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.
Loser
Hank Williams Jr. Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
It's good to know I'm not the only loser and all this time I thought I was alone
She wanted to walk out and I'm the fool that let her
It's so good to hear the part where I'll soon be gettin' better
So play that song again about the loser
The same one that's been playing all night long
It's good to know I'm not the only loser and all this time I thought I've hurt alone
So play it just for me then I'll go home
"Hank Williams Jr.'s "Loser" is a song that speaks to those feeling beaten down or lost in life. The singer yearns for a sense of validation and belonging by asking the DJ to play the song about the loser again. He finds comfort in hearing that he's not the only one struggling and feels a sense of relief to hear the part about getting better. The lyrics suggest that he's just gone through a breakup with a woman who wanted to walk out, and he's left feeling foolish for letting her go.
What's interesting about these lyrics is that they can be interpreted in a few different ways. On one hand, the singer could be looking for validation and reassurance in hearing that he's not the only one who's been hurt or let down. But on the other hand, he could also be using the song as a form of escapism, hoping to forget his problems for a little while and lose himself in the music.
Line by Line Meaning
Play that song again about the loser the same one that's been playing all night long
Repeat the song about the person who failed repeatedly, the one that's been on a loop all night
It's good to know I'm not the only loser and all this time I thought I was alone
Realizing that there are other people who also failed just like me, and I'm not the only one who thought that way until now
She wanted to walk out and I'm the fool that let her
She had the intention to leave, and I was foolish enough to allow her to depart
It's so good to hear the part where I'll soon be gettin' better
The part where the song talks about me becoming better is really nice to hear
So play that song again about the loser
Please repeat the track about the individual who failed repeatedly
The same one that's been playing all night long
The exact song that's been on repeat all night
It's good to know I'm not the only loser and all this time I thought I've hurt alone
Understanding that I'm not the only person who failed, even though I believed I was alone in my failure
So play it just for me then I'll go home
Please play the song solely for me, and I'll leave afterward
Contributed by Chase T. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Bert Scudder
Love it
RattlerMan33
Good ole song!!! Sounds like he is singing about me sometimes.