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've Got A Right To Cry
Hank Williams Jr. Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

I've got a right to cry
I've got a right to cry
All day I sing the blues
I'm in my lonely shoes
Could you be so unkind
I nearly lost my mind
I wonder if you care
Ny life is a sad affair

My heart is aching
and it's breaking
And I don't know what to do
Sweetheart, it's all because of you
You know you've done done me wrong
Come on back home where you belong
And in this reason why
I've got a right to cry

Yeah, my heart is aching
I've got a right to cry

Overall Meaning

The lyrics to Hank Williams Jr.'s "I've Got A Right To Cry" tells the story of a heartbroken man who is lamenting the loss of his lover. He sings that he has the right to cry because of the pain he is feeling. The lyrics suggest that the woman in question has been unkind to him, causing him to almost lose his mind. He wonders if she cares about his feelings and laments that his life is a sad affair. The man's heart is described as aching and breaking, and he doesn't know what to do. He tells his lover that she has done wrong and pleads with her to come back home where she belongs. The song concludes with the man asserting that he has the right to cry because of the heartache he is experiencing.

The lyrics of this song resonate with anyone who has experienced a broken heart, and Hank Williams Jr.'s poignant delivery only adds to the emotion of the piece. The song's slow tempo and ballad style contribute to the sorrowful mood of the lyrics. Furthermore, the use of repetition in phrases such as "I've got a right to cry" enhances the emotional impact of the song.

Line by Line Meaning

I've got a right to cry
I am entitled to express my sadness and pain through tears and emotions

All day I sing the blues
I am feeling sad and depressed all day long and cannot shake off the feeling

I'm in my lonely shoes
I feel lonely and isolated, walking through life without a companion

Could you be so unkind
Why did you hurt me so badly?

I nearly lost my mind
I felt like I was going crazy from the pain and sadness

I wonder if you care
Do you even care about me and my feelings?

Ny life is a sad affair
My life is full of sadness and despair

My heart is aching
My heart physically hurts from the emotional pain I'm experiencing

and it's breaking
My heart is so shattered that it feels irreparable

And I don't know what to do
I feel helpless and lost, unable to find a way to overcome this pain

Sweetheart, it's all because of you
You are the reason for my pain and heartache