Born in Valdosta, Georgia, Bill Hicks was the son of Jim and Mary (Reese) Hicks and had two older siblings: sister Lynn and brother Steve. The family lived in Florida, Alabama, and New Jersey, before settling in Houston, Texas when Hicks was seven. He was raised in the Southern Baptist faith, where he first began performing as a comedian for other children at Sunday School.
Hicks was 16 years old when he started performing stand-up comedy at the Comedy Workshop in Houston, Texas, in 1978. During the 1980s he toured the United States extensively and performed a number of high-profile television appearances. It was in the UK, however, where Hicks first amassed a significant fan base, packing large venues with his 1991 tour. Hicks died of pancreatic cancer in 1994 at the age of 32. In the years after his death, his work and legacy achieved the significant admiration and acclaim of numerous comedians, writers, actors and musicians alike. In 2007 he was voted the 6th greatest stand-up comic on the UK's Channel 4's 100 Greatest Stand-Ups and again in the updated 2010 list as the 4th greatest stand-up comic.
Hicks was associated with the Texas Outlaw Comics group developed at the Comedy Workshop in Houston in the 1980s. Once Hicks gained some underground success in night clubs and universities, he quit drinking. However, Hicks continued to smoke cigarettes. His nicotine addiction, love of smoking, and occasional attempts to quit became a recurring theme in his act throughout his later years.
In January 1986, Hicks found himself broke, having spent all his money on a variety of substances. His career soon received another upturn, though, as he appeared on Rodney Dangerfield's Young Comedians Special, in 1987. The same year, he moved to New York City, and, for the next 5 years, performed about 300 times a year. On the album Relentless, he jokes that he quit using drugs because "once you've been taken aboard a UFO, it's kind of hard to top that", although in his performances, he continued to extol the virtues of LSD, marijuana, and psychedelic mushrooms. He fell back to chain-smoking, a theme that would figure heavily in his performances from then on.
In 1988, Hicks signed on with his first professional business manager, Jack Mondrus.[citation needed] Throughout 1989, Mondrus worked to convince many clubs to book Hicks, promising that the wild drug- and alcohol-induced behavior was behind him. Among the club managers hiring the newly sober Hicks was Colleen McGarr, who would become his girlfriend and fiancée in later years.[citation needed]
Hicks quit drinking in 1988, as stated in his 1990 album Dangerous on the first track, entitled "Modern Bummer".
In 1989 he released his first video, Sane Man.
In 1990, Hicks released his first album, Dangerous, performed on the HBO special One Night Stand, and performed at Montreal's Just for Laughs festival. He was also part of a group of American stand-up comedians performing in London's West End in November. Hicks was a huge hit in the UK and Ireland and continued touring there throughout 1991. That year, he returned to Just for Laughs and filmed his second video, Relentless.
Hicks made a brief detour into musical recording with the Marble Head Johnson album in 1992. During the same year he toured the UK, where he recorded the Revelations video for Channel 4. He closed the show with his soon-to become-famous philosophy regarding life, "It's Just a Ride". Also in that tour he recorded the stand-up performance released in its entirety on a double CD titled Salvation. Hicks was voted "Hot Standup Comic" by Rolling Stone magazine in 1993. He moved to Los Angeles in 1992.
The progressive metal band Tool invited Hicks to open a number of concerts in its 1992 Lollapalooza appearances, where Hicks once asked the audience to look for a contact lens he had lost. Thousands of people complied. Members of Tool felt that they and Hicks "were resonating similar concepts".
Intending to raise awareness about Hicks's material and ideas, Tool dedicated their triple-platinum album Ænima (1996) to Hicks. Both the lenticular casing of the Ænima album packaging as well as the chorus of the title track "Ænema" make reference to a sketch from Hicks's Arizona Bay album, in which he contemplates the idea of Los Angeles falling into the Pacific Ocean. Ænima's final track, "Third Eye" contains samples from Hicks's Sane Man and Relentless albums. An alternate version of the Ænima artwork shows a painting of Bill Hicks, calling him "Another Dead Hero," and mentions of Hicks are found both in the liner notes and on the record.
In 1984, Hicks was invited to appear on Late Night with David Letterman for the first time. He had a joke that he used frequently in comedy clubs about how he caused a serious accident that left a classmate using a wheelchair. NBC had a policy that no handicapped jokes could be aired on the show, making his stand-up routine difficult to perform without mentioning words such as "wheelchair".
On October 1, 1993, Hicks was scheduled to appear on Late Show with David Letterman, his 12th appearance on a Letterman late-night show, but his entire performance was removed from the broadcast—then the only occasion where a comedian's entire routine was cut after taping.
Hicks's stand-up routine was removed from the show allegedly because Letterman and his producer were nervous about a religious joke ("If Jesus came back he might not want to see so many crosses"). Hicks said he believed it was due to a pro-life commercial aired during a commercial break. Both the show's producers and CBS denied responsibility. Hicks expressed his feelings of betrayal in a letter to John Lahr of The New Yorker. Although Letterman later expressed regret at the way Hicks had been handled, Hicks did not appear on the show again.
Hicks's mother, Mary, appeared on the January 30, 2009 episode of Late Show. Letterman played the routine in its entirety. Letterman took full responsibility for the original censorship and apologized to Mrs. Hicks. Letterman also declared he did not know what he was thinking when he pulled the routine from the original show in 1993, saying, "It says more about me as a guy than it says about Bill because there was absolutely nothing wrong with that."
For many years, Hicks was friends with fellow comedian Denis Leary. But in 1993 Hicks was angered by Leary's album No Cure for Cancer, which featured lines and subject matter similar to Hicks's routine. According to American Scream: The Bill Hicks Story by Cynthia True, upon hearing the album "Bill was furious. All these years, aside from the occasional jibe, he had pretty much shrugged off Leary's lifting. Comedians borrowed, stole stuff, and even bought bits from one another. Milton Berle and Robin Williams were famous for it. This was different. Leary had practically taken line for line huge chunks of Bill's act and recorded it."
The friendship ended abruptly as a result.
At least three stand-up comedians have gone on the record stating they believe Leary stole Hicks's material as well as his persona and attitude. In an interview, when Hicks was asked why he had quit smoking, he answered, "I just wanted to see if Denis would, too."
In another interview, Hicks said, "I have a scoop for you. I stole his [Leary's] act. I camouflaged it with punchlines, and, to really throw people off, I did it before he did." During a 2003 Comedy Central roast of Denis Leary, comedian Lenny Clarke, a friend of Leary's, said there was a carton of cigarettes backstage from Bill Hicks with the message, "Wish I had gotten these to you sooner." This joke was cut from the final broadcast.
The controversy surrounding plagiarism is also mentioned in American Scream: Leary was in Montreal hosting the "Nasty Show" at Club Soda, and Colleen [McGarr?] was coordinating the talent so she stood backstage and overheard Leary doing material incredibly similar to old Hicks riffs, including his perennial Jim Fixx joke: "Keith Richards outlived Jim Fixx, the runner and health nut. The plot thickens." When Leary came offstage, Colleen, more stunned than angry, said, "Hey, you know that's Bill Hicks's material! Do you know that's his material?" Leary stood there, stared at her without saying a word, and briskly left the dressing room.
Deer Hunter's Blues
Bill Hicks Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Sitting up in a tree, with your oranges on,
And your fingers so stiff they feel they'd just snap
If you push on them wrong--and you love it like that.
You keep your eyes open, your breathe soft and shallow,
You cradle your Twelve Gauge, she's as sweet as a baby,
And then it's a Ten-Point, and I don't mean maybe!
He's nibbling the leaves, he's looking around,
An Indian Prince, a discrete apparition:
His coat is so perfect you're not sure if you see him,
Except for his nose and his sparkling eye.
You breathe even softer, he moves even closer,
A breeze brushes your face, a leaf falls between you.
You look down the barrel, drop your sight in the notch,
You steady your shoulder, you click off the safety.
(Bridge) And right at that moment, lasting nearly forever,
You see millions and millions and millions and millions of barbeque grills,
And millions of guys in plaid shirts and aprons,
And millions of TVs with bright football games,
And millions of cars going millions and millions of places,
With millions of drivers with dour grim faces.....
And after that moment is finally gone,
And you look down the sights, Mr. Buck has done vanished,
Like a rainbow, if you happen to turn your head for a second.
(break here)
The sun's finally up now, and the forest floor's steaming,
And you take one last sip and stuff your flask back in your pocket,
And climb down the planks you nailed up on that tree,
And walk out of the woods, and head on down to the Xrds,
For a Pepsi, some Nabs, and a daily newspaper.
The lyrics to Bill Hicks's song Deer Hunter's Blues offer a vivid and somewhat ironic portrayal of a hunting experience. The first two lines set the stage - whiskey at dawn, sitting in a tree with oranges (perhaps for sustenance), and fingers so cold they could "snap if you push on them wrong." Despite the discomfort and potential danger, the singer loves the experience of the hunt. He moves slowly, eyes open, breath soft and shallow - all in anticipation of spotting the elusive Ten-Point deer.
When the deer finally appears, the singer describes this "discrete apparition" with admiration, noting the perfection of its coat and the sparkle in its eye. The tension builds as the singer prepares to take his shot, with descriptions of breathing even softer, a breeze brushing his face, and a leaf falling between him and the deer. However, just when the moment seems to last forever, the singer's mind suddenly wanders to the distractions of modern life - "millions and millions of barbeque grills" and "millions of guys in plaid shirts and aprons." By the time he refocuses on the deer, it has vanished like a rainbow disappearing if you turn away for a second.
The song's lyrics can be interpreted in different ways - they may be seen as an ode to the thrill and tradition of hunting, or a critique of the way that modern life and its distractions can disrupt our connection to nature. Overall, Hicks's clever wordplay and immersive storytelling make for an engaging and thought-provoking narrative.
Line by Line Meaning
There ain't nothing like whiskey in the shivering dawn,
Drinking whiskey in the shivering dawn before hunting is an incomparable experience.
Sitting up in a tree, with your oranges on,
Being in a tree wearing an orange vest is mandatory for the hunter's safety.
And your fingers so stiff they feel they'd just snap
The weather is so cold that the hunter's fingers feel like they'll break.
If you push on them wrong--and you love it like that.
The pain from the cold, yet he still enjoys hunting.
You make every move as slow as you can,
The hunter moves slowly to avoid scaring off the deer.
You keep your eyes open, your breathe soft and shallow,
The hunter breathes softly and quietly to not scare the deer away.
You cradle your Twelve Gauge, she's as sweet as a baby,
The hunter treats his gun like a baby, cradling it with care.
And then it's a Ten-Point, and I don't mean maybe!
The deer that walks past is a Ten-Point buck, definitely worth shooting.
He's nibbling the leaves, he's looking around,
The buck is unaware of the hunter's presence and is currently eating leaves.
An Indian Prince, a discrete apparition:
The buck is a majestic and discrete creature.
His coat is so perfect you're not sure if you see him,
The deer's coat is so well-maintained it's hard to tell if it's real or not.
Except for his nose and his sparkling eye.
The buck's nose and eyes are visibly real, indicating it's not an apparition.
You breathe even softer, he moves even closer,
The hunter makes even less noise, allowing the deer to move closer.
A breeze brushes your face, a leaf falls between you.
A light breeze occurs, but the hunter doesn't move, not to scare the deer away.
You look down the barrel, drop your sight in the notch,
The hunter aims the firearm with precision.
You steady your shoulder, you click off the safety.
The hunter steadies their shoulder and takes the safety off the gun.
(Bridge) And right at that moment, lasting nearly forever,
At this moment, the hunter is focused on one thing: shooting the deer.
You see millions and millions and millions and millions of barbeque grills,
The hunter sees a vision of a world full of barbeque grills.
And millions of guys in plaid shirts and aprons,
He visualizes many men in plaid shirts and aprons, ready to cook what they've hunted.
And millions of TVs with bright football games,
The hunter sees all the football games that he'll miss because he's been hunting.
And millions of cars going millions and millions of places,
The many cars symbolize the different social events and occasions the hunter is missing by hunting.
With millions of drivers with dour grim faces.....
The drivers have disappointed expressions as they're aware of what the hunter is missing out on.
And after that moment is finally gone,
The hunter returns from the state of imagining the future to the present.
And you look down the sights, Mr. Buck has done vanished,
When reality returns, the buck has gone, unnoticed by the hunter.
Like a rainbow, if you happen to turn your head for a second.
Like a rainbow that disappears if you turn your head away.
(break here)
A brief intermission reprieve.
The sun's finally up now, and the forest floor's steaming,
The sun has finally risen, and the forest floor is steaming with warmth.
And you take one last sip and stuff your flask back in your pocket,
The hunter takes one last sip of whiskey and stores the flask in their pocket.
And climb down the planks you nailed up on that tree,
The hunter climbs down from the tree they built to hunt from to leave the woods.
And walk out of the woods, and head on down to the Xrds,
The hunter leaves the woods and heads to the crossroads for nourishment.
For a Pepsi, some Nabs, and a daily newspaper.
The hunter's final destination is the crossroads to obtain a Pepsi, snacks, and a daily newspaper.
There ain't nothing like whiskey in the shivering dawn,
The song ends as it started: stating there's nothing like drinking whiskey in the cold of the morning when hunting.
Contributed by Tristan C. Suggest a correction in the comments below.