Hank Williams is a star equally remembered for his important contributions to music and his tragic lifestyle. With countless hit songs under his belt and a huge list of artists he’s inspired, it’s undeniable that Williams is not only one of the most important country artists of all time, but one of the most important musicians period. But success didn’t come easy for Williams, and his life was wrought with hardships, from endless spine pain to a dangerous love of the bottle. In many ways, his story is as tragic as it is inspiring. Here are 42 facts about Hillbilly Shakespeare himself, Hank Williams.
35 of Hank Williams’ singles reached the Top 10 Billboard Country & Western charts. 11 of those reached number one. Most musicians can only dream of that sort of success!
Williams learned the guitar from African American blues musician Rufus "Tee Tot" Payne, who he would pay in money and food. Payne’s influence can be heard across Williams’ discography, especially his later recordings. Payne never saw the same level of success, however, and died penniless. His importance in Williams’ story means he will always be remembered, though.
I Saw the Light (2015), BRON Studios
Williams dropped out of school at the age of 16 to pursue his music career, a choice he probably never regretted.
I Saw the Light (2015), BRON Studios
Williams did not come from a particularly well-off family. His father worked for a lumber company and the two didn’t get along very well. His mother ran rooming houses. To make matters worse, Williams suffered from spina bifida as a kid, which opened him up to ridicule from the other kids.
I Saw the Light (2015), BRON Studios
Williams made his first appearance on the radio at 13 and his musical career only exploded from there. What were you doing at 13?
I Saw the Light (2015), BRON Studios
The infamous country star wasn’t always named Hank Williams. His original name was Hiram King Williams, but he changed it to Hank, a portmanteau of his first and middle names. Hiram really doesn’t have that country sound, so it was probably for the best.
A lesser-known alias of Williams’ was Luke the Drifter. This was a pen-name that he took up when he wanted to sing religious-themed songs. The Luke the Drifter character was a traveling gospel preacher, in contrast to Williams who was flawed in his own ways. The musical style was much different, and mostly spoken-word, so he tried to keep it on the down-low.
Williams had a number of less-than-dignified nicknames as a kid, including Poots, Herky, and Harm. Where those came from exactly, I have no idea.
I Saw the Light (2015), BRON Studios
The story of how Williams got his first guitar is a bit up-in-the-air. His mother claimed to have bought it for him after selling peanuts, but there are also several other residents of his hometown who claimed to have bought it for the young star. Anyone got a lie detector around?
I Saw the Light (2015), BRON Studios
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Due to his spina bifida, Williams suffered from constant back pain. He couldn’t perform any laborious tasks, and this constant pain was a big contribution to his substance abuse later in life. He even had an operation to try and relieve the pain, but it only made things worse. This would lead to some big problems throughout his life.
I Saw the Light (2015), BRON Studios
Williams first appeared on the TV on The Perry Como Show, a popular talk and variety show of the time. He performed "Hey Good Lookin’" with the host himself!
Williams won $15 from a local talent show for singing "WPA Blues," his first original song, when he was 13 years old. This was the first time he was paid for his music.
Williams was one of the original three performers to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, along with Jimmie Rodgers and Fred Rose.
Every star needs a support group, and Williams had his band The Drifting Cowboys. They formed when Williams was 13 and went through a number of lineup changes. The biggest change came with WWII, when all of his bandmates were drafted into the war. Williams had a hard time replacing them, as most of the people he brought in refused to work with him due to his alcoholism.
Williams played his music outside local radio station WSFA and managed to gain a lot of attention from locals because of it. The station gave him his own 15-minute, twice-weekly radio show at 13 with a weekly salary of $15. For a kid in the 1930s, that’s pretty freaking impressive.
The radio show built Williams’ fanbase, allowing him to go on tour. Unfortunately, the touring life introduced Williams to alcohol. He became an alcoholic and started showing up to his radio show drunk. They fired him in 1942 for just that reason.
Williams was urged to quit drinking by his idol, Roy Acuff, backstage at the Grand Ole Opry. Acuff told him, "You've got a million-dollar talent, son, but a ten-cent brain." Unfortunately, even hearing this from his idol wasn’t enough to get Williams off the booze. He continued to drink.
The first song Williams learned to play was "On Top of Old Smokey," which he learned from his grandmother. It stands today as one of his most beautiful recordings.
I Saw the Light (2015), BRON Studios
Williams returned to radio later in the 50s with a 15-minute show sponsored by Mother’s Best flour. On the show, he played his originals as well as covers, and even sang a little jingle to advertise Mother’s Best flour. The recordings were released in 2010 to rave reviews and a Grammy nomination.
I Saw the Light (2015), BRON Studios
During a medicine show, Williams met his soon-to-be wife Audrey Sheppard. They married a year after meeting, but the marriage was initially declared illegal due to complications with her previous divorce. Perhaps even more interesting is the idea of a medicine show, which was used to hock phony “miracle cures” in between acts. Who knew?
Wikimedia Commons, MGM Records
Williams was a huge fan of Grand Ole Opry, and auditioned for the show shortly after meeting Audrey. Unfortunately, they rejected him at first due to his substance abuse issues.
Audrey and Williams had a son, Randall Hank Williams, famously known as Hank Williams Jr. Jr. has had an extremely successful country music career of his own, still performing regularly today.
Although the Opry rejected William as a regular performer at first, they eventually gave him another chance. Williams was extremely well received when he performed shows there. In fact, one show at the Opry had the audience cheer him on for six encores, a record that remains unbroken.
I Saw the Light (2015), BRON Studios
Over 50 years after his death, Williams won a Pulitzer Prize for his musical talents. Better late than never, I suppose.
Williams loved to write and record music. The country star recorded 225 songs in a five-year span, 128 of which he wrote himself. All that while balancing an alcohol addiction? Now that’s dedication.
I Saw the Light (2015), BRON Studios
Much like his son, Williams was a vocal supporter of the Republican party. He endorsed Dwight D. Eisenhower during his run for President, even going as far as sending the president a personal telegram for his birthday. Sadly, Williams passed away only 19 days before seeing Eisenhower win the election.
Williams died at the age of 29 due to heart failure. He was found dead in the back of his tour van as the driver stopped to get gas. Allegedly, this was due to some bad medication mixing improperly with booze.
Decades after his death, it came to light that Williams had a daughter. Jett Williams was born shortly after her father died, and didn’t know who her dad was until her early twenties. That’s some real country-song stuff right there.
I Saw the Light, named after Williams' song, is a biopic chronicling his life. It stars Tom Hiddleston as Williams and Elizabeth Olsen as his wife.
I Saw the Light (2015), BRON Studios
The governor of Alabama at the time of Williams' death, Gordon Persons, declared September 21st Hank Williams Day, a day that remains celebrated to this day.
Who said Williams was only popular in the South? In 1960, he got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Williams was working on writing some new songs at the time of his death. Decades later, in 2006, a janitor at Sony ended up finding these unfinished lyrics in a dumpster and sold them to the Honky-Tonk Hall of Fame. Sony accused the janitor of theft, but these charges were dropped quickly.
The lost lyrics were given back to Sony and then given to none other than Bob Dylan to complete. He and many other artists came together for the album The Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams, released in 2011.
As a result of getting fired from the Opry and his increasing addiction to alcohol and morphine, his wife left him. Williams got remarried later that year to a woman named Billie Jean.
I Saw the Light (2015), BRON Studios
Williams’ ex-wife Audrey sued MGM Records and Acuff-Rose demanding half the royalties from Williams’ records after his death. She won the lawsuit in the end, and the court awarded her half of all future royalties.
I Saw the Light (2015), BRON Studios
Williams’ influenced a wide variety of artists, including The Rolling Stones, Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, and Johnny Cash. The list goes on and on, with many new musicians continuing to be inspired by his honest lyrics and performance skills today.
Williams’ first big hit was "Lovesick Blues." He took the tune from an older song and reworked the lyrics. Despite not being entirely original because of this, it was a smash hit and the launchpad for his career as a serious musician.
I Saw the Light (2015), BRON Studios
Artists of every genre and walk of life have covered Williams’ songs, including Jeff Buckley, Cat Power, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Social Distortion, to name a few. It just goes to show that Williams was an all-around great songwriter and performer that can be respected across all genres.
Despite his musical talent and unquestionable status as a country icon, Williams’ drinking made people see him as unreliable. Near the end of his career, he was mostly playing beerhalls in Texas and Louisiana, as nobody would hire him for any major shows.
I Saw the Light (2015), BRON Studios
Routinely, Williams would get into fights while on the road touring. He was known to use his guitar to defend himself in these situations, often breaking his instrument. Williams’ cousin claims that the country star bought a new (cheap) guitar almost weekly because of this. Ouch.
As a young boy, Williams got into a vicious fight with his gym teacher, who insisted Williams perform physical activities he simply couldn’t do because of his spina bifidia. Williams’ mother tried to have the man fired, but instead, they ended up moving to Montgomery, Alabama. Because of this, Williams lost touch with his guitar mentor, Payne.
Sadly, there was more to Williams' death than his own personal flaws. The doctor that Williams hired to tour with him before his death turned out not to be a doctor at all. He was a fraud on parole for forgery. Ultimately, this was a major factor in Williams’ tragic end, as the doctor prescribed him medications that did not mix well with his drinking—which anyone who knew Williams would know was a terrible idea.
Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
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