Jennifer Wayne
Jennifer Wayne |
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Jennifer Wayne is a member of the popular country trio Stealing Angels and granddaughter of Hollywood star John Wayne. [1]
Jen spent her childhood years in southern California. From the time she was twelve years old she was playing tennis at an extremely high degree of competence, and was a nationally ranked player from twelve through eighteen years of age. But from the eighth grade on, Jennifer also begin to sing in front of anyone who would listen. “I knew I could sing. I would sing in the shower. I sang in plays at school. Everybody said I had a great voice, but at first I didn’t think I would ever do anything with it, because tennis was my thing.”
Jennifer’s parents had divorced when she was young, and she moved with her father to Las Vegas at the beginning of her high school years. She continued to sing and she continued to be active in sports. She won the Nevada State Tennis Championship her senior year. She took her first “professional gig” when she was eighteen. She thought she might be the only “singing tennis player” around until she met a boy who was the number one ranked tennis player in the world and who also played keyboards. Jennifer Wayne and Bob Brian and his brother Mike started a band called The Brian Brothers Band. They played at all of the tennis tournaments in and around Las Vegas and California.
She moved back to L.A. and attended two years at USC, then moved on to U. C. Santa Barbara on a “full boat tennis scholarship”. After graduation, she needed a job. Jen began teaching tennis at the famous Beverly Hills Tennis Club, where she met many people in the entertainment business. The music business pros fascinated her, but she felt that she didn’t really fit in. “Nobody was interested in country music in Beverly Hills”. No one that is, except for entertainment impresario Merv Griffin, who was a long time family friend. Merv’s first professional interview was with Jen’s granddad John Wayne, and the two remained fast friends all their lives. When Merv Griffin heard Jennifer Wayne sing he was so impressed that he started a country record label just for her!
It was time to move to Nashville. Jennifer packed her clothes and her guitars and her tennis rackets into a ________, and headed east to begin a new life and a new career. “I found a house on Craigslist. I knew no one when I got to Tennessee.” She began working on her debut album with legendary bluegrass artist Carl Jackson serving as producer. “It was a great experience” she now recalls. “The time in the studio with Carl was precious, but I hadn’t developed my sound, and looking back, the record we made together wasn’t really me”. Before the record could come out, Merv passed away and the label was dissolved.
Other forces were at work however. “She had already met one of her future “angels”. “Caroline Cutbirth was the second person that I met in Nashville.” They began to write songs together and encourage one another. Jennifer had an idea to do a reality show about three granddaughters of legends who come to Nashville to make it as singers. She was John Wayne’s grandchild, Caroline was a direct descendant of Daniel Boone, and Holly Williams, another new friend, was Hank Williams granddaughter. Holly eventually decided it wasn’t for her, and they thought the idea was dead until they were introduced to Loretta Lynn’s granddaughter, Tayla Lynn.
The show was to be to be about three women, three lead singers who were friends, and the interaction between them. Although initially they didn’t have any desire to be a group, as time went by they discovered they had a magical chemistry between them. Their airtight harmonies and their songwriting led them to the inevitable. They became “Stealing Angels”.