Waylon Jennings – Working Without a Net

“Working Without a Net” is a song recorded by Waylon Jennings and released as a single in February 1986. It was the lead single from his album Will the Wolf Survive, which marked Jennings’s first studio release for MCA Records after ending his long association with RCA. The single was positioned to reintroduce him to country radio under a new label while maintaining continuity with the identity he had built during the outlaw-country era of the 1970s.

The song was written by Gary Nicholson, John Barlow Jarvis, and Don Cook, three songwriters associated with contemporary Nashville country in the 1980s. Jennings recorded the track during sessions in late 1985, with production handled by Jimmy Bowen in collaboration with Jennings himself. Bowen was known for bringing a cleaner, more modern sound to veteran artists, and the production on “Working Without a Net” reflects that balance between updated studio polish and Jennings’s established vocal grit.

Musically, the recording is a compact, mid-tempo country track built around a steady rhythmic pulse and a strong melodic hook. Guitars dominate the arrangement, supported by restrained percussion and minimal instrumental ornamentation. The production keeps the focus squarely on Jennings’s voice and the chorus, avoiding elaborate arrangements or extended instrumental passages. This economy of structure made the song especially effective for radio play during the mid-1980s.

Lyrically, “Working Without a Net” uses the image of a high-wire performer to describe vulnerability and risk. The narrator presents himself as someone continuing to perform in front of an audience without the protection he once relied on. The metaphor is widely understood as reflecting Jennings’s life at the time, particularly his efforts to continue touring and recording after giving up long-term substance use. Rather than addressing those circumstances directly, the song communicates them through accessible imagery and plainspoken language.

Jennings’s vocal delivery reinforces the song’s theme of resilience. His performance is controlled and matter-of-fact, avoiding self-pity or overt drama. The phrasing suggests determination rather than fear, aligning with the persona he had cultivated throughout his career: a singer who confronts hardship directly and without sentimentality. The understated approach allows the metaphor to resonate without requiring explicit explanation.

Commercially, the single performed well on country radio. “Working Without a Net” reached the Top 10 on the Billboard country chart, peaking at number seven, and it also charted strongly in Canada. Its success helped establish the Will the Wolf Survive album as a solid comeback-style release and demonstrated that Jennings could still compete on contemporary country playlists despite changes in radio trends and production styles.

In retrospect, “Working Without a Net” is often viewed as a key late-career statement by Waylon Jennings. While concise in form, the song encapsulates themes of risk, endurance, and personal accountability that recur throughout his work. It stands as one of the most recognizable tracks from his MCA period and remains a frequently cited example of how Jennings translated real-life change into straightforward, effective country songwriting without abandoning the directness that defined his legacy.