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.
Tobacco Road
Hank Williams Jr. Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Mama died and daddy got drunk
Left me here to die or grow
In the middle of Tobacco Road
Grew up in a rusty shack
All I had was hangin′ on my back
Only you know, how I loathe
But it's my home,
The only life I′ve ever known
Lord knows I love you so
Tobacco Road
Gonna leave, get me a job
With some help and the grace of God
Make some money, which I know
And bring it back to Tobacco Road
'Cause it's home
The only life I′ve ever known
Lord knows I love you so, Tobacco Road
Bring dynamite, and a big crane
Blow it all up, start over again
Build a town, I′d be proud to show
Name that sucker, Tobacco Road
'Cause it′s my home
The only life I've ever known
Lord knows I love you so, Tobacco Road
Tobacco Road
Swampy, foggy, smokey place
You need a voodoo guide
The song "Tobacco Road" by Hank Williams Jr. is about a person's experience growing up in a place called Tobacco Road. The lyrics describe the poverty and hardship that the singer faced as a child, from being born in a dump to living in a rusty shack. The chorus expresses the singer's mixed feelings of love and loathing for the place that he grew up in. He dreams of leaving to find work and make money, yet he still feels a deep attachment to Tobacco Road.
The final verse of the song takes on a more hopeful tone as the singer imagines transforming Tobacco Road into a town that he can be proud of. He suggests bringing dynamite and a crane to start over and build a new town that he would name Tobacco Road. Throughout the song, there is a sense of resignation to the singer's circumstances, but also a determination to rise above them and make a better life for himself.
Line by Line Meaning
I was born in a dump
I was born in a place of poverty and struggle
Mama died and daddy got drunk
My mother passed away and my father struggled with alcohol
Left me here to die or grow
He left me here to either succumb to the harshness of life or rise above it
In the middle of Tobacco Road
In a town known for its tobacco industry and poverty
Grew up in a rusty shack
I grew up in a decrepit house with minimal living conditions
All I had was hangin' on my back
I had only the bare necessities to survive
Only you know, how I loathe
Only I know how much I despise
This place called Tobacco Road
This town that has brought me so much hardship and pain
But it's my home,
Despite my dislike, I cannot deny that it is my place of origin
The only life I've ever known
It is the only life I have experienced thus far
Lord knows I love you so
Despite all of its challenges, I still have a fondness for it
Gonna leave, get me a job
I plan to leave and find work elsewhere
With some help and the grace of God
I will need support and divine intervention to make this happen
Make some money, which I know
I will work hard to earn a living for myself
And bring it back to Tobacco Road
And eventually use my earnings to give back to my hometown
'Cause it's home
Again, it is my place of origin
Bring dynamite, and a big crane
If I had the power, I would destroy everything and start from scratch
Blow it all up, start over again
I would demolish the old and create something new
Build a town, I'd be proud to show
I want my hometown to be a place of which I can be proud
Name that sucker, Tobacco Road
And I want it to maintain the same name, in honor of its history and struggles
'Cause it's my home
Regardless of its condition, it is still where I come from
The only life I've ever known
Again, I cannot deny that it is all I've experienced
Lord knows I love you so, Tobacco Road
Despite everything, I still have love for my hometown
Writer(s): John D. Loudermilk
Contributed by Leo G. Suggest a correction in the comments below.