What Goes Around Comes Around

What Goes Around Comes Around is a studio album by American country music artist Waylon Jennings, released on RCA Victor in 1979. Background By 1979, Jennings was on the tail end of a hot streak that had made him one of the biggest superstars in country music. He had scored twelve Top 10 country hits since 1973 (including six chart toppers) and had recorded 4 straight No. 1 country albums, with 1977's Ol' Waylon also hitting No. 15 on the pop music charts. Along with fellow outlaw Willie Nelson, he was at the forefront of what was being referred to as outlaw country, a musical movement rooted in a rock and roll attitude and musical freedom. Jennings had also become a big box office draw and in-demand recording artist; in 1979, he sang with Nelson and country legend Ernest Tubb on "You Nearly Lose Your Mind" for Tubb's The Legend and the Legacy album and also appeared on his friend George Jones' duet album My Very Special Guests. Unfortunately, Jennings enormous commercial success ran parallel with a crippling cocaine addiction that was draining his resources. In his autobiography, he admitted to spending as much as $20,000 each time he scored, or about $1,500 a day. A 1977 drug bust had rattled him but he continued using, and in 1980 he would discover that he was broke. Recording and composition Released when the outlaw country movement was already visibly past its prime, What Goes Around Comes Around was Jennings' first album since 1975 not to reach No. 1 on the Billboard country albums chart, peaking at No. 2. It remained at No. 2 for 14 weeks and would have likely topped the charts had it not been for the crossover success of Kenny Rogers' Kenny. Production duties were largely left to longtime Waylors drummer Richie Albright, with Jennings later saying, "As the seventies closed, Richie moved formally into producing me.