Whey Jennings is embracing life sober, and he wouldn’t have it any other way. The grandson of Waylon Jennings, Whey says his heritage has little if anything to do with the unhealthy path he chose for almost three decades, which he takes full responsibility for on his own.
“I was addicted to drugs and alcohol for about 27 years of my life. That’s a long time. It seems like it went by like that,” Whey tells Everything Nash, snapping his fingers. “I started at a young age. I’ve been asked earlier if it had something to do with my grandfather, and I was like, ‘No. These are all decisions I made on my own, and I can’t put that on nobody but me.’ At a young age, I started hanging out with the wrong crowd. At that point in time, you’re a teenager, running around and having fun. It’s all fun and games.”
What might have started out as fun and games for Whey quickly turned into a full-blown addiction, with potentially devastating consequences.
“You wake up one day and you’re an adult, and it’s not fun anymore,” Whey admits. “You’re trying to figure out how you’re gonna pay the bills, and supply a drug addiction. And then, on top of that, ten years later comes around, and the drugs that you thought weren’t going to kill you, now they’re putting stuff in them that can kill you dead. You watch your friends drop like flies. At that point, it’s not fun anymore. When you’re risking your life, it’s a whole ‘nother world. Not to say that doing drugs back in the day was a good thing, but it was a whole lot less risky.”
Whey just released his first full-length album, Jekyll & Hyde, a 12-track record that shows Whey’s heart for others, and his determination to help his fans realize their full potential.
“These days, I’m trying to make people aware of the outcome of a bad decision being that much worse than it ever has been,” Whey says. “I’m trying to put out music that not only makes people feel good, but also makes people think, and so everybody knows that, no matter how dark your day might be, or how long it’s lasted, there’s always time to fix itself, and stand up and do the right thing.”
Prior to the release of Jekyll & Hyde, Whey had already released several EPs. But now, the singer-songwriter is more determined than ever to make his mark in country music, honoring his family’s rich legacy without being confined by it.
“My goal with this project is to show up, put my foot through the door, and let everybody know that I’m here,” Jennings explains. “My whole life, I’ve always had one album out there that I’ve heard, that I wanted to do that, and that was Jamey Johnson‘s album, That Lonesome Song. That album had an effect on me like nothing ever. I loved my grandfather, and all his music had a great effect on me, but when that album hit, I wanted to do that. The way it flowed, it wasn’t even necessarily just a song, it was the way the songs flowed into one another. It was almost like the whole album was one big song. It was one thing. And I was like, ‘Man, I gotta be able to do that.’”
Find Jekyll & Hyde and all of Jennings’ music and upcoming shows at WheyJennings.com.