NOTE TO OUR FANS: In an interview with National Public Radio’s Weekend Edition broadcast on August 29, 2009, Buffy Sainte-Marie recounted how The Highwaymen had asked to record her iconic song “Universal Soldier” one night while sitting with her in the Gaslight Café in Greenwich Village. She reported that someone present at the time bought the publishing rights to the song for one dollar, and that years later she had to buy her own song back for $25,000. Buffy’s inadvertent and innocent juxtaposition in the interview of the story about our request and her sale of the song rights has led some people to believe that it was The Highwaymen who took advantage of her and took away her rights to the song. This is utterly false.

The Highwaymen did not ask for the publishing rights to “Universal Soldier” and have never held them. We have never received one penny from any rights to the song other than our royalty from sales of our recording for singing it. The publisher of the song, Woodmere Music, neither had nor has any connection whatsoever with The Highwaymen. Buffy Sainte-Marie did not pay The Highwaymen $25,000 or any other amount for the rights to her song because we never owned those rights.

Buffy was and is a colleague and a friend from the early days of the folk revival and we treasure her talent, our relationship with her and the fact that she allowed us to be the first artist to record “Universal Soldier.” We did not, nor would we ever, betray that relationship.

The Highwaymen