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.
You're Gonna Change
Hank Williams Jr. Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
You wore out a brand new trunk
Packin' and unpackin' your junk
Your daddy's mad, he's done got peeved
You're Gonna Change or I'm a-gonna leave.
[Chorus]
You're gonna change your way of livin'
Stop doin' all the things that you oughten too
Your daddy's mad; He's done got peeved
You're Gonna Change or I'm a-gonna leave.
This ain't right and that is wrong
You just keep naggin', all the day long
Its gotta stop, I don't mean plea-ease
Now, You're Gonna Change or I'm a-gonna leave.
The way to keep a woman happy
And make her do what's right
Is love her every mornin', bawl her out at night
Your daddy's mad, he's done got peeved
Now, You're Gonna Change or I'm a-gonna leave.
Every time you get mad
You pack your rags and go back to dad
You tell him lies he don't believe
Now, You're Gonna Change or I'm a-gonna leave.
[Chorus]
In Hank William Jr.'s song, You're Gonna Change, the singer is frustrated with their partner's behavior and warns them that they must change or the relationship will end. The lyrics suggest that the partner is careless, constantly packing and unpacking their belongings in a brand new trunk, nagging and arguing all day, and prone to lying to their father. The chorus emphasizes that the partner must change their way of living and stop doing the things they ought not to do, otherwise they will lose their loved one.
The singer also provides a suggestion for how to keep a woman happy, by loving her in the morning and correcting her mistakes at night. This line implies that the partner is a woman and may be seen as a reflection of traditional gender roles and expectations. Additionally, the father's disapproval of the partner's behavior adds a layer of familial pressure and conflict to the relationship.
Overall, the song paints a picture of a relationship on the brink of collapse due to a lack of communication and mutual respect. The ultimatum presented in the chorus emphasizes the seriousness of the situation and shows that the singer is not willing to accept their partner's behavior any longer.
Line by Line Meaning
You wore out a brand new trunk
You've been packing and unpacking your things so frequently that you've worn out a brand new trunk.
Packin' and unpackin' your junk
You've been repeatedly packing and unpacking your belongings (which could be referred to as 'junk').
Your daddy's mad, he's done got peeved
Your father is angry and has become annoyed with your behavior.
You're Gonna Change or I'm a-gonna leave
If you don't change, then I'm going to leave.
You're gonna change your way of livin'
You will alter your lifestyle or way of living.
Change the things you do
You will modify your behavior or actions.
Stop doin' all the things that you oughten too
You will cease doing all the things that you shouldn't be doing in the first place.
This ain't right and that is wrong
Various things that you're doing are incorrect, and that won't work.
You just keep naggin', all the day long
You persist on complaining about different things all day long.
Its gotta stop, I don't mean plea-ease
Your actions need to come to an end. I'm not pleading with you.
The way to keep a woman happy
The secret to keeping a woman content and joyful.
And make her do what's right
And encourage her to do what is appropriate.
Is love her every mornin', bawl her out at night
Loving her every morning and then firmly confronting her wrongdoings at nighttime will make her comply with your wishes.
Every time you get mad
Whenever you get angry.
You pack your rags and go back to dad
You hastily pack your clothes and return to your father's house.
You tell him lies he don't believe
You tell him false claims that he doesn't trust.
[Chorus]
Repeating the same chorus.
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: HANK WILLIAMS SR.
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind