Hank Williams, Jr., (born Randall Hank Williams, May 26, 1949) is an American country singer-songwriter and musician. His musical style is often considered a blend of southern rock, blues, and traditional country. The son of country music pioneer Hank Williams, he is the father of Hank Williams III, Holly Williams, Hillary Williams, Samuel, and Katie Williams.
Though he began his career imitating his famed father, Williams' style slowly evolved until he was involved in a near fatal fall that changed his personal and professional life forever. After an extended recovery, he challenged the country music establishment with a revolutionary blend of country, rock, and blues. After much critical and popular success in the 1980s, Williams earned considerable recognition and enjoyed substantial popularity. He is now considered a sort of elder statesman of country music.
A multi-instrumentalist, Williams can play electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bass guitar, upright bass, steel guitar, banjo, piano, keyboards, harmonica, fiddle, and drums.
Born Randall Hank Williams in Shreveport, Louisiana, his famous father bestowed upon him the nickname Bocephus (named after Grand Ole Opry comedian Rod Brasfield's ventriloquist dummy). He was raised by his mother Audrey after his father's death in 1953. As a child, a huge array of contemporary musicians visited him, influenced, and taught him various music instruments and styles. These influences include: Johnny Cash, Fats Domino, Earl Scruggs, Jerry Lee Lewis and many, many more. He began performing when he was eight years old, and in 1963, he made his recording debut with "Long Gone Lonesome Blues," one of many of his father's classic songs.
Williams' early career was guided, some say outright dominated, by his mother Audrey Williams, who many claim was the driving force that led his father to musical superstardom during the late 1940s and early 1950s. Audrey, in many ways, promoted young Hank Jr. as little more than a Hank Williams impersonator, sometimes going as far as to have clothes designed for him that were identical to his father's stage clothes, and encouraging vocal stylings very similar to those of his father.
Although Williams's recordings earned him numerous country hits throughout the 1960s and early 1970s with his role as a "Hank Williams clone", he became disillusioned and severed ties with his mother in order to pursue his own musical direction and tastes. After recording the soundtrack to Your Cheatin' Heart, a biography of his father, Williams, Jr. hit the charts with one of his own compositions, "Standing in the Shadows (Of a Very Famous Man)". The song signalled a move to rock and roll and other influences, as he tentatively began to step out of the proverbial shadow of his father.
Also during this time, Williams had his first two No. 1 songs: "All For the Love of Sunshine" (1970, featured on the soundtrack to Kelly's Heroes) and "Eleven Roses" (1972).
By the mid-1970s, Williams began to pursue musical direction that would, eventually, make him a superstar. While recording a series of moderately successful songs, Williams began to heavily abuse drugs and alcohol, and eventually attempted suicide in 1973. Upon moving to Alabama in an attempt to re-focus both his creative energy and his troubled personal life, Williams began playing music with Southern rock musicians Waylon Jennings, Toy Caldwell, Marshall Tucker Band and Charlie Daniels and others. Hank Williams Jr. and Friends, what is often called his "watershed" album, was the product of these then-groundbreaking collaborations.
On August 8, 1975, Williams was severely injured while climbing Ajax Mountain near Missoula, Montana.
The accident shattered every bone within his face and exposed his brain to the open air. It would eventually take nine major surgeries to reconstruct his face. His recovery took two years. In order to hide the numerous scars, Williams adopted the look that would become his trademark: a thick, full beard, cowboy hat, and dark sunglasses. Upon his return to the recording studio, Williams worked with Waylon Jennings on the album entitled The New South. Williams did not, however, reach the charts again until the late 1970s, with Bobby Fuller's "I Fought the Law", "Family Tradition" and "Whiskey Bent and Hell Bound." Williams' unique blend of traditional country western music with southern rock and blues earned him a devoted following, although mainstream country radio stations would not touch his new songs in this blatantly untraditional sound.
Hank Williams, Jr., in concert at the Chumash Casino Resort in Santa Ynez, California, on August 4, 2006.
In April 2006, Williams, Jr. was arrested in connection with an alleged assault on a waitress in a Memphis hotel. Williams, Jr was released without bond and the case went before a Grand Jury. However, the case was later dismissed due to a lack of evidence.
