60 Fun Facts About Hank Williams

How old was Hank Williams when he died?

He had recorded 55 top-ten country singles in a career that lasted barely six years on a major label.

What was Hank Williams's real first name?

His birth certificate, filled in when he was ten, misspelled it as "Hiriam"; he switched informally to Hank as a teenager in Montgomery.

In which US state was Hank Williams born and raised?

He was born in the tiny community of Mount Olive in Butler County and grew up in a string of small southern towns.

On what date did Hank Williams die?

He was found dead in the back seat of his car during an overnight drive through West Virginia.

What was the name of Hank Williams's backing band?

He formed the first version in Montgomery in the late 1930s and his mother served as its manager and booking agent.

Which 1949 number one, a cover of a 1922 Tin Pan Alley song, propelled Hank Williams to Opry stardom?

Cliff Friend and Irving Mills wrote it for a 1922 musical; Williams's version was the biggest hit of his career and later entered the National Recording Registry.

Which record label released Hank Williams's music from 1947 until his death?

The label was the newly formed recording arm of the Loews movie corporation, which is why a film deal came bundled with his stardom.

Which producer discovered Williams during a ping-pong game at WSM and oversaw every session of his career?

He agreed to hear Williams sing during his daily ping-pong game at the WSM studios and signed him to a six-song deal on the spot.

Which crooner's 1951 'Cold, Cold Heart' spent 27 weeks on the charts and reached number one?

Williams phoned the singer to ask, as a joke, why he had ruined the song; in truth he played the pop version on jukeboxes whenever he could.

Which English actor played Hank Williams in the 2015 biopic "I Saw the Light"?

Elizabeth Olsen played his first wife, and the script was based on Colin Escott's biography.

Who starred as Hank Williams in the 1964 MGM biopic "Your Cheatin' Heart"?

He lip-synched the songs and had been a fan since boyhood, though the studio initially could not picture its preppy playboy as a honky-tonk crooner.

Which song about a wooden Indian statue was Williams's posthumous number one for 14 weeks?

It was the A-side to "Your Cheatin' Heart" and, unusually for a Williams record, opens in a minor key and features a drummer.

Which Shreveport radio barn dance on KWKH did Hank Williams join in 1948 after the Opry turned him down?

He returned to the same show after the Opry fired him in 1952; a few years later it launched Elvis Presley.

Why was Hank Williams dismissed from the Grand Ole Opry in August 1952?

He went back to Shreveport and the show that had first made him a regional star, and married again two months later.

What was the last single released in Hank Williams's lifetime, a title that turned grimly prophetic?

It was written as a comic number; Chet Atkins recalled Williams was so weak at the session that he sank into a chair after every take.

Who was the street musician who gave the young Williams the only musical training he ever acknowledged?

He was paid in meals cooked by Hank's mother and stressed rhythm and showmanship; Williams later recorded a song he had taught him, "My Bucket's Got a Hole in It".

Under what pseudonym did Williams record his moralising recitations so jukebox customers would not get a sermon?

The identity was an open secret, and he often performed the recitations on stage anyway; they used only voice, organ, bass fiddle and steel guitar.

Where did Williams and Audrey Sheppard get married in December 1944?

A justice of the peace did the honours in Andalusia; the marriage was technically invalid because her divorce had not cleared its waiting period.

What nickname did Hank give his son Randall, later famous as Hank Williams Jr.?

It came from a ventriloquist's dummy used by Grand Ole Opry comedian Rod Brasfield.

Whom did Williams marry in October 1952, having met her at the Opry when she was dating Faron Young?

After his death a judge ruled the marriage invalid because her own divorce was not final until 11 days after the wedding.

Which singer, born five days after Hank's death, spent decades proving she was his daughter?

She was adopted twice, learned the truth only in her twenties, and was recognised as an heir to the estate after a state supreme court ruling.

Williams was born with which spinal defect, the source of lifelong pain?

A fall while squirrel hunting in 1951 made it worse and led to a spinal fusion that he cut short by checking out on Christmas Eve.

What was Williams's first MGM hit, a 1947 comic number about a man banished to the doghouse?

Its twelve-bar structure and ascending riff are so close to "Rock Around the Clock" that it is often called one of the first rock and roll records.

For which performer did Hank Williams claim to write 'Hey, Good Lookin'' before keeping it as 'too good'?

Minnie Pearl and her husband were on the same flight; the title was borrowed from a Cole Porter show tune.

Which patent medicine sponsored the 1951 caravan tour on which Williams shared the bill with Bob Hope?

The tonic's Cajun promoters also gave him the bus ride on which he started writing "Jambalaya" while listening to them talk about food.

On which programme did Williams make his first television appearance, in November 1951?

He sang "Hey, Good Lookin'", and the following week the host opened his own show in a cowboy hat singing the same song with an apology.

Which country legend told young Williams he had 'a million-dollar voice, son, but a ten-cent brain'?

He later co-founded the publishing house that signed Williams and sang at his funeral.

Williams's melody for "Jambalaya (On the Bayou)" was based on which Cajun song?

The original is about a lost love who ran off to Texas; Williams kept only the tune and swapped in a party of crawfish pie and filé gumbo.

How did Williams compose "Your Cheatin' Heart", according to the accepted account?

He was driving from Nashville to Shreveport, described his first wife with the phrase, then had his passenger grab his notebook.

What inspired the title of "I Saw the Light", written in January 1947?

He was asleep drunk in the back seat when she woke him to say they were nearly home; the tune borrows from Albert E. Brumley's "He Set Me Free".

In which West Virginia town was Williams found dead in the back seat of his Cadillac?

Rigor mortis had already set in; the autopsy at a local funeral home gave the cause as acute right ventricular dilation.

Williams was being driven to a New Year's Day concert in which city when he died?

When his death was announced to the waiting crowd some laughed, thinking it a joke, until the performers led them in "I Saw the Light".

Who was at the wheel for most of Williams's final journey?

Charles Carr drove because a snowstorm grounded the flight; he later stopped at a drive-in restaurant to find a relief driver.

Williams received a posthumous Pulitzer Prize Special Citation in which year?

The board praised his craftsmanship as a songwriter who expressed universal feelings with poignant simplicity.

Which musical skill did Hank Williams never acquire, despite writing dozens of standards?

He built songs from storytelling and personal experience, and his publisher polished the results at the piano.

Which small label released Williams's first records after his December 1946 session?

That first session produced "Wealth Won't Save Your Soul", "Calling You", "Never Again" and a hymn whose title was misprinted as "When God Comes and Fathers His Jewels".

How many encores did Williams take at his Grand Ole Opry debut on June 11, 1949?

That same summer he assembled the most famous Drifting Cowboys line-up, with Jerry Rivers on fiddle and Don Helms on steel guitar.

Which Montgomery radio station repeatedly fired and rehired Hank Williams for drunkenness?

He first caught its producers' attention by busking on the sidewalk outside the studio with his Silvertone guitar.

Where was "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" recorded in August 1949?

It was buried on the B-side of "My Bucket's Got a Hole in It" because up-tempo numbers were thought better for jukeboxes.

With no Nashville session players in 1947, whose band backed Williams at his first MGM session?

The polished players, especially guitarist Zeke Turner, were probably fancier than the singer wanted.

Roughly how many weeks did Williams's 1949 breakthrough single spend at country number one?

It ran 42 weeks on the chart in all, and Billboard named it the top country and western record of the year.

Hank Williams's 'Kaw-Liga' took its name from a vanished community near which Alabama reservoir?

His publisher changed the spelling, and Alexander City proclaimed a "Kowaliga Day" in 1953.

In the 1964 biopic the star lip-synched, but whose voice is actually heard singing the songs?

The film was made with the cooperation of Williams's widow, and its producer, Sam Katzman, specialised in low-budget quickies.

Williams was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987 under which category?

The same year he received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award; the Country Music Hall of Fame had taken him in its very first class.

In which year did Williams become one of the first three inductees of the Country Music Hall of Fame?

Jimmie Rodgers and Williams's own producer-publisher were the other two members of the inaugural class.

Which artist got first pick of Williams's unpublished lyrics for 'The Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams'?

He chose "The Love That Faded"; Jack White, Norah Jones, Merle Haggard and granddaughter Holly Williams also set songs from his notebooks.

Which flour company sponsored the 15-minute WSM radio shows Williams recorded in 1951, later rescued from the trash and released as a box set?

A staff photographer saved the acetates in the 1960s; the complete remastered set filled 15 CDs and earned a Grammy nomination.

Williams's son nearly died in 1975 after falling almost 500 feet while climbing Ajax Peak in which state?

The snow gave way beneath him on the Continental Divide; he needed years of reconstructive surgery and rebuilt his career in outlaw country.

Hank Williams Jr. won how many Emmy Awards for his Monday Night Football opening themes?

The theme grew out of his 1984 hit "All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight" and ran on ABC and ESPN from 1989 until 2011.

What did the fake "Dr. C. W. Lemon", paroled forger Toby Marshall, prescribe to Williams in his final months?

He had bought his "Doctor of Science" title for $25 by mail order.

Which original song won teenage Hank Williams $15 at a 1937 Montgomery talent show?

He set his own words to the tune of Riley Puckett's "Dissatisfied"; the $15 prize was worth roughly $300 in 2025 dollars.

During World War II Williams worked as a shipfitter's helper in which Gulf Coast port city?

He was disqualified from the draft after a rodeo bull fall hurt his back, while every member of his band was called up.

Which Canadian singer played Williams in the 1980 film "Hank Williams: The Show He Never Gave"?

The film imagines a roadside bar gig on his last night; unable to clear the songs for cinemas, it aired only on television.

Williams's second wedding was followed by two paid public ceremonies at an auditorium in which city?

The couple had already been married by a justice of the peace in Minden, Louisiana, the day before.

Which artist's 1952 pop version of 'Half as Much' reached number one for Top 40 markets?

Williams disliked the Curley Williams song and cut it only because his producer insisted; his own version reached number two on the country chart.

What was Williams's estate valued at when he died intestate in 1953?

Cash, a cashier's check and possessions came to $13,329.25; the real money was in the song royalties fought over for decades.

Hank Williams III played bass in Superjoint Ritual, a band fronted by the singer of which metal group?

He also drummed for Arson Anthem before Curb Records signed him on the strength of his uncanny resemblance to his grandfather.

What was the first musical instrument Williams received, at age six?

His famous second-hand guitar came a couple of years later and cost his mother $3.50.

Which cemetery in Montgomery holds Hank Williams's grave?

His funeral drew 15,000 to 25,000 people to the streets outside the city auditorium; a monument first unveiled at the Cramton Bowl now stands at the grave.

On which 1952 TV programme was Hank Williams filmed performing 'Cold, Cold Heart' and 'Hey, Good Lookin''?

He was introduced by the Opry's biggest star, bantered with a young June Carter and wore his white cowboy suit.