The exact meaning of the song, which also alludes to Jennings' fellow outlaw country star Willie Nelson, has been the subject of considerable commentary.

[7] The basic group instrumentation features pedal steel guitar and harmonica, both of which lend credibility to the performance's Western origins.

It does however include a false ending followed by an instrumental outro of the fiddle theme from the Bob Wills classic hit "Faded Love".

[8] The album Waylon Live, released in December 1976, was recorded at the same performances that produced "Bob Wills Is Still the King," and included that version again.

[7] The piece, which Jennings introduces in the live version as "a song I wrote on a plane between Dallas and Austin," appears on the surface to be plainspoken tribute to Bob Wills.

As author Michael Striessguth observes, "It was another delightful example of Waylon's eagerness to poke fun at the highfalutin music industry, in this case, Willie Nelson and the redneck rock thing down in Texas.

"[16] In Nicholas R. Spitzer's essay "Romantic Regionalism and Convergent Culture in Central Texas", which was published in 1975 and contains a determined exegesis of the song, he states that "The crowd hoots and hollers on cue in a manner that from participant-observation I would describe as self-conscious.

[20] Another recording of the song by Asleep at the Wheel, this time in collaboration with Waylon's son Shooter Jennings together with Randy Rogers and Reckless Kelly, appeared on the 2015 effort Still the King: Celebrating the Music of Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys.

[21] Their arrangement featuring Ronnie Wood playing pedal steel guitar was captured on their 2007 The Biggest Bang concert DVD release.

"[23] Indeed, in his earlier 1988 work, Willie: An Autobiography, Nelson had described growing up and witnessing Bob Wills as a charismatic, magnetic force – comparable to Elvis Presley or John the Baptist.

"[8] The singer says in his memoir that the song was about his early days in playing clubs in Texas that "had those big Bob Wills dance floors.

Then in his singing of it, he changes the reference in the next-to-last line to "It's the home of Willie what's-his-name", earning a playful bonk on the head from Nelson, who was sitting next to him and laughing.

[24] Indeed, one Nelson biographer, Joe Nick Patoski, believes that despite all the analysis, the song is a straight ode to Wills and that the rivalry aspect has been overstated: "Waylon's song simply put the whole [outlaw] movement in perspective: Both he and Willie were sons of Bob Wills, who put Texas music on the map.