Hank Williams, Sr. Overview

They say that if you play a country record backwards the singer will get a job, get married, find his dog, and quit drinking. The man who perfected the expression of intense, personal emotions and drama in country music is the... [more]

They say that if you play a country record backwards the singer will get a job, get married, find his dog, and quit drinking. The man who perfected the expression of intense, personal emotions and drama in country music is the inimitable Hank Williams, arguably the most influential figure in the history of country music. Williams was born in a small sharecropper's shack in southeastern Alabama. Left pretty much on his own, Hank discovered music at a young age; at 12 he was playing on street corners with the black street singer Rufus "Tee-Tot" Payne. From the Greenville streets, Williams eventually worked his way up the ranks until he met Fred Rose, a big-time music writer and producer in Nashville. With Rose smoothing out his sound for a wider audience, Williams won a recording contract with MGM Records and got a job on the radio show, "Louisiana Hayride." His career hit a high note in 1949, when he was invited to play at the Grand Ole Opry -- marking a bright point in country music history. Eventually, alcohol and drugs ruined his life -- just as in his songs, he was divorced, unemployed, and lonely. At the age of 29 he died of a heart attack in the back of his Cadillac. Despite his self-imposed hardships, or perhaps due to them, Williams created an extraordinary list of hit songs, including "Hey, Good Lookin'" and "Jumbalaya." [show less]