Williams began his career following in his famed father's footsteps, covering his father's songs and imitating his father's style. Williams' first television appearance was in a 1964 episode of ABC's The Jimmy Dean Show, in which at age fourteen he sang several songs associated with his father. Later that year, he was a guest star on Shindig!.
Williams' style evolved slowly as he struggled to find his own voice and place within country music. This was interrupted by a near-fatal fall off the side of Ajax Peak in Montana on August 8, 1975. After an extended recovery, he challenged the country music establishment with a blend of country, rock, and blues. As a multi-instrumentalist, Williams' repertoire of skills includes guitar, bass guitar, upright bass, steel guitar, banjo, dobro, piano, keyboards, saxophone, harmonica, fiddle, and drums.
From 1989 through October 2011, his song "All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight", refashioned as "All My Rowdy Friends Are Here on Monday Night", had been used to open broadcasts of Monday Night Football until it was pulled after Williams made controversial comments comparing President Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler. The song returned to open the show in 2017.
On August 12, 2020, Williams was selected to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
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, wished for young Hank to be nothing more than a "Hank Williams, Sr. impersonator", sometimes going as far as to have clothes designed for him that were identical to his father's stage clothes and vocal stylings very similar to those of his father.
Although Williams' recordings earned him numerous country hits throughout the 1960s and early 1970s, he became disillusioned with his role as a 'Hank Williams clone' 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". The song signalled a move to rock and roll and other influences as he stepped from the 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 had finally found the musical direction that would, eventually, make him a superstar. Williams' unique blend of traditional country with southern rock and blues earned him a devoted following, although some mainstream country radio stations wouldn't touch his new songs in this blatantly untraditional sound.
While recording a series of hit songs, Williams began abusing drugs, including alcohol and eventually tried to commit suicide in 1974. Moving to Alabama, Williams began playing music with Southern rock musicians Toy Caldwell, Marshall Tucker Band and Charlie Daniels, and others.
His last major success was "There's a Tear in My Beer", a duet with his father created using electronic dubbing techniques. The song itself was written by his father, presumably, sometime between 1950 and 1953 and was recorded with Hank Williams playing just his guitar. The music video for the song combined existing television footage of Hank Williams performing and the dubbing techniques transferred the image of Hank Jr. onto the screen, so it appeared as if he were actually playing with his father. The video was an overwhelming success, both critically and commercially. It was named Video Of The Year by both the Country Music Association and the Academy of Country music. Hank Williams, Jr. would go on to win a Grammy award in 1990 for Best Country Vocal Collaboration.
Despite his slumping album sales, Hank Williams Jr. continued to be a popular concert draw during the early 1990s and continued to record, with several of his recordings during this time still managing to achieve gold status, selling 500,000 copies.
He is probably best known today as the performer of the theme song for Monday Night Football, based on "All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight". The opening theme became a classic, as much a part of the show as the football itself. In 1991, 1992, 1993, and 1994, Williams' opening themes for Monday Night Football would earn him four Emmy awards.
Williams opened for Super Bowl XL on February 5, 2006, on ABC and was in the stands as a Pittsburgh Steelers fan.
On April 10, 2006, CMT honored Williams with the Johnny Cash Visionary Award, presenting it to him at the 2006 CMT Music Awards.
On November 11, 2008, Williams was honored as a BMI Icon at the 56th annual BMI Country Awards. The artists and songwriters named BMI Icons have had "a unique and indelible influence on generations of music makers".
In 2011, Williams was named one of "Seven Living Legends" of his native Shreveport, Louisiana, by Danny Fox (1954–2014) of KWKH radio. Others named were Bob Griffin of KSLA and KTBS-TV and James Burton. Two others cited, Claude King and Frank Page, both died in 2013.
In 2015, Hank Williams Jr. was Inducted into The Louisiana Music Hall Of Fame.
Homesick
Hank Williams Jr. Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Ten thousand miles from home
I'm so far away, so long it seems like
This road is all I know
And places I'd never seen before
But when I close my eyes as I sleep at night
All I dream of now is home
So long that I've been gone
If there's one thing I know
Is that there's no place like home
Far away and changes everyday
If there's one thing I know
Is that there's no place like home
Six months since the day I went away
It didn't seem like that long
It hit me when I was changing planes
From Paris to New York
I'm dreading the days that are ahead
I haven't slept in my own bed
Ohh, I'm dreamin' of home
What I've seen and what I've done
Don't mean a thing without where I came from
It's who I am and all I ever did
Home is where the heart is
So long that I've been gone
If there's one thing I know
Is that there's no place like home
Far away and changes everyday
If there's one thing I know
Is that there's no place like home
Call me, tell me that you miss me
Give me somethin' I can hold on to
To get me through the days when I am
I can take another moment
I need some clarity
Remind me what it's like to be
Be like home
Far away but there's no place like home
I wanna go home, home, home
Bring me back home, home, home
So long that I've been gone
If there's one thing I know
Is that there's no place like home
No place like home
Hank Williams Jr.'s song "Homesick" speaks of the longing for home while away on a journey, depicting the emotions of someone who has been away for six months and ten thousand miles from home, with time changes complicating their sense of reality. The artist acknowledges the dreams of adventure and new places, but ultimately concludes that nothing compares to the comfort and familiarity of home. Williams describes the difficulty of the journey, conveying the exhaustion and restlessness that comes with being away from a familiar place. He also delves into the isolation, as he cannot find solace in foreign places and cannot bring himself to feel content in his current location. Williams affirms the importance of home in defining who he is and where he feels he truly belongs.
Line by Line Meaning
Six hours behind, the changes of time
Being in a different time zone, my sense of time is distorted and I feel like I'm always playing catch up.
Ten thousand miles from home
I am incredibly far away from the place where I feel like I truly belong.
I'm so far away, so long it seems like
The distance between me and my home feels insurmountable, and it's been so long since I was last there that it feels like an eternity.
This road is all I know
I've been constantly traveling and living on the road for so long that it feels like the only way of life I've ever known.
When I was young I dreamed of adventure
When I was younger, I had grand aspirations to explore the world and experience all it has to offer.
And places I'd never seen before
I was excited by the prospect of discovering new and exciting places that I'd never been to before.
But when I close my eyes as I sleep at night
Nowadays, when I go to sleep at night, all I can think of is my home.
All I dream of now is home
I am so homesick that all of my dreams and aspirations revolve around going back to my home.
So long that I've been gone
It's been so long since I've been to my home that I'm starting to forget what it feels like.
If there's one thing I know
Despite all the traveling and experiences I've had, there's only one thing that I know for sure.
Is that there's no place like home
And that is the fact that there truly is no other place in the world like my home.
Six months since the day I went away
It's been half a year since I've left my home.
It didn't seem like that long
At the time, I didn't realize just how long I was going to be gone for, and it seemed like a brief trip.
It hit me when I was changing planes
The reality of how long I've been away from home really came crashing down on me when I was in the midst of traveling.
From Paris to New York
I was in the middle of a long plane journey from one city to another.
I'm dreading the days that are ahead
I'm worried about how much longer I'm going to be away from home and what this will entail.
I haven't slept in my own bed
I miss the familiarity and comfort of the bed that I've slept in for so long in my home.
Ohh, I'm dreamin' of home
All I can do is fantasize about the day I can finally return to my home and everything that's associated with it.
What I've seen and what I've done
I may have seen and experienced many incredible things, but it's not enough to replace what I've left behind.
Don't mean a thing without where I came from
None of these amazing experiences I've had can replace the special place in my heart that my home occupies.
It's who I am and all I ever did
My home is not just a physical location, it's intricately tied to who I am as a person and all of the memories and experiences I've ever had.
Home is where the heart is
At the end of the day, all that really matters is having a place to call home where I feel comfortable and loved.
Call me, tell me that you miss me
I long to hear from someone back home that I'm missed and loved despite being so far away.
Give me somethin' I can hold on to
I need something to hold on to, something tangible that reminds me of my home and everything that's good about it.
To get me through the days when I am
I'm struggling to make it through each day while being so far away from home, and I need something to help me cope.
I can take another moment
I can withstand this loneliness and homesickness for a little while longer if I absolutely must.
I need some clarity
I need something to help me feel clearer about the situation and to ease my mind about being so far away.
Remind me what it's like to be
I need someone to remind me what it feels like to be at home and everything that entails.
Be like home
I need everything to feel just like home again, no matter where I currently am.
I wanna go home, home, home
All I really want is to return to the comfort and familiarity of my home.
Bring me back home, home, home
I'm calling out for help, for someone to help bring me back to the safety and warmth of where I really belong.
No place like home
Ultimately, there's nowhere else in the world like my home, and it's the place that makes me feel whole and complete.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
kenneth graham
good singer, always will be
Sonny Covin
Great voice when he sang this song.
Nora Stanley
Great song
MrMajros
GREAT ! Thank you !
Judah Soremy
Before the plague of feminism. I really was born in the wrong era...