Hank Williams Biography

Hank, real name Hiram King Williams, received a guitar from his mother when he was eight years old, and for the remaining 21 years of his life, it remained his obsession.

In the early 1940s, he started playing on local Montgomery radio station WSFA, where his emotional lyrics and heartfelt vocal style soon became his trademark.

He hit the big time in 1949 with ‘Lovesick Blues’. The song stayed at number one for 16 weeks, and made him a popular as well as a country favourite. At the Grande Ole Opry in Nashville in 1949, he received six encores.

The hits continued with such classics as ‘Wedding Bells’, ‘Long Gone Lonesome Blues’ and ‘Why Don’t You Love Me?’. Mainstream artists such as Tony Bennett started covering his songs, and Williams appeared on the 'Perry Como' show with Bob Hope.

As his fame rocketted, so did his drinking, and he soon found himself with serious personal problems. Seeking her own music career, his wife Audrey split with him in 1952, by which time Hank was addicted to morphine, which he had been taking following a nasty back injury the year before.

After his regular bandmates the Drifting Cowboys deserted him due to his drunken recklessness, he remarried and began descending into reckless behaviour and taking even more presciption painkillers.

He was found dead by a passing patrolman in the back of a chauffer-driven cadillac, on the way to a concert in Ohio on 1 January 1953.

His funeral drew the widest crowd the South had seen since the inaugration of Jefferson Davis, as Confederacy President, in 1861.

After his death, the record company released further unheard recordings, such as ‘Weary Blues From Waitin’, and his legend continued to grow.

Williams hit the number one spot on the Billboard charts some 11 times in his short career – including songs such as 'Your Cheatin' Heart', 'Hey, Good Lookin'' and 'Why Don't You Love Me'.

The star has been an inspiration for many fellow chart-toppers, such as Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Ricky Nelson and Carl Perkins, all of whom selected Williams songs to cover when they were at the beginning of their careers.

One of his best-loved hits, 'I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry', has been covered by many stars, including Dylan, Little Richard, Yo La Tengo and Johnny Cash and Nick Cave, who collaborated on the effort.

The song itself was chosen as the best song of the 1940s by Rolling Stone in its 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Hank Williams' son, Hank Williams Jr, went on to find his own success as a progenitor of Southern Rock. His son, Hank Williams III, has continued the legacy, with his neo-traditional country music.