At 46 years old, Shooter Jennings, the son of two country music legends — Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter — is opening up like never before. In a recent interview, Shooter broke his silence on the rumors, misunderstandings, and misconceptions that have followed his mother for decades.
While Jessi Colter is widely remembered for her breakout hit “I’m Not Lisa” and as one of the few women to stand tall alongside the men of the Outlaw Country movement, her personal life — especially her marriage to the wild and rebellious Waylon Jennings — has long been the subject of speculation.
“People love to write a story around someone like my mom,” Shooter shared. “She was married to a man like Waylon, lived through the craziest years of country music, and kept a lot of things private. That made it easy for people to fill in the blanks with rumors. But most of it… it just wasn’t true.”
Shooter revealed that while the relationship between his parents was passionate and complicated, it was also filled with genuine love, faith, and resilience. Jessi Colter wasn’t just the woman behind Waylon — she was a force of her own, spiritually grounded, musically gifted, and often the one who kept their family from falling apart.
“Mom was the calm in the storm,” he said. “She helped hold Dad together when the world was pulling him in every direction. She’s the reason he made it through some of the darkest times.”
He also touched on the false assumptions about his mother’s silence — that it meant she was weak or submissive.
“She wasn’t silent because she didn’t have something to say. She was quiet because she had strength. Because she was rooted in something deeper than fame or gossip. She let the music and her life speak for itself.”
Shooter’s reflections have struck a chord with fans, many of whom grew up idolizing the Jennings-Colter household. While Waylon’s outlaw image dominated headlines, Jessi Colter’s story was often told through whispers, fragmented facts, and rumors passed around the industry.
But now, Shooter is reclaiming that narrative.
“She deserves her own chapter,” he said. “Not just as Waylon’s wife, but as a woman who stood in the fire and never let it burn her soul. She raised me, she loved my dad through everything, and she kept her faith through it all. That’s not weakness. That’s strength.”
As Shooter continues to release music and carry forward the Jennings legacy, he’s also shining a long-overdue spotlight on the grace and power of Jessi Colter.The truth is better than the rumor. It always is. And my mom’s truth is something beautiful.