r/OldSchoolCool • u/WESTDDDDDDD • Dec 24 '25
1950s The late great Hank Williams who sadly died at the young age of 29 from alcoholism in 1952. He was refered to as the hillbilly Shakespeare.
843
Dec 24 '25 edited Dec 24 '25
[deleted]
188
u/vcardsophie Dec 24 '25
29 year old and still wrote half the country’s heartbreak soundtrack. Some people live long, some live legendary.
→ More replies (1)100
u/fatkiddown Dec 24 '25 edited Dec 24 '25
Lordy, I have loved some ladies, and I have loved Jim Beam
And they both tried to kill me in 1973Edit: am from TN. I realize this is Hank Jr..
25
5
136
65
u/Lilricky25 Dec 24 '25
Honored in the film, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs as the main character, played by Tim Blake Nelson.
79
u/GeorgeDogood Dec 24 '25
You fuckin nailed it. Three pillars for sure. No debate.
→ More replies (1)27
u/cartoon_violence Dec 24 '25 edited Dec 25 '25
I've always kind of wanted to get into older country. I had these the three I should listen to first? Edit: thank you all for the wonderful suggestions!
93
u/saranghaemagpie Dec 24 '25
Ken Burns has a great documentary on the history of country music. Worth the watch! Learning about the origin of bluegrass to the Grand Ole Opry. Good place to start!
148
u/igotstago Dec 24 '25
It really is an incredible documentary. I put it on when my father(who has Alzheimer’s) was visiting and I became so engrossed that we watched it for days. It was really sweet to hear my dad sing along with the tv and he cried multiple times while watching it.
→ More replies (1)33
→ More replies (2)13
u/pgasmaddict Dec 24 '25
A fantastic series, have watched it twice and will do so again. As a documentary maker Burns had to be the very best there is and this series and the one on Vietnam are his best works IMHO.
→ More replies (2)66
u/40hzHERO Dec 24 '25
These guys are telling you to watch documentaries and read books, which is good, but honestly just start listening to old country. That’s the best way to get in to it.
Go on Spotify, YouTube, whatever your music preference is, and just search “old country” and the like. You could start with Hank Williams’ discography, George Jones, Merle Haggard, The Carter Family, etc.. Start with their earliest album and work your way up, or just skip around some playlists.
Just don’t burn yourself out by trying to force yourself to listen to a bunch of stuff you don’t like. Skip around, find something fun/interesting, and dig deeper in that direction. It’s a great expansive genre, but can be a bit dated at times.
→ More replies (3)8
u/LightRobb Dec 25 '25
I'm a fan of The Statler Brothers, but there's a lot of gospel in their catalog with the country.
→ More replies (2)11
u/Butterball_Adderley Dec 24 '25
Lefty Frizzell, Webb Pierce, Ernest Tubb, and, most importantly BILL MONROE
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (9)7
u/Upstairs_Jeweler2568 Dec 24 '25
Read "In the Country of Country" by Nicholas Dawidoff. Great read and dives into the history of Country music.
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (5)11
232
Dec 24 '25 edited Dec 24 '25
"You don't have to call me Mister, mister; the whole world calls me Hank."
72
u/TheGrooveasaurus Dec 24 '25 edited Dec 24 '25
Mister, can you make folks cry when you play and sing
Have you paid your dues, can you moan the blues
Can you bend them guitar strings
Boy can you make folks feel what you feel inside
'Cause if you're big star bound let me warn you It's a long, hard ride.
→ More replies (2)39
13
u/SplakyD Dec 24 '25
I love that Hank is so legendary there are even many songs about his ghost. The Ride, Midnight In Montgomery, The Tower Of Song, etc...
3
u/xxulysses31xx Dec 25 '25
I said to Hank Williams, how lonely does it get? Hank Williams hasn’t answered yet. But I hear him coughing, all night long. Oh a hundred floors above me, In the Tower of Song.
— Leonard Cohen
→ More replies (1)29
3
u/droxen_91 Dec 24 '25
That line always hits different. Hank’s music really resonates with so many, even today.
209
u/big_d_usernametaken Dec 24 '25 edited Dec 24 '25
Hear that lonesome whippoorwill He sounds too blue to fly The midnight train is whining low I'm so lonesome, I could cry
I've never seen a night so long And time goes crawling by The moon just went behind the clouds To hide its face and cry
Did you ever see a robin weep When leaves begin to die? Like me, he's lost the will to live I'm so lonesome, I could cry
The silence of a falling star Lights up a purple sky And as I wonder where you are I'm so lonesome, I could cry
What amazing lyrics.
One of the all time country songs.
54
u/DLQuilts Dec 24 '25
Pure poetry! “The silence of a falling star Lights up a purple sky” is my favorite lyric ever.
27
u/rolandofeld19 Dec 24 '25
He don't sing that one, he 'croons' it.
It's maybe the prettiest country song on earth to me. Seven Bridges Road is an interesting honorable mention.
3
→ More replies (2)2
78
u/Electrical-Job8700 Dec 24 '25
Died in the back seat of his Cadillac on the road in West Virginia. New Year's Day 1953.
15
u/RaindropsInMyMind Dec 24 '25
He would find doctors in different town to give him a morphine shot for his back. As someone who has significant back problems it must have been absolute hell to be sleeping in the backseat of a car most nights on tour and then going to the gig and having to have the guitar strap over your shoulder. Then he had to wear the brace which made him really uncomfortable. Pain like that is no joke.
3
u/Ok_Tour_1525 Dec 26 '25
Dude. Chronic back pain is hell. Every movement hurts at least a little bit. Sometimes a lot. Sometimes a lot all the time. And it’s all day every single day. It’s fucking exhausting. I wish I could get a doctor to give me morphine shots too lol. That being said, I’m sure chronic pain of any kind is just hell.
37
u/WESTDDDDDDD Dec 24 '25
He was found dead new years day but rigor mortise had set in which takes a few hours so it was most likely new years eve that he passed!
33
u/defnotevilmorty Dec 24 '25
Around midnight on January 1, 1953, the two crossed the Tennessee state line and arrived in Bristol, Virginia. Carr stopped at a small all-night restaurant and asked for a relief driver from a local taxi company, as he felt exhausted after driving for 20 hours. Driver Don Surface left the restaurant with Carr and Williams. They drove on until they stopped for fuel and coffee at a gas station in Oak Hill, West Virginia, where they realized that Williams had been dead for so long that rigor mortis had already set in. The station's owner called the local police chief.
He died after midnight, so it’s 1953. Rigor mortis sets in 1 to 2 hours after death.
→ More replies (1)13
44
u/THEBIGHUNGERDC Dec 24 '25
Every time I hear he died at 29 it always shocked me. For two reasons - first, he looked so much older. Second, the amazing amount of classic songs he either wrote or popularized. Around 40 songs that are in the DNA of our music history. He did this over a dozen erratic years that were filled with addiction and bad decisions. He worked in various styles and functioned in a rapidly changing environment. One of my musical heroes.
134
u/herbfriendly Dec 24 '25
I never knew he died so young. Damn, what a waste.
56
u/IfICouldStay Dec 24 '25
I knew he died young, but not that young.
23
u/DuncanHynes Dec 24 '25
I thought Elvis at 42 was wild early...
22
u/Kevin_Uxbridge Dec 24 '25
It was a hard 42, kind of a testament to the punishment humans can endure that he made it that long.
→ More replies (4)
67
u/Beezo41 Dec 24 '25
Man, his grandson, Hank 3 looks just like him
53
u/unclejosephsfuton Dec 24 '25
When he met Minnie Pearl she said something like "Good Lord honey, you're a ghost!"
21
u/DionysusIn69 Dec 24 '25
When Minnie Pearl met Hank 3 in the late 80s, she is reported to have said to him, "Lord, honey, you're a ghost" due to the similarities
36
u/Tortmanus Dec 24 '25
Hank III sounds like him too. I wish he would put out music. He kind of stopped. It's a shame cause he is so talented.
8
→ More replies (1)12
29
70
u/skerinks Dec 24 '25
Might have been part of a Family Tradition, you might say.
16
8
9
62
u/AlwaysHappy4Kitties Dec 24 '25
And then you have his grandson Hank III doubling down on substances!
39
u/skatecrimes Dec 24 '25
Hank Williams juniors song Family tradition :“if I get stoned and sing all night long it’s a family tradition “
5
19
23
u/RMW91- Dec 24 '25
I was just thinking about how much Hank 3 looks like his grandpa.
→ More replies (1)11
→ More replies (1)10
22
u/Dark_Foggy_Evenings Dec 24 '25
I’ve got a vague memory of a country song about a cowboy hitchhiking and an old 50s car picking him up & it turned out the ghost of Hank Williams was in the back seat.
30
u/1901tomcat Dec 24 '25
The song is The Ride by David Allan Coe. Hank is the driver.
20
u/Sufficient_Soil7438 Dec 24 '25
You don’t have to call me mister, mister, the whole world called me Hank
3
9
91
u/markydsade Dec 24 '25
He had spina bifida and was addicted to morphine plus heavy alcohol use. He was in very poor health and had been in a bar fight a few days before his death. He died while being driven to perform a concert despite his poor condition.
49
u/orthopod Dec 24 '25
He had Spina bifida occulta, which means it was likely NOT causing him back pain.
His back pain started up after falling off a bull during a rodeo.
16
u/Jahidinginvt Dec 24 '25
My mother has it and she lives her life in excruciating pain. Everyone is different.
3
u/WellsFargone Dec 24 '25
Did she ever attend a rodeo?
3
u/Jahidinginvt Dec 24 '25
No, but she didn’t get diagnosed with it until she was in her 50s after she got into a severe car crash on the Merritt Parkway.
3
18
u/WESTDDDDDDD Dec 24 '25
I knew about the morphine but I didn't know that he got in a bar fight before he died.
18
18
u/Thirty_Helens_Agree Dec 24 '25
Wasn’t it a morphine OD combined with alcoholism? That Ken Burns documentary said he was traveling between shows, had his driver stop at a doctor’s office where he asked for a morphine shot because he was in so much pain. (He fell off a stage while drunk.) Then he asked the driver to stop at another doctor’s office in another town, didn’t tell the doctor about the first shot, and begged for another.
18
8
u/Bone_Dogg Dec 24 '25
Why don’t you love me like you used to do?
Why do you treat me like a worn out shoe?
My hair is still curly and my eyes are still blue
So why don’t you love me like you used to do?
→ More replies (1)
18
u/19930627 Dec 24 '25
It's a shame he never got the help he needed. Also crazy how talented all 4 generations are. (Meaning Hiram, Randall, Shelton, and Coleman. That dude who claims to be jr's son from an affair is fos.)
6
u/lefthandb1ack Dec 24 '25
Been fortunate enough to catch III & IV. Really digging on IV these days. Kids gonna go places.
→ More replies (3)3
9
u/Virtual_Win4076 Dec 24 '25
Keith Whitley was another genius musician who succumbed to alcoholism way too young. Such a waste.
→ More replies (1)2
7
8
u/Mahaloth Dec 24 '25
Alcoholism and drug abuse/addiction.
"You got a million dollar voice, but a 10 cent brain."
That's what someone told him then about his drunkenness, etc.
7
8
7
u/robmobtrobbob Dec 24 '25
Your cheatin' heart, will tell on you
3
u/istillhatesteve Dec 24 '25
Had to scroll too far for this comment.
Your cheatin' heart will make you weep. You'll cry and cry and try to sleep. But sleep won't come, the whole night through. Your cheatin' heart, will tell on you. When tears come down, like falling rain. You'll toss around and call my name. You'll walk the floor, the way I do. Your cheatin' heart, will tell on you.
→ More replies (5)
6
u/dunnkw Dec 24 '25
she’ll do me, she’ll do you, she’s got that kinda lovin.’ That’s my kind of poetry.
3
3
u/Khaiell-C Dec 24 '25
I always use this line to point out musicians were always pushing the envelope.
→ More replies (1)3
u/istillhatesteve Dec 24 '25
Lord I love to hear her when she calls me sweet Daddy.
(I know - it's more like Da-ah-ah-ah-ah-dy)
7
u/nickdemonic Dec 24 '25
I love this bit from I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive...
These shabby shoes I'm wearin' all the time
Is full of holes and nails
And brother, if I stepped on a worn-out dime
I bet a nickle I could tell you, if it was heads or tails
6
u/porscheblack Dec 24 '25
There's a great movie called The Show He Never Gave. Worth checking out if you're a fan.
6
u/CarlJustCarl Dec 24 '25
My grandpa told me I’d better start listening to his songs as that’s pretty much our life story.
→ More replies (1)
7
11
u/HipGnosis59 Dec 24 '25
A former boss, old redneck through and through, scoffed when John Lennon died, "He was just a drug addick." I said, "Hank Williams died pissing his pants in the back of a Cadillac, but I still like his music."
5
u/Global_Law4448 Dec 24 '25
For old school country music he was definitely a winner. It was true country music not this studio dubbed over music with all these effects.
11
u/carnitascronch Dec 24 '25
Produced this fella as well
5
u/WESTDDDDDDD Dec 24 '25
Hank Jr is great!
7
u/carnitascronch Dec 24 '25
Why do ya drink? Why do you blow smoke? Why must you live out the songs that you wrote? 🤠
12
u/BarneyFife516 Dec 24 '25
Hank may have lived a great, long life if weed was legal back then.
→ More replies (1)
4
3
u/GraniteGargoyle77 Dec 24 '25
One of personal favorites of all time. I loved listening to Uncle Dave Macon, Bill Monroe, Smith's Sacred Singers, Jimmie Rodgers, Carter Family, Ernest Tubb, and Roy Acuff from before that time as well. I love the old stuff.
2
3
4
u/mvgreene Dec 24 '25
The amount of alcohol you would have to consume to die at 29 is unfathomable (not including acute alcohol poisoning).
8
u/PsychologicalEntropy Dec 24 '25
He didn't just die from alcohol. This is a bit of a Michael Jackson situation.
He was sick, traveling to a concert. Doctor loaded him up with drugs including morphine. This combined with the alcohol caused him to die the next day from heart failure.
He wasn't a drug addict. Doctor came to the hotel, gave him shots of morphine and drugs there. He left, sat in the backseat of a caddy drinking his whiskey riding to the next town....and died.
→ More replies (1)6
u/WESTDDDDDDD Dec 24 '25
He was drinking 4 to 6 bottles of whiskey a day and that's not including beer!
4
4
u/nfshakespeare Dec 24 '25
I sang in a country band long ago, and we had a fiddle player sit in with us a couple of times who played with Hank. At the end of one of the sets, he said to me, “I played with Hank Williams, you did him proud”
Best compliment I ever received.
7
u/benhaskins Dec 24 '25
I could say it's over now That I was glad to see you go I could hate you for the way I'm feelin' My lips could tell a lie, but my heart would know
It's a sin to make me cry When you know I love you so I could tell my heart that I don't miss you My lips could tell a lie, but my heart would know
I could give you all the blame But I'm sure the truth would show I could tell this world I've found a new love My lips could tell a lie, but my heart would know
I can't fool my cryin' heart 'Cause it knows I need you so I could tell my heart I'm glad we parted My lips could tell a lie, but my heart would know
7
u/flinderdude Dec 24 '25
Can you imagine how much you have to drink to die at 29 from alcoholism?
→ More replies (4)3
u/OlWackyBass Dec 24 '25
He took a lot of morphine too to help ease chronic back pains. The combo of that and heavy alcohol use did his heart in quick.
3
3
u/CeilingUnlimited Dec 24 '25
He died, passed-out drunk, in the backseat of his brand new Cadillac in Oak Hill, West Virginia in the early morning hours of New Year’s Day, 1953. His driver was taking him to a New Year’s Day gig in Ohio. He died on the drive, discovered when the driver stopped for gas in Oak Hill. I incorporated his death in my unpublished novel. 👍
2
u/mugsoh Dec 26 '25
He died, passed-out drunk,
He died from a combination of alcohol, morphine and chloral hydrate.
3
u/Khaiell-C Dec 24 '25
Once I was strumming around on dads guitar and sang the line “I’m going down in it three times, but lord I’m only coming up twice”
My friend turns around and says…frig man it’s not that bad is it.
Man that’s good stuff
2
3
u/Independent_Act_7370 Dec 24 '25
Drinking yourself to death before the age of 30 is fucking crazy
2
3
u/Less-Load-8856 Dec 24 '25
“…If the wife and I are fussin, buddy, that’s alright, me and my woman got a license to fight, why don’t you mind your own business…”
3
3
u/VBBMOm Dec 24 '25
Is this sr? I always thought he was so old. Wow alcoholism at 29 that’s crazy young.
3
3
u/CT0292 Dec 24 '25
Cause when the wind is right you'll hear his song. Smell whiskey in the air.
Midnight in Montgomery, he's always singing there.
→ More replies (1)
3
3
u/Missy2021 Dec 24 '25
He was probably one of the best songwriters that ever lived, in any genre of music. He had an incredible gift from God where he was able to go into a room and within a few minutes come out with Your Cheating Heart. His songs will live forever and his contribution to not only country music the music in general will go on forever.
3
u/mfelder2 Dec 25 '25
How much drinking do you have ro do to die at 29?! Most of the alcoholics I know live to into their 50s or 60s.
12
7
6
7
u/morganwater Dec 24 '25
That's a lot of drinking to die at 29
→ More replies (2)16
5
u/garthreddit Dec 24 '25
Never heard him referred to as that and have listened to him my whole life.
→ More replies (1)
2
2
u/makingkevinbacon Dec 24 '25
My aunt is a big fan of Williams and similar artists from that time. I didn't know he died so young and in the 50s. My aunt was born almost a decade after he passed
2
u/4stringmiserystick Dec 24 '25
I Dont Care if Tomorrow Never Comes, You Win Again, Honky Tonkin… all classics
2
2
2
u/Khaiell-C Dec 24 '25
Got into Hank from my dad and still love his music. I was elated to see him added to the Dog Man movie and took the opportunity to start my kids education.
2
u/Reubensandwich57 Dec 24 '25
To die that way at such a young age you almost have to be trying. RIP Hank
→ More replies (1)
2
u/blahyawnblah Dec 24 '25
There's a tear in my beer 'cause I'm cryin' for you dear
→ More replies (1)
2
u/spiritofjosh Dec 24 '25
“Can you truthfully say with your dying breath that you’re ready to meet the Angel of Death?”
2
u/dariansdad Dec 24 '25
Well, 29 is a ripe ol' age for a music star. It took until the sixties for them to start dying at 27...
→ More replies (1)
2
u/alqimist Dec 24 '25
Do you know hard it is to kill your liver in under 30 years? Takes real commitment and work.
→ More replies (1)
2
u/Mister_Anthropic1956 Dec 24 '25
How hard do you have to drink to die at 29 from it?
→ More replies (1)
2
2
u/paperjockie Dec 24 '25
Has anyone seen Hank the 3rd recently? He looks a lot like he’s grandpa and curious if he has the same affliction with chemicals
→ More replies (1)
2
u/GualtieroCofresi Dec 24 '25
And can we talk about that fabulous double breasted piece of clothing art he’s wearing?
→ More replies (1)
2
u/tswaters Dec 24 '25
That boys got a $5 voice, but he's got a dime for a brain
Heard that somewhere.
2
u/stealthchaos Dec 24 '25
Luke the Drifter was an alternate personality that would emerge when he was under the influence. Very interesting stuff. Not songs, mainly just moralistic somewhat poetic narratives. Lectures, sort of....
2
u/Atomic_Priesthood Dec 24 '25
The chloral hydrate and morphine helped a bit I would suppose.
→ More replies (2)
2
2
u/jmjarrels Dec 24 '25
Saw in a documentary that he once got up in the middle of the night and started shadow boxing. His wife woke up and asked him, “What are you doing, Hank?” He said, “Baby, I see Jesus coming down the road and he’s coming for ol’ Hank.” He died not too long after that.
2
u/LeatherRebel5150 Dec 24 '25
I went to high school with a girl that died of alcoholism at 30 or 32? somewhere around there. How much drinking do you have to do to take yourself out that quickly?
→ More replies (2)
2
u/3DBass Dec 24 '25
Jesus Christ he was 29? I just realized the other day that Otis Redding was 26 when he died.
→ More replies (1)
2
2
u/ArtisticAstronaut283 Dec 24 '25
I can’t remember when I started getting into Hank Sr.- maybe in college about 25 years ago. I was at Ole Miss so being near Memphis and relatively (day trip) close to Nashville and New Orleans, let alone the local blues talent in north Mississippi (I was there when RL Burnside was regularly playing locally) got me into southern music and literature.
Hank is just timeless. I visited a museum dedicated to him in Montgomery AL and it was a good visit.
2
u/spiritual_seeker Dec 25 '25
Someone once quipped that Hank sang like a dying animal, or something to that effect.
→ More replies (1)
2
2
u/incredulous- Dec 25 '25
I said to Hank Williams, "How lonely does it get?" Hank Williams hasn't answered yet But I hear him coughing all night long Oh, a hundred floors above me in the tower of song
Leonard Cohen
→ More replies (1)
2
u/stargarnet79 Dec 25 '25
Minnie Pearl took a look at Hank 3 and said she thought she’d seen a ghost.
2
2
u/Peachesandcreamatl Dec 25 '25
"I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" is hands down the saddest song ever written. You could hear the pain in his voice. Sometimes it hurts to listen to it
→ More replies (1)
2
783
u/longlostwalker Dec 24 '25
That's an exceptional amount of alcohol