Song Information
Title: Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys
Artists: Waylon Jennings & Willie Nelson
Written by: Ed Bruce and Patsy Bruce
Originally released by: Ed Bruce (1975)
Waylon & Willie’s version released: January 1978
Album: Waylon & Willie
Label: RCA Records
Genre: Outlaw Country
Chart performance: Reached No. 1 on Billboard Hot Country Songs (March 1978), and won the Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group in 1979.
This iconic duet between two titans of outlaw country music—Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson—took a raw, honest look at the cowboy mythos and turned it into a nationwide anthem for misfits and dreamers. Originally penned and recorded by Ed Bruce, the song found legendary status with Waylon and Willie’s haunting, rugged harmonies and acoustic grit.
Song Meaning
At first glance, Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys feels like a warning. The lyrics are a heartfelt plea to mothers to steer their sons away from the lonesome, drifting lifestyle of cowboys. It’s not just about cattle wrangling and wide-open plains—it’s about emotional isolation, fear of commitment, and a rejection of conventional paths in life.
Waylon and Willie embody the spirit of these cowboys—rough on the edges, romantically elusive, more at home on the open road than in domesticity. “They’ll never stay home and they’re always alone,” the lyrics say, speaking volumes about the kind of life they represent. Cowboys are painted as modern-day loners, misunderstood by society, and destined to chase freedom even if it comes with heartbreak and solitude.
This isn’t just a song about career choices—it’s a deeply personal reflection on what it means to be different in a world that values stability. The duo doesn’t outright condemn the cowboy life—they simply reveal its cost, especially to the ones who love these men.
Deeper Context
What makes this song so provocative is the emotional contradiction embedded within its lyrics. It’s a cowboy anthem, sung by two of country music’s most iconic outlaws, and yet it’s also a warning against becoming one. This tension is what makes listeners lean in.
Cowboys, in American culture, symbolize freedom, independence, and masculinity. But Jennings and Nelson peel back the romanticism and show what lies beneath: a life of emotional distance, difficulty with love, and a restless spirit that may never find peace. It’s not just mammas who suffer—cowboys, too, are often victims of their own myth.
The song resonated deeply in the late 1970s, a time when the “outlaw” movement in country music was challenging Nashville’s polished image. Jennings and Nelson, as figureheads of this rebellion, used this song not only to tell a story but to comment on their own reality. They weren’t fictional cowboys—they were cowboys, living this very life.
Ultimately, the track isn’t anti-cowboy. It’s a confession. A nod to every mother’s hope, every son’s struggle, and every cowboy’s truth.
Watch the Song Video
🎥 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZTwjljm5qc
Lyrics
He’d rather give you a song than silver or gold
Budweiser buckles and soft faded levis
And each night begins a new day
If you can’t understand him, and he don’t die young
He’ll probably just ride away
Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys
Don’t let ’em pick guitars and drive them old trucks
Make ’em be doctors and lawyers and such
Mamas don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys
‘Cause they’ll never stay home and they’re always alone
Even with someone they love
A Cowboy like smoky old pool rooms and clear mountain mornings
Little warm puppies and children and girls of the night
Them that don’t know him won’t like him and them that do
Sometimes won’t know how to take him
He ain’t wrong, he’s just different but his pride won’t let him
Do things to make you think he’s right
Don’t let ’em pick guitars and drive them old trucks
Make ’em be doctors and lawyers and such
Mamas don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys
‘Cause they’ll never stay home and they’re always alone
Even with someone they love