Randall Hank Williams (born May 26, 1949), known professionally as Hank Wil… Read Full Bio ↴Randall Hank Williams (born May 26, 1949), known professionally as Hank Williams Jr. or alternatively as Hank Jr. or Bocephus, is an American singer-songwriter and musician. His musical style is often considered a blend of Southern rock, blues, and country. He is the son of country music singer Hank Williams; the half-brother of Jett Williams; and the father of Hank Williams III, Holly Williams, Hilary Williams, Sam Williams, and the late Katherine Williams-Dunning.

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.

I'm so Lonesome I Could Cry
Hank Williams Jr. Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

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
When 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
That means 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

Overall Meaning

Hank Williams's "I'm so Lonesome I Could Cry" is a melancholy ballad that relates the despair of the singer. The song is a deeply affecting portrait of a lonely man who is overwhelmed by heartbreak, sorrow, and the longing for a lost love. The opening lines, "Hear that lonesome whippoorwill, He sounds too blue to fly," evokes an image of a bird that is similarly sad and alone, unable to take flight.

Throughout the song, Williams employs a series of metaphors and similes to convey the depth and intensity of his anguish. He compares his loneliness to the mournful whine of a midnight train, the weeping of a robin as leaves begin to wither, the darkness of a moonless night, and the silence of a falling star. By describing his desolation through these vivid images and symbols, Williams underscores the power and universality of the human experience of loneliness.

The last two lines of the song, "And as I wonder where you are, I'm so lonesome I could cry," are particularly poignant. These lines reveal that the source of the singer's pain is the absence of a loved one. The song is a moving testament to the pain of separation and the eternal human yearning for connection and intimacy.

Line by Line Meaning

Hear that lonesome whippoorwill
Listen to the sound of that lonely whippoorwill bird

He sounds too blue to fly
The bird sounds so sad that it cannot even fly

The midnight train is whining low
The train passing in the night is making a sad, mournful sound

I'm so lonesome I could cry
I am extremely lonely and sad, to the point where I could cry

I've never seen a night so long
This night seems endless and never-ending

When time goes crawling by
Time seems to be passing very slowly and painfully

The moon just went behind the clouds
The moon disappeared behind the clouds

To hide its face and cry
As if it is ashamed and crying at the same time

Did you ever see a robin weep
Have you ever witnessed a robin crying?

When leaves begin to die
When the leaves of the trees start to wither

That means he's lost the will to live
The robin has lost its desire for life and feels hopeless