Jessi Colter Biography

Jessi Colter is the stage name of Mirriam Johnson, an America country music artist who is best known for her collaboration with her husband, a country singer and songwriter Waylon Jennings and for her 1975 country-pop crossover hit “I’m Not Lisa”.

Colter was one of the few female artists to emerge from the mid-1970s “outlaw country” movement. After she met Jennings, she pursued a career in country music, releasing her first studio LP in 1970, A Country Star Is Born. Five years later, Colter signed with Capitol Records and released her first solo single, “I’m Not Lisa”, which topped the country charts and reached the top five on the pop charts. In 1976 she was featured on the collaboration LP Wanted: The Outlaws, which became an RIAA-certified Platinum album.

Jessi Colter Age

Colter was born on May 25, 1943, in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S. 

Jessi Colter family

Her mother was a Pentecostal preacher and her father was a race-car driver. At age 11, Colter became the pianist at her church.

Jessi Colter Husband

Jessi Colter was first married to a guitarist Duane Eddy in 1961 and they later divorced in 1968. They have a daughter, Jennifer. In 1969, she met and married Waylon Jennings. Colter and Jennings have one son, Waylon Albright “Shooter” Jennings (born May 19, 1979). The couple remained together until Jennings died in 2002.

Jessi Colter kids

Colter and Jennings have one son, Waylon Albright “Shooter” Jennings (born May 19, 1979).

Jessi Colter Height

height of 5 feet 4 inches (1.63 meters). 

Jessi Colter Career

After graduating from Mesa High School, Colter began singing in local clubs in Phoenix. After marrying guitarist Duane Eddy in 1961, and still using her real name Miriam Johnson, she issued two singles that were issued on the Jamie label. The first, “Lonesome Road”, received scattered airplay in several US markets, though not enough to make any national charts. After a second single failed to even get regional airplay, Johnson did not record again for nearly a decade. She continued to tour with Eddy until their divorce in 1968. The following year, she met country artist Waylon Jennings who helped her secure a recording contract with RCA Victor.

Colter resumed her recording career in 1970 where she sang a duet on two top 40 country chart hits with Waylon Jennings. On March 25, 1970, she played keyboard for her husband during his appearance on The Johnny Cash Show. She released her first album, A Country Star is Born, on RCA, with Jennings and Chet Atkins co-producing. However, the album was not successful and did not make an impact on the country music market. It was Colter’s only album for RCA, and she left the label soon after.

In 1975, Colter signed with Capitol Records label where she released her debut single, “I’m Not Lisa”. The song was Colter’s breakthrough single; it reached number 1 on the Billboard Country Chart and peaked at number 4 on the Billboard Pop Chart, becoming a crossover hit in 1975. Her second album, titled I’m Jessi Colter was also released that year and reached No. 1 on the Cashbox Top Country Albums chart, No. 4 on the Billboard Country Albums Chart and No. 50 on the Billboard 200 Top 100 Pop Albums chart. The follow-up single from that same album “What’s Happened to Blue Eyes” was also very successful, peaking at No. 5 on the Billboard Country Chart and No. 57 on the Pop Chart. The single’s B-side, “You Ain’t Never Been Loved (Like I’m Gonna Love You),” charted among the Top Pop 100 also in 1975.

A survey of industry sources reveals that Capitol was releasing both “You Ain’t Never Been Loved” and “What’s Happened to Blue Eyes” as simultaneous singles for the Pop and Country markets. The confusion in marketing was made evident when programmers were uncertain of which single to play. Both sides of the same record scored on the Pop Top 100, but “What’s Happened to Blue Eyes” powered into the Country Top 5. Capitol clearly recognized that a miscalculation had occurred and subsequently purchased full-page industry ads saying, “We’ve FLIPPED. What’s Happened to Blue Eyes IS the single.” It was too little, too late. With two competing singles marketed to radio, Capitol’s risky move made certain that Colter would not naturally follow-up the success of ‘I’m Not Lisa’ in the Pop Top 40.

The second single was a huge country/pop success and later that year, she launched a nationwide tour as part of Waylon Jennings’s program at the Santa Monica Civic Center. In 1976 she released her second and third Capitol studio albums, Jessi and Diamond in the Rough. Both albums were as successful and both debuted at No. 4 on the Top Country Albums chart. The lead single from her Jessi album, “It’s Morning (And I Still Love You)” was a Top 15 country hit in 1976on the country charts. Her second album that year, Diamond in the Rough produced only one charting single, “I Thought I Heard You Calling My Name”.

At this point, Colter had established herself as a big-selling “albums artist,” rather than a casual honky-tonk hitmaker, given that her talents were far more inclined to soul-rock than to mundane country music. For the remainder of the decade, Colter toured with her husband, Waylon Jennings, and released her studio album Mirriam in 1977. Later she released her next album, That’s the Way a Cowboy Rocks and Rolls the following year. Her success started to decline through the remainder of the decade, with her final two albums of the decade not producing any Top 40 country hits.

In 1981, Colter and her husband returned to release a duet album entitled Leather and Lace. The album’s first single, “Storms Never Last,” was written by Colter, and the second single, “The Wild Side of Life”/”It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels,” was also a major hit in 1981, peaking at number 10 on the Billboard Country Chart. The album was certified Gold in sales by the RIAA that year, her second RIAA-certified album to date. Stevie Nicks wrote the title track of the album; however, after receiving word that Colter and Jennings might divorce, Nicks released her own version of the song as a duet with Don Henley. The song peaked at No. 6 on the Pop chart, also in 1981. In the same year, Colter released her final studio album on Capitol records, Ridin’ Shotgun, which also spawned Colter’s last charting single on the country charts, “Holdin’ On”.

As the decade progressed, Colter’s success began to fail. She released an album in 1984 on the Triad label titled Rock and Roll Lullaby, produced by Chips Moman. In the later years of the decade, she decided to let her recording career decline in order to help take care of and nurse her husband through his drug abuse and various medical problems. She remained active during this time.

In the early 1990s, she focused her attention on performing and released an album of children’s music titled Jessi Colter Sings Just for Kids: Songs from Around the World in early 1996. The song featured a guest appearance by Jennings, who recited some of his poetry for the video. In 2000, Colter performed on Jennings’s live album Never Say Die, released two years before his death in 2002, at age 64.

In 2006, Colter returned to recording with a new studio album released on the Shout! Factory label, Out of the Ashes. “Out of the Ashes” was Colter’s first studio album in over 20 years. It was produced by Don Was and reflected on Jennings’ death. Jennings had an unused vocal, “Out of the Rain,” which was featured on the track.

The album was given many positive reviews, including Allmusic, which gave it four out of five stars in 2006. In 2007, she recorded a duet version of her 1975 hit “I’m Not Lisa” with Deana Carter on her 2007 album, The Chain. In 2017, Colter and Jan Howard provided guest vocals to a track appearing on Written In Song, an album by Jeannie Seely. The song, titled “We’re Still Hangin’ In There Ain’t We Jessi”, references how Seely and Colter are seemingly two of the only women in country music who managed to have a successful marriage.

Colter’s first album in eleven years, The Psalms was released on March 24 via Legacy Recordings. The album consisted of Colter’s favourite Book of Psalms passages put to music and was produced by Lenny Kaye, who recalled an evening when he, Colter, Jennings, and Patti Smith were having dinner together in 1995 when Colter started to sing passages of the Bible. Kaye stated that he was “transfixed” and kept the evening in his mind until he convinced Colter to record those renditions in 2007, with the album being recorded over the course of two sessions, along with a further two in 2008. Of the album, Kaye stated that “we tried to choose songs that weren’t about warring peoples but more about comfort and reconciliation”. On April 11, 2017, Colter released a tell-all memoir titled “An Outlaw and a Lady: A Memoir of Music, Life with Waylon, and the Faith That Brought Me Home”.

Jessi Colter Songs

• Storms Never Last 1975
• I’m Not Lisa 1975
• What’s Happened to Blue Eyes 1975
• Maybe You Should’ve Been Listening 2012
• The Wild Side of Life· 1981
• Please Carry Me Home 2006
• You Hung the Moon 1976
• I Thought I Heard You Calling My Name 1976
• Why You Been Gone So Long 1970
• It’s Morning 1976
• You Mean to Say 1976
• Out of the Rain 2006
• You Never Can Tell 1981
• You Ain’t Never Been Loved 1975
• I’m Looking for Blue Eyes 1976
• I Ain’t the One 1981
• Good Hearted Woman 2010
• All My Life, I’ve Been Your Lady 1976
• Without You 1976
• You Took Me by Surprise 2006
• I Belong to Him 2012
• His Eye Is on the Sparrow 2006
• Who Walks Thru Your Memory 1975
• Oh Will 1976
• Wild Side of Life / It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels 2003
• Is There Any Way 1975
• I Hear a Song 1975
• Here I Am 1976
• Hold Back the Tears 2012
• My Cowboy’s Last Ride 2011
• If She’s Where You Like Livin’ 1970
• The Canyon 2006

Jessi Colter Albums

Studio albums
1970: A Country Star is Born
1975: I’m Jessi Colter
1976: Jessi
1976: Diamond in the Rough
1977: Mirriam
1978: That’s the Way a Cowboy Rocks and Rolls
1981: Ridin’ Shotgun
1984: Rock and Roll Lullaby
1996: Jessi Colter Sings Just for Kids: Songs from Around the World
2006: Out of the Ashes
2017: The Psalms

Collaboration albums
1976: Wanted! The Outlaws (with Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Tompall Glaser)
1981: Leather and Lace (with Waylon Jennings)
1978: White Mansions (with Waylon Jennings, John Dillon, Steve Cash and Eric Clapton)
Compilation albums
1995: The Jessi Colter Collection
2003: The Very Best of Jessi Colter: An Outlaw…a Lady

Jessi Colter Net Worth

Her net worth is estimated to around 5 million dollars.

Jessi Colter Awards

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