Who was the most popular outlaw country singer at the height of its popularity?

I have never been Partial to that term "outlaw country"

What does it even fricking mean?

It's just a label that some people gave to themselves to sell more records.
I guess it worked. Those guys were selling a lot of records and getting plenty of airplay.
There wasn't anything outlaw about it.
Maybe they weren't getting invited to The Grand Ole Opry much,but that doesn't seem like much of a big deal to me.
There were even people trying hard to get themselves labeled as outlaw country artists.
Kind of ridiculous when you think about it.

Probably Waylon, but Willie was close.

For all practical purposes, Waylon and Willie were Outlaw Country at its peak.

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For all pratical purposes, Waylon and Willie were Outlaw Country at its peak.

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Hank Jr had a helluva a run during that era.

Yeah, I intentionally left him off my list because he was definitely # 1

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Merle
Waylon
DAC
Willie

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DAC shouldn't be mentioned amongst the others imo. He's complete dog shite compared to the others on this list.

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What does it even fricking mean?

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Seems like I read once that it was a label made up by a New York magazine, maybe The New Yorker?, when they did a piece on country music that was hip in Austin in the 70s.

Of that group, Waylon. Willie had more of a pop sound. As stated above, DAC better writer than singer. Merle good, but my money on Waymore.

David Allan Coe has the biggest hit of the group, and id bet city/suburb people are more familiar with his hits than the others

I've also heard it originated as a joke with a secretary at Tompall Glaser's studio who used tell those longhaired shaggy guys coming in and out of the studio that they looked like a bunch of outlaws. They ran with the joke and even put out an Outlaws record. with Willie, Waylon, Tompall, and Jesse Colter.

Willie had made his bones prior to that movement as a songwriter in Nashville....so he was very much responsible, if you will, for the "commercialized" country. The Outlaw movement was really started by Hank Jr. and Waylon as something as an act of rebellion to the pop sound tat was invading country at the time and Nashville producers that were pushing these guys to be more pop.

Waylon rebelled along with Kristofferson and embraced more of the Bakersfield sound along with a more Texas embrace sprinkled with some Americana . KK was everywhere in the early 70's with his hits like Sunday Morning Comin' Down, Me and Bobby McGee and Loving her was the Easiest ......

A lot of these guys came out of Texas and Oklahoma and Arkansas along with Central California. Kristofferson was from Texas , Waylon was from Lubbock, Willie was from East Texas, Merle was originally from Oklahoma, Cash was from Arkansas.....the outlier was Coe who was actually from Akron, OH....as was Johnny Paycheck