Iconic Country Music legend Hank Williams (1923 – 1953) died just four and a half months after being kicked out of the Grand Ol’ Opry for drunken and erratic behavior. He was at the peak of his fame, earning over $200,000 a year and enjoying the enthusiasm of ten million fans in the U.S. and five million abroad. He was 29 years old and known only for 35 songs. The attached article will let you in on the short and painful life of country music’s fair haired boy.
Like many artists, his creativity was nurtured by an empty stomach. Hank Williams was raised under dreadfully impoverished conditions during the Great Depression in Alabama; suffering from spinal bifida, the illness that eventually overcame him, he sought relief from the pain with liquor and drugs and died in the back of the Caddy that was ferrying him to a gig in Canton, Ohio.
“In Canton that afternoon, when the news of his death was given to the audience that had come to hear Hank Williams sing, there was a moment of shocked silence… Then the audience rose to its feet and sang I Saw the Light, one of Williams’ best-loved religious songs.”
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