Hank WIlliams Jr.

One Liner: Godfather-level, one of the top country stars of all time.

Wikipedia Genre: Country rock, southern rock, outlaw country, blues rock, rock and roll
Home: Nashville (via Shreveport, LA)

Sunday

Thoughts:  I mean.  Come on.  This guy is a stone-cold stud of the country world.  How bad ass that we'll get to see him play.  I'm pumped.

When it comes to Outlaw Country, who is on your Mount Rushmore?  For me, the immediate answer that go on there are Willie, Cash, Waylon, and Hank Jr.  He may have some more traditional country songs, and come from country royalty lineage, but he also has songs named "Tired of Being Johnny B. Good" and "Stoned at the Jukebox" and "O.D.'d in Denver" and "Whiskey Bent and Hell Bound."  Those were not the traditional country tropes in the 70's.  Out of curiousity, I looked up what else was going on in country in 1979 when "Whiskey Bent and Hell Bound" came out.  The hits are by soft-rock ass country folks like Kenny Rogers, the Bellamy Brothers, and Crystal Gayle.  The number one song of the year was a love song by Anne Murray.  Although, the "Devil Went Down to Georgia" was also released that year, for full disclosure.

So, let's dig in to the biography for a moment before we get to the tunes.  Born in 1949 (!!!) meaning he's way older than I figured.  His real name is Randall Hank Williams, but he goes by both Hank Williams Jr. and Bocephus.  The Bocephus nickname comes from the name of a ventriloquist dummy made popular at the Opry, which is a weird one for sure.  He is the son of Hank Williams, who is one of the most influential and significant American singers and songwriters of the 20th century, writing classics like "Move It On Over," "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry," "Your Cheatin' Heart," "Hey, Good Lookin'," "Cold Cold Heart," "Jambalaya," "Kaw-Liga," and other top hits that have been covered by everyone.  And yet he died at the age of 29 after being fired from the Grand Ole Opry while in the grips of an alcohol and painkiller addiction.  Sounds like he was not a swell guy during his short life, but he sure wrote some top notch songs.  

So, his dad dies when he is like 4, which couldn't have been all that wonderful.  According to one account, major stars like Cash and Haggard came to the house over the years and taught him music, and so when he was an eight year old he was already on stage singing his father's tunes.  By 14 he was on the Ed Sullivan Show singing his dad's songs.  He later rebelled against that and moved to Alabama, joining up with folks like Waylon and Charlie Daniels to hone a more rock-centered country sound.  All of that almost got derailed entirely when he fell while hiking Ajax Peak, in Montana, and broke everything.  He spent two years re-learning how to talk and sing, including 17 surgeries on his skull and face.  This is, in part, why his signature look now is a huge beard, sunglasses, and cowboy hat.

His discography on Spotify is weird - it starts with a 1964 album with Connie Francis that is them covering country classics.  And then the next three albums appear to be greatest hits, which would be a weird thing to release before you have released any real albums.  So there must be some record label beef thing where we can't see his early releases on here because Scooter Braun owns the masters or something.  RELEASE HANK'S VERSION!  But yeah, his Wikipedia shows that he released some 13 albums in the 60's and 17 in the 70's, and seems to show that some of those supposed greatest hits albums were just albums that have been rebranded now.  I dunno.  It's a mess.  He's still releasing tunes too, including the unfortunately named Rich White Honky Blues from 2022.

But we are looking for a hit-filled set here, not some deep cut festival.  He's got those hits in spades.  Let's get in to it.  "A Country Boy Can Survive" is the top track, with 149.1 million streams.

"I'd love to spit some Beechnut in that dude's eye" is a top notch lyric.  Also, good to know that people were trying to talk about how you couldn't go downtown without getting murdered even back in 1981!  Second biggest streamer is one I like more - "Family Tradition" with 145.6 million.

Good tale about breaking away from the traditional sound of his father.  Does everyone else yell "to get drunk" and "to get stoned" during the chorus?  Or was that something local?

Of course, he is in the Country Music Hall of Fame, and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.  Piles of other awards.  Several Emmys.  Several CMT awards.  Entertainer of the Year from the Academy of Country Music.  Several Grammys.  Entertainer of the Year from the CMAs.  He's the man.  

Surprisingly, "Dinosaur" is the next big streamer with 78 million.  A bunch of other tunes would seem like better candidates for his stream counts - "Whiskey Bent," "If Heaven Ain't A Lot Like Dixie," "All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight," "All My Rowdy Friends (Have Settled Down)," "Weatherman," "There's a Tear in My Beer," or "Country State of Mind" would have more, but this track from 1980's Habits Old And New is the winner.

Sadly, starting to sound more familiar as I age.  Maybe that is why people are still streaming it!

His version of "Can't You See" is lovely.  The new disc of blues, despite the terrible name, is actually pretty good, and reveals that his voice is still strong.  It is actually wild, he literally sounds like he is an old black dude feeling the classic blues - he apparently uses an alter ego called Thunderhead Hawkins when he is singing the blues.  Which is some funny stuff.  Also, looks like this was produced by Dan Auerbach from the Black Keys, so Hank joins the long list of people making cool throwback stuff with Auerbach.

One neat anecdote to show that even the classics can't always avoid stepping in a cow pile: "In an October 3, 2011, interview with Fox News Channel's Fox & Friends, Williams discussed a June golf game where President Barack Obama and Republican House Speaker John Boehner had teamed against Vice President Joe Biden and Ohio Governor John Kasich, saying the match was "one of the biggest political mistakes ever". When asked why the golf game troubled him, Williams stated, "Come on. That'd be like Hitler playing golf with Netanyahu ... in the shape this country is in?" He also said that the President and Vice President were "the enemy" and compared them to "the Three Stooges". Later, anchor Gretchen Carlson said to him, "You used the name of one of the most hated people in all of the world to describe, I think, the president." Williams replied, "Well, that is true. But I'm telling you like it is." As a result of his statements, ESPN dropped Williams' opening song from its Monday Night Football broadcast of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers versus the Indianapolis Colts and replaced it with the national anthem."  Wow.

So, of course.  Absolutely.  You need to see this.  Even if he goes on a racist rant or calls Joe Biden the Great Satan.  You still need this in your memories.