Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings were key figures in founding the outlaw country music movement that revitalized the genre in the 1970s. Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, and Bobby Bare were also significant contributors. Other famous musicians who were associated with the outlaw movement in the 1970s through the 1980s are Jessi Colter, Tompall Glaser, David Allan Coe, Johnny Paycheck, Guy Clark, Tanya Tucker, Hank Williams, Jr., Emmylou Harris, Rosanne Cash, and Steve Earle.
Outlaw music also gave rise to a new generation of introspective and irreverent songwriters such as Kris Kristofferson, Townes Van Zandt, and Billy Joe Shaver.