As his usual producer, Chet Atkins, was reluctant to release a record consisting of songs written by an unknown songwriter, Jennings replaced him with Tompall Glaser.

Waylon Jennings and his manager Neil Reshen had renegotiated the singer's contract with RCA Records in 1972, which gave him creative control over his work.

By 1973, Atlantic Records was attempting to sign Jennings who, with fellow country singer Willie Nelson, had become dissatisfied with RCA because of the company's conservative influence upon their music.

[2] Jennings' creative input in the recording process had increased on the releases of Good Hearted Woman (1972), Ladies Love Outlaws (1972) and Lonesome, On'ry and Mean (1973).

Roger "Captain Midnight" Schutt, Shaver found Jennings at a RCA recording session with producer Chet Atkins.

He had a command of the Texas lingo, his world as down to earth and real as the day was long, and he wore his Lone Star birthright like a badge.

Jennings's drummer, Richie Albright, later recalled: "We were doing the album and Billy Joe was around, and we began 'Honky Tonk Heroes,' so we cut the first part of the song and we stopped, and Waylon said, 'This is the way we're going to do it.'

RCA requested Jennings to add a song not written by Shaver to improve the chances of commercial success for the album's single.

Jennings initially considered Steve Young's "Seven Bridges Road," Jimmie Rodgers' "T for Texas," and Shel Silverstein's "The Leaving Coming On".

[20] Rolling Stone wrote: "After many years of overproduction on record, Waylon Jennings' new album offers an opportunity to hear the crisp, robust no-nonsense sound which has been his trademark since his early days with Buddy Holly's Crickets."

"[22] The Chicago Tribune opened its review by discussing Jennings's recent performances at The Troubadour and the Shower of Stars Concert, and his change of looks.

The publication remarked that the singer appeared "raising his country consciousness but good: longish straggly hair, beginnings of a beard, black leather, laid back".

Jennings was considered to be a "strong, vaguely sensitive singer " with a style "capable of crossing country lines to find wider acceptance".

[24] El Paso Times opined that Honky Tonk Heroes "holds some of the best poetic humor and downright country sounds".

[35] Stephen Thomas Erlewine in a retrospective review in AllMusic felt that Jennings had been looking for a musical approach which had roots in country and rock, and Shaver's songs – "sketching an outlaw stance with near defiance and borrowing rock attitude to create the hardest country tunes imaginable" – provided that common ground.

[36] Erlewine believed that the album arrived at the right moment to revive the honky tonk music of Nashville by injecting a rock and roll attitude that would produce outlaw country.

[37] In 2013 author Michael Streissguth wrote, "The album christened country music's outlaw era...and bathed in risk, having gambled on the work of an untested songwriter.