Hank Williams Jr Biography

Hank Williams Jr. was born Randall Hank Williams in 1949 in Shreveport, Louisiana, to his famous father, Hank Williams, and Audrey Williams. After his father passed away, when Hank Jr. was only four, family friends and musicians served as a strong influence for Hank growing up. He spent his childhood surrounded by the likes of Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, and Fats Domino, and so it’s not surprising that by the early 1960’s, when he was still a youth, he was performing covers of his father’s classics and imitating his style to near perfection.

Eventually, though, Hank Williams Jr. would find his own style and earn well-deserved recognition in the music industry as an artist in his own right. Throughout the course of his career, he learned to master multiple instruments, including a variety of guitars, piano, harmonica, drums, and the fiddle. His blend of country, rock, and pop had a strong impact on American country music as a whole. After his album Hank Williams, Jr. Sings the Songs of Hank Williams (1964), Hank Jr. released his debut, Your Cheatin’ Heart (1964.) For the next four decades and beyond, Hank Jr. would rise to the top of the country charts innumerous times and bring audiences a number of albums, including: Ballads of the Hills and Plains (1965), Blues My Name (1966), My Own Way (1967), A Time to Sing (1967), Eleven Roses (1972), After You, Pride’s Not Hard to Swallow (1973), Hank Williams, Jr. and Friends (1975), Whiskey Bent and Hell Bound (1979), Habits Old and New (1980), The Pressure is On (1981), High Notes (1982), Five-O (1985), Born to Boogie (1987), Wild Streak (1988), Pure Hank (1991), Out of Left Field (1993), and Storm (1999.) The albums spawned a number of hits, including: “Long Gone Lonesome Blues,” “Standing in the Shadows,” “It’s All Over But the Crying,” “Cajun Baby,” “I’d Rather Be Gone,” “I’ve Got a Right to Cry,” “Eleven Roses,” “Pride’s Not Hard To Swallow,” “Last Love Song,” “I’ll Think of Something,” “Whiskey Bent and Hell Bound,” “Women I’ve Never Had,” “Old Habits,” “Texas Woman,” “Honky Tonkin’,” “The American Dream,” “Queen of My Heart,” “Man of Steel,” “I’m for Love,” “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” “Mind Your Own Business,” “Born to Boogie,” “Young Country,” “Finders Are Keepers,” and, of course, “All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight,” which became his iconic hit and the Monday Night Football theme.

For his achievements, Hank Williams has been recognized with innumerous awards and honors. Williams enjoyed eight number one hits and more than thirty top ten songs on the charts during the 1980’s and 1990’s. In total, so far, Hank has placed ten singles in the number one spot on the country charts, and in the early 1980’s, nine of his albums were all on the country charts at the same time. Williams has been recognized by the Academy of Country Music as Entertainer of the Year for three straight years. Most recently, in the new millennium, Hank Williams Jr. released the albums The Almeria Club Recordings, I’m One of You, 127 Rose Avenue, and most recently, in 2012, Old School New Rules.