the song and released it four years later off of his album of the same title. Jennings’ version of the song was a major chart success, and peaked at the seventh spot on the U.S. country chart and the third on Canada’s.
During a television appearance on the TNN talk show called Nashville Now, Jennings and Young sat down to talk about their friendship. At the time the interview was filmed, Jennings and Young were still getting to know one another, but they eventually went on to become good friends.
This is something Jennings predicted when the host asked them about their friendship, “We’re new friends, we’re gonna be old friends,” said Jennings. “We’ve been working together on some shows and I have never had more fun.“
Jennings and Young did indeed go on to perform at a few more shows together, and Young even featured Jennings on his 1985 album Old Ways.
But before all of that, Jennings and Young teamed up to perform “Are You Ready For the Country” on Nashville Now. Both Jennings and Young could often be seen smiling and laughing at one another throughout the performance, proving just how much fun they had together.
Of course, it goes without saying how incredible this performance is, since Jennings and Young have some of the most iconic voices in music history. The video below opens with a short interview, then the performance starts around the 5:57 mark.
This performance is so much fun, we never wanted it to end!
