Hank Williams Jr. lashes out at media in new song | Reuters Mon Oct 10, 2011 | 5:48 PM EDT Hank Williams Jr. lashes out at media in new song Singer Hank Williams Jr. points into the crowd at a campaign rally with U.S. Republican presidential nominee Senator John McCain (R-AZ) in Columbus, Ohio October 31, 2008. Reuters/Brian Snyder By Tim Ghianni | NASHVILLE, Tenn NASHVILLE, Tenn Country singer Hank Williams Jr., whose theme song was pulled from "Monday Night Football" after he compared President Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler, lashed out at the media on Monday with a topical song called "Keep the Change." The track, which borrows its title and certain themes from another song released by Williams' daughter, Holly, in 2009, was offered as a free download on his website.

Williams sparked an uproar when he appeared on the Fox News Channel show "Fox & Friends" on October 3 and said Obama's pairing with Republican House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner in a June golf summit was "like Hitler playing golf with (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu." He also referred to Obama and Vice President Joe Biden as "the enemy." That day, ESPN publicly rebuked Williams and dropped his "All My Rowdy Friends" song as the opening theme for its weekly "Monday Night Football" broadcast. He subsequently issued a statement saying he was sorry for anyone who took offense, but the Disney-owned sports channel and Williams later said they were parting company after an association of more than 20 years. Williams had introduced "MNF" since 1991 on both ABC and ESPN. In his new song about the controversy, Williams took aim at both ESPN and Fox News. "So 'Fox & Friends' want to put me down/Ask for my opinion/Twist it all around/Well two can play that gotcha game," he sings on the track.

Williams, a longtime supporter of Republican causes, also sings that the United States is becoming "socialist" and takes a dig at Obama's 2008 campaign theme of "change." "I'll keep my freedom, I'll keep my guns/Try to keep my money and my religion too ... Keep the government out of my business/ and y'all can keep the change," he sings. The song ends with the 62-year-old Williams, nicknamed Bocephus by his country music legend father, urging fans to join him in a boycott. "Yeah you can keep 'Fox & Friends' and ESPN out of your homes too. 'Cause Bocephus and all his rowdy friends and his song is out of there," sings Williams, who is selling "Hank Jr. for President" T-shirts on his website. Fox News declined to comment on the song, and a representative from ESPN could not be reached for comment. The new Williams track borrows its title from a song called "Keep the Change," which released by his daughter, Holly Williams, in 2009. While Holly Williams did not write the song, her version gained solid radio play with lyrics that present a more subtle but still biting critique of the Obama administration.

Hank Williams Jr. is slated to hit the TV talk show circuit on Tuesday, including appearances on the ABC daytime program "The View" and the conservative Fox News show "Hannity." (Writing by Alex Dobuzinskis: Editing by Steve Gorman) ADVERTISEMENT ESPN pulls Hank Williams Jr.'s 'Are You Ready' opening from MNF The Hank Williams Jr. song that has opened "Monday Night Football" for 20 years was not part of the opening of this week's Indianapolis-Tampa Bay game after Williams made controversial comments about President Barack Obama. Williams compared Obama to Adolf Hitler on Fox News Channel's "Fox and Friends" show Monday morning. ESPN, in a statement, said: "While Hank Williams, Jr. is not an ESPN employee, we recognize that he is closely linked to our company through the open to Monday Night Football. We are extremely disappointed with his comments, and as a result we have decided to pull the open from tonight's telecast." Williams issued a statement through his publicist, saying: "Some of us have strong opinions and are often misunderstood. My analogy was extreme -- but it was to make a point. I was simply trying to explain how stupid it seemed to me -- how ludicrous that pairing was.

They're polar opposites and it made no sense. They don't see eye-to-eye and never will. I have always respected the office of the president." Williams, whose song "All My Rowdy Friends" has been the "Monday Night Football" theme on both ABC and ESPN since 1991, said on "Fox and Friends" that he thought House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner playing golf with President Obama "would be like Hitler playing golf with (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu ... In the shape this country is in?" Told by anchor Brian Kilmeade that he didn't understand the analogy, Williams said: "I'm glad you don't, brother, because a lot of people do. They're the enemy." Asked who the enemy was, Williams said: "Obama. And Biden. Are you kidding? The Three Stooges." Boehner played golf with Obama in June at the height of the national budget debate in Washington, D.C. Williams, from Tennessee, has said he would run as a Republican for the U.S. Senate in 2012. Later in the Fox interview with Williams, anchor Gretchen Carlson told Williams he used the name of one of history's most hated men to describe the president.

"Well, that's true. But I'm telling you like it is," Williams said. Williams has been critical of Obama in the past. He campaigned for Sen. John McCain and running mate Sarah Palin in 2008, even changing the words of one of his songs, "Family Tradition," to blast Obama and the Democrats for the financial crisis the country was facing prior to that year's election. Hank Williams Jr. Lashes Out at Media in New Song Hank Williams Jr. Lashes Out at Media in New Song 10/10/11 AT 6:53 PM Close Country singer Hank Williams Jr., whose theme song was pulled from Monday Night Football after he compared President Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler, lashed out at the media on Monday with a topical song called Keep the Change. The track, which borrows its title and certain themes from another song released by Williams' daughter, Holly, in 2009, was offered as a free download on his website.

Williams sparked an uproar when he appeared on the Fox News Channel show Fox & Friends on October 3 and said Obama's pairing with Republican House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner in a June golf summit was like Hitler playing golf with (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu. Hank Williams released a new song, "Keep the Change," took shots at ESPN after he and the network ended their partnership last week. Photo: Reuters He also referred to Obama and Vice President Joe Biden as the enemy. That day, ESPN publicly rebuked Williams and dropped his All My Rowdy Friends song as the opening theme for its weekly Monday Night Football broadcast. He subsequently issued a statement saying he was sorry for anyone who took offense, but the Disney-owned sports channel and Williams later said they were parting company after an association of more than 20 years. Williams had introduced MNF since 1991 on both ABC and ESPN. In his new song about the controversy, Williams took aim at both ESPN and Fox News. So 'Fox & Friends' want to put me down/Ask for my opinion/Twist it all around/Well two can play that gotcha game, he sings on the track.

Williams, a longtime supporter of Republican causes, also sings that the United States is becoming socialist and takes a dig at Obama's 2008 campaign theme of change. I'll keep my freedom, I'll keep my guns/Try to keep my money and my religion too ... Keep the government out of my business/ and y'all can keep the change, he sings. The song ends with the 62-year-old Williams, nicknamed Bocephus by his country music legend father, urging fans to join him in a boycott. Yeah you can keep 'Fox & Friends' and ESPN out of your homes too. 'Cause Bocephus and all his rowdy friends and his song is out of there, sings Williams, who is selling Hank Jr. for President T-shirts on his website. Fox News declined to comment on the song, and a representative from ESPN could not be reached for comment. The new Williams track borrows its title from a song called Keep the Change, which released by his daughter, Holly Williams, in 2009. While Holly Williams did not write the song, her version gained solid radio play with lyrics that present a more subtle but still biting critique of the Obama administration. Hank Williams Jr.

is slated to hit the TV talk show circuit on Tuesday, including appearances on the ABC daytime program The View and the conservative Fox News show Hannity. Hank Williams, Jr. | Music Videos, News, Photos, Tour Dates | Roxwel From Discogs : born: May 26, 1949Son of legendary US country singer Hank Williams and father of country singer Hank Williams III. From Lastfm : Born on May 26, 1949 in Shreveport, Louisiana, Hank Williams Jr. nicknamed "Bocephus" by his father after opry comedian's Rod Brasfield ventriloquist dummy started his musical career at the age of eight, making appearances in tv shows singing the classical songs of his father, making his official artist debut in 1963 singing "Long Gone Lonesome Blues". Besides the music of his father, Hank Williams, Bocephus was also influenced by Johnny Cash, Earl Scruggs, Fats Domino and Jerry Lee Lewis. After a decade of singing the songs of his father he was often credited as a "Hank Williams Clone" having numerous hit songs.

Despite the success, he fell into depression due to his "legacy" and not earned fame, in 1973 after drug and alcohol abuses he attempted suicide, after the failed intent moved to Alabama where he started playing with southern rock artists such as Waylon Jennings, Toy Caldwell, Marshall Tucker Band and Charlie Daniels making an essential turn to find it's own style. He is probably best known today for his hit "A Country Boy Can Survive." He may also be well known today as the performer of the theme song for Monday Night Football, based on his 1984 hit, "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. From Wikipedia : Randall Hank Williams (born May 26, 1949), better known as Hank Williams, Jr., is an American country singer-songwriter and musician. His musical style is often considered a blend of Southern Rock, blues, and traditional country.

He is the son of country music pioneer Hank Williams, and the father of Hank Williams III, Holly Williams, Hilary Williams, Samuel Williams and Katie Williams. Sam is expected to start recording officially in 2010. Williams began his career imitating his famed father and his style gradually evolved until he was involved in a near fatal fall off the side of a mountain. After an extended recovery he challenged the country music establishment with a blend of country, rock, and blues. Williams enjoyed much success in the 1980s from which he earned considerable recognition and popularity both inside and outside the country music industry. He is now considered a seasoned professional and leader in the country and outlaw country genres. As a multi-instrumentalist, Williams' repertoire of skills include guitar, bass guitar, upright bass, steel guitar, banjo, Dobro, piano, keyboards, harmonica, fiddle, and drums. Hank Williams Jr. | Sounds Like Nashville | Sounds Like Nashville Read more... Randall Hank Williams (born May 26, 1949), better known as Hank Williams Jr. and Bocephus, is an American singer-songwriter and musician.

His musical style is often considered a blend of Southern rock, blues, and traditional country. He is the son of legendary country music singer Hank Williams and the father of Hank Williams III, Holly Williams, Hilary Williams, Samuel Williams, and Katie Williams. Williams began his career by following in his famed father’s footsteps, singing his father’s songs and imitating his father’s style. Williams’s own style slowly evolved as he struggled to find his own voice and place within the country music industry. This trend 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. Williams enjoyed much success in the 1980s, from which he earned considerable recognition and popularity both inside and outside the country music industry. As a multi-instrumentalist, Williams’s repertoire of skills include guitar, bass guitar, upright bass, steel guitar, banjo, dobro, piano, keyboards, harmonica, fiddle, and drums.

From 1989 until October 2011, a version of his song “All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight” was used as the opening for broadcasts of Monday Night Football. Biography Early life and career Williams was born on May 26, 1949 in Shreveport, Louisiana. His father nicknamed him Bocephus (after Grand Ole Opry comedian Rod Brasfield’s ventriloquist dummy). After his father’s untimely death in 1953, he was raised by his mother, Audrey Williams. While he was a child, a number of contemporary musicians visited his family, who influenced and taught him various music instruments and styles. Among these figures of influence were Johnny Cash, Fats Domino, Earl Scruggs, and Jerry Lee Lewis. Williams first stepped on the stage and sang his father’s songs when he was eight years old. In 1964, he made his recording debut with “Long Gone Lonesome Blues”, one of his father’s many classic songs. Williams provided the singing voice of his father in the 1964 film Your Cheatin’ Heart. He also recorded an album of duets with recordings of his father.

A change in appearance and musical direction Although Williams’s recordings earned him numerous country hits throughout the 1960s and early 1970s with his role as a “Hank Williams impersonator”, he became disillusioned and severed ties with his mother. By the mid-1970s Williams began to pursue a musical direction that would eventually make him a superstar. While recording a series of moderately successful songs, Williams began a heavy pattern of both drug and alcohol abuse. Upon moving to Alabama, in an attempt to refocus both his creative energy and his troubled personal life, Williams began playing music with Southern rock musicians including Waylon Jennings, Toy Caldwell, and Charlie Daniels. Hank Williams, Jr. and Friends (1975), often considered his watershed album was the product of these then-groundbreaking collaborations. In 1977 Williams recorded and released One Night Stands and The New South, and worked closely with his old friend Waylon Jennings on the album Once and For All. On August 8, 1975 Williams was nearly killed in a mountain-climbing accident. While he was climbing Ajax Peak in Montana, the snow beneath him collapsed and he fell almost 500 feet onto rock.

He suffered multiple skull and facial fractures. To hide the scars and the disfigurement from the accident, Williams grew a beard and began wearing sunglasses and a cowboy hat. The beard, hat, and sunglasses have since become his signature look, and he is rarely seen without them. Acceptance into the country music establishment Williams’s career began to hit its peak after the Nashville establishment gradually—and somewhat reluctantly—accepted his new sound. His popularity had risen to levels where he could no longer be overlooked for major industry awards. He was prolific throughout the 1980s, sometimes recording and releasing two albums a year. “Family Tradition”, “Whiskey Bent and Hell Bound”, Habits Old and New, Rowdy, The Pressure Is On, High Notes, Strong Stuff, Man of Steel, Major Moves, Five-O, Montana Cafe, and many others resulted in a long string of hits. Between 1979 and 1992, Williams released 21 albums, 18 studio & 3 compilation, that were all, at least, certified gold by the RIAA.

Between 1979 and 1990, Williams enjoyed a string of 30 Top Ten singles on the Billboard Country charts, including eight No. 1 singles, for a total of 44 Top Ten singles, including a total of 10 No. 1 singles, during his career. In 1982, he had nine albums simultaneously on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart, none of which was greatest hits or live. In 1987 and 1988, Williams was named Entertainer of the Year by the Country Music Association. In 1987, 1988, and 1989, he won the same award from the Academy of Country Music. The pinnacle album of his acceptance and popularity was Born to Boogie. During the 1980s, Williams became a country music superstar known for catchy anthems and hard-edged, rock-influenced country.

During the late 1970s and into the mid-1980s, Williams’s songs constantly flew into the number one or number two spots, with songs such as “Family Tradition”, “Whiskey Bent and Hell Bound”, “Old Habits”, “Ain’t Misbehavin’“, “Born to Boogie”, and “My Name Is Bocephus”. The 1987 hit single Wild Streak was cowritten by Houston native Terri Sharp, for which Williams and Sharp both earned gold records. In 1988 he released a Southern pride song, “If the South Woulda Won”. The reference is to a Southern victory in the Civil War. The song proposes a southern holiday honoring Elvis Presley. Williams would run for president of the South. He would place the capital in Montgomery, Alabama, honoring his father, Hank Williams, Sr., with his image on the $100 bill. He also implies that in the current United States killers frequently get off too easily and calls for swift executions instead. His 1989 hit “There’s a Tear in My Beer” was a duet with his father created using electronic merging technology.

The song was written by his father, and had been previously recorded with Hank Williams playing the guitar as the sole instrument. The music video for the song combined existing television footage of Hank Williams performing, onto which electronic merging technology impressed the recordings of Williams, which then made it appear as if he were actually playing with his father. The video was both a critical and commercial success. It was named Video of the Year by both the Country Music Association and the Academy of Country Music. Williams would go on to win a Grammy Award in 1990 for Best Country Vocal Collaboration. He is well known for his hit “A Country Boy Can Survive” and as the performer of the theme song for Monday Night Football, based on his 1984 hit “All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight”. In 1991, 1992, 1993, and 1994, Williams’s opening themes for Monday Night Football (Written by ghost writer Milliea Taylor McKinney known for selling her song rights to artist} the tune earned him four Emmy Awards.

In 2001, Hank co-wrote his classic hit “A Country Boy Can Survive” after 9/11, renaming it “America Can Survive”. In 2004, Williams was featured prominently on CMT Outlaws. In 2006, he starred at the Summerfest concert. He has also made a cameo appearance along with Larry the Cable Guy, Kid Rock, and Charlie Daniels in Gretchen Wilson’s music video for the song “All Jacked Up”. He and Kid Rock also appeared in Wilson’s “Redneck Woman” video. Hank also had a small part of Kid Rock’s video “Only God Knows Why”, and “Redneck Paradise”. He is also referenced in numerous songs by modern-day country singers, including Kid Rock, Brantley Gilbert, Gretchen Wilson, Alan Jackson, Justin Moore, Trace Adkins, and Aaron Lewis. In April 2009, Williams released a new single, “Red, White & Pink-Slip Blues”, which peaked at number 43 on the country charts. The song was the lead-off single to Williams’s album 127 Rose Avenue.

The album debuted and peaked at number 7 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart. Also in July 2009, 127 Rose Avenue was announced as his last album for Curb Records. Notable events 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 “Five 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 other cited, Claude King and Frank Page, both died in 2013.

Politics Williams has been politically involved with the Republican Party. For the 2000 election, he redid his song “We Are Young Country” to “This is Bush–Cheney Country”. On October 15, 2008, at a rally in Virginia Beach for Republican presidential nominee John McCain, he performed “McCain–Palin Tradition”, a song in support of McCain and his vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin. He has made many contributions to federal election campaigns, mostly to Republicans, including Michele Bachmann’s 2012 presidential campaign. In November 2008, Williams explored a run for the 2012 Republican nomination as a U.S. Senator from Tennessee for the seat held by Bob Corker, though his publicist said Williams “has talked about it, but no announcement has been made”. Williams did not run, and Corker was easily reelected to a second term.

2011 Fox and Friends appearance In an October 3, 2011, interview with Fox News Channel’s Fox & Friends, Williams referred to a June golf game in which President Barack Obama and Republican House Speaker John Boehner had teamed against Vice President Joe Biden and Ohio Governor John Kasich, saying that match was “one of the biggest political mistakes ever”. Asked about why that golf game disturbed him, Williams said, “Come on. That’d be like Hitler playing golf with Netanyahu … in the shape this country is in?” He also stated the President and Vice President are “the enemy” and compared them to “the Three Stooges”. When anchor Gretchen Carlson later said to him, “You used the name of one of the most hated people in all of the world to describe, I think, the president.” Williams replied, “Well, that is true. But I’m telling you like it is.” As a result of his statements, ESPN dropped Williams’ opening musical number from its Monday Night Football broadcast of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers versus the Indianapolis Colts and replaced it with the national anthem.

Later, Williams stated his analogy was “extreme – but it was to make a point”, and “Some of us have strong opinions and are often misunderstood … I was simply trying to explain how stupid it seemed to me – how ludicrous that pairing was. They’re polar opposites, and it made no sense. They don’t see eye-to-eye and never will.” Williams went on to claim he has “always respected the office of the president … Working-class people are hurting – and it doesn’t seem like anybody cares. When both sides are high-fiving it on the ninth hole when everybody else is without a job – it makes a whole lot of us angry. Something has to change. The policies have to change.” ESPN later announced they were “extremely disappointed” in Williams’ comments, and pulled his opening from that night’s broadcast. Three days later, ESPN released a statement announcing Williams and his song would not return to Monday Night Football, ending the use of the song that had been part of the broadcast on both ABC and ESPN since 1989. Williams has further expressed defiance and indifference on his website, and said he was the one who made the decision. “After reading hundreds of e-mails, I have made MY decision,” he wrote.

“By pulling my opening Oct 3rd, You (ESPN) stepped on the Toes of The First Amendment Freedom of Speech, so therefore Me, My Song, and All My Rowdy Friends are OUT OF HERE. It’s been a great run.” Williams’ son, Hank Williams III, stayed neutral in the debate, telling TMZ.com that most musicians, including his dad, are “not worthy” of a political discussion. After his song was pulled from Monday Night Football broadcasts permanently, Williams recorded a song criticizing President Obama, ESPN and Fox & Friends titled “Keep the Change”. He released the track on iTunes and via free download at his website. The song garnered over 180,000 downloads in two days. Williams continues to make his contempt for President Obama known; during a performance at the Iowa State Fair in August 2012 he called Obama a Muslim and told the crowd, “We’ve got a Muslim president who hates farming, hates the military, hates the U.S. and we hate him!” Discography Awards and nominations References External links Official website Huge Hank Jr. CD Store Hank Williams Jr. at the Internet Movie Database Hank Williams, Jr.

at Library of Congress Authorities, with 86 catalog records (primarily under ‘Williams, Hank, 1949–’ without ‘Jr.’) Audio: Hank Williams Jr. Attacks Media, Obama with New Song Audio: Hank Williams Jr. Attacks Media, Obama with New Song October 11, 2011 | by Michael Allen Country singer Hank Williams Jr., whose theme song was pulled from 'Monday Night Football' after he compared President Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler, lashed out at the media and Obama (again) with a new song called 'Keep the Change' (audio below). The song, which borrows its title from another song released by Williams’ daughter in 2009, glorifies gun ownership and Williams' "Christian name," while attacking the government and the U.S.

which the singer claims is turning "socialist." Popular Video A judge looked this inmate straight in the eyes and said something that left the entire courtroom in tears: Popular Video A judge looked this inmate straight in the eyes and said something that left the entire courtroom in tears: “I’ll keep my freedom, I’ll keep my guns/Try to keep my money and my religion too … Keep the government out of my business/ and y’all can keep the change,” he sings. Williams sparked an uproar when he appeared on the Fox News Channel show 'Fox & Friends' on October 3 and said Obama’s pairing with Republican House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner in a June golf summit was “like Hitler playing golf with (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu.” He also referred to Obama and Vice President Joe Biden as “the enemy.” That day, ESPN publicly rebuked Williams and dropped his 'All My Rowdy Friends' song as the opening theme for its weekly Monday Night Football broadcast. He subsequently issued a statement saying he was sorry for anyone who took offense, but ESPN and Williams later said they were parting company after an association of more than 20 years.

In his new song about the controversy, Williams took aim at both ESPN and Fox News: “So ‘Fox & Friends’ want to put me down/Ask for my opinion/Twist it all around/Well two can play that gotcha game,” he sings on the track. The song ends with the 62-year-old Williams, nicknamed Bocephus by his country music legend father, urging fans to join him in a boycott: “Yeah you can keep ‘Fox & Friends’ and ESPN out of your homes too." The Awkward, Enduring Influence of Hank Williams, Jr. - The New Yorker The Awkward, Enduring Influence of Hank Williams, Jr.

By March 24, 2016 Listen closely to country radio’s defining sounds and points of view at almost any moment over the last four decades and Hank Williams, Jr., is right there—often, he was there first.CreditPhotograph by Frederick Breedon IV / Getty The country-music star Hank Williams, Jr., put out a new album in January called “It’s About Time.” It is his fifty-eighth studio release, but as has often been the case in Williams’s career, which is now more than a half century old, much of the attention that’s come his way has little to do with music. In the beginning, of course, the only reason anyone knew Williams was for the “Jr.”: by the time the younger Williams started performing, his father was not so much a country-music legend as a country-music deity. Hank, Jr., nicknamed Bocephus by his dad—after the Grand Ole Opry comedian Rod Brasfield’s ventriloquist dummy—was born famous.

And these days he is more immediately identified for his anti-gay, anti-Muslim, and anti-big-government concert ramblings—and for having been fired from a two-decade-long gig performing the theme song to “Monday Night Football” after seeming to compare Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler during a segment of “Fox & Friends.” Country music’s equivalent to the Son of God is now country music’s equivalent to Ted Nugent. These days, as he promotes a new album for the first time in four years, the sixty-six-year-old Williams seems determined to sidestep controversy. “I don’t give a shit about the election,” he recently told an interviewer. Still, “It’s About Time” can’t leave politics alone. In “God and Guns,” Williams tells off a politician who advocates stripping the “working man” of firearms and religious freedom. The America-hating politician goes unnamed (Senator Strawman, perhaps?), and the commentary is ridiculous. Yet “God and Guns” is nearly impossible to turn away from, thanks to the record’s cocky delivery, its coolly malevolent rhythm, and its climactic, almost-metal guitar crunch.

The identity politics on “It’s About Time”—patriotic, macho, proudly white and Southern, blue-collar (in cultural affiliation if not in fact)—are the ones that Williams has espoused for decades. Big Reagan-era hits like “Dixie on My Mind,” “Country State of Mind,” and “American Dream,” not to mention the apocalyptic “A Country Boy Can Survive,” articulated the same country conservatism. The sound of “It’s About Time,” too—Southern- and blues-rock guitars and boogie-woogie pianos atop country-soul-rockin’ and honky-tonkin’ rhythm-and-blues beats—is the sonic approach he’s been working for decades. And both qualities—the perpetually aggrieved but perpetually primed-to-party persona, as well as the hard-rock approach to country music—have long dominated not only Williams’s music but mainstream country generally, up to and including so-called bro-country and various post-bro varieties. This is the part of the Hank Williams, Jr., story that’s consistently obscured by his legendary lineage and his big mouth. His father remains the genre’s key repository of myth and tradition (though he’s lately moved it on over a bit to make room for Johnny Cash).

But listen closely to country radio’s defining sounds and points of view at almost any moment over the last four decades and Hank Williams, Jr., is right there—often, he was there first. When it comes to anticipating the direction of country music, Jr. has mattered more than Sr. for a long, long time. Hank Williams, Jr., was raised to be an echo, not an influence. His mother, Audrey Williams, pushed him to perform as Hank Williams, Jr., (his given name is Randall) and to play songs pulled almost exclusively from the catalogue of his father, who died when Hank, Jr., was three. He made his stage début, warbling his father’s first hit, “Lovesick Blues,” when he was only eight years old; he débuted on the Grand Ole Opry at eleven. He released his first album, “Hank Williams Jr. Sings the Songs of Hank Williams,” for his father’s old record label, M.G.M., just after turning fourteen, in 1964. That same year he provided the vocals for a lip-synching George Hamilton in “Your Cheatin’ Heart,” a movie about his dad.

In his role as a living-and-breathing stand-in for the dead-and-buried guy whom audiences really wanted to see, he was a success, and he even scored a few hit records. He wrote one of them, “Standing in the Shadows,” about what he’d years later term his “unique position.” “I know that I’m not great, and some say I imitate,” he begins. “It’s hard standing in the shadows of a very famous man.” But what’s mostly forgotten now is how early and often Williams, Jr., and M.G.M., pushed against family obligations. Only two months after that biopic soundtrack came an album with the pop star Connie Francis called “Great Country Favorites.” None of them were his father’s. For the rest of the decade, he basically alternated father-figure releases with attempts to do his own thing: a Western album, an album of his own compositions, a Johnny Cash tribute record that might be the best one of those ever released. By the early nineteen-seventies he’d become a consistent country hit maker whose warm, bluesy delivery sounded nothing like his dad’s. The bad news was he sounded just like everybody else.

The retro kid was now a state-of-the-art star—generic, but often brilliant just the same. The country chart topper “Eleven Roses” sounded like a George Jones record; his “Pride’s Not Hard to Swallow” was à la Conway Twitty. And his string of rock and soul covers—country hits culled from songs originally done by such artists as Fats Domino and Little Richard—is an exemplary instance of the era’s most representative country trend. “I Fought the Law,” his first decent-sized hit after leaving M.G.M. for Warner Brothers, didn’t swing as nimbly as the Bobby Fuller Four’s 1966 original. But, a harbinger for singer and genre both, it rocked much harder. In 1975, Williams came very close to dying, falling several hundred feet down a Montana mountainside. He endured multiple reconstructive surgeries to his face and skull. His mother died only months after the accident. When he returned to performing, in 1976, he appeared as he does today, sporting a beard and, long before it became fashionable again for country singers, a cowboy hat. He was also determined as never before to distinguish himself beyond his father’s legacy.

It took a couple more years to figure out how. Just prior to the accident, he released “Hank Williams, Jr. & Friends,” which—with its solo-heavy rendering of the Marshall Tucker Band’s “Can’t You See,” and an opening track, “Losin’ You,” that was like the Eagles at their pre-“Hotel California” hardest—was aimed squarely at Album Oriented Rock stations. In the years following, he recorded versions of the Bee Gees’ “To Love Somebody,” Eric Carmen’s “All by Myself,” and Jackson Browne’s “You Love the Thunder.” His “The New South” went on the short list of great outlaw country albums—but it tanked commercially. Then, in 1978, he wrote a song called “Family Tradition.” “Family Tradition” merged sounds that Williams had been playing with for years—Southern rock, old-school pop and rock and roll, A.O.R. and R. & B., honky tonk, the blues. But it didn’t exactly sound, let alone feel, like any of those. Bocephus spoke and even shouted at times more than he sang, and the song’s backing vocals were a raucous concert sing-along.

The record was dominated by a simple but way-up-in-the-mix drumbeat. The lead guitars snapped and snarled but the record’s pedal-steel guitar solo mimicked the sound of his dad’s old records. In another signature move, the lyrics mentioned his dad almost incessantly while remaining all about Bocephus. The record let him cuss out everyone who’d ever damned him for not making music like his father’s or who’d condemned him because his drinking and other self-destructive tendencies were exactly like his father’s. The effect for Williams, as for country music, was traditional in the most vital sense. “Family Tradition” works overtime to remain connected to the people and sounds of the past even as it inevitably breaks with that past in favor of new sounds. It created the Hank Williams, Jr., we’ve known ever since. The follow-up single, “Whiskey Bent and Hellbound,” reprised the approach, except louder. “Kawliga,” from 1980, reinvented one of his dad’s songs as country funk. 1984’s “All My Rowdy Friends (Are Comin’ over Tonight)” eventually became, with new lyrics, the “Monday Night Football” theme.

Three years later, the comic and self-mythologizing “Born to Boogie” became country radio’s hardest-rocking hit ever. It was the title track to an album that also included arena-rocking versions of hits by both the Rolling Stones and the Georgia Satellites. Country music quickly followed Williams’s lead—from Shania Twain’s rock-guitar attack in the nineties to the rise, in this century, of hick-hop (a cross, basically, between Bocephus’s music and his good friend Kid Rock’s ). Williams’s DNA is deep down in countless key records, from “Here’s a Quarter (Call Someone Who Cares)” and “Friends in Low Places” to “Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)” and “Honky Tonk Badonkadonk,” not to mention nearly every hit in the Toby Keith catalogue. The new “It’s About Time,” meanwhile, features appearances by three more of his progeny, the hard-rocking contemporary country stars Eric Church, Justin Moore, and Brantley Gilbert, and this summer Williams will tour with another descendent, the Great White Soul Hope of our country moment, Chris Stapleton.

Williams also complains on the new album that he’s had it with today’s “weird pop country sound.” This is unsurprising: old folks routinely express frustration with kids these days. But it’s ironic nonetheless, as bro country is just one more of Williams’s children. Take the lines “I like happy and I don’t like sad … I like the sweet young things and Old Grandad” from Williams’s “Women I’ve Never Had.” Then switch out the whiskey for beer and add “We like our country mixed with R. & B.,” a line from another hit off “Born to Boogie,” “Young Country.” Behold: a mission statement for Florida Georgia Line, one of the biggest country acts of the current decade. Williams was as popular in the nineteen-eighties as any country act had ever been. During one five-year stretch he landed eight albums atop Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart—in ’82 alone, he had nine albums on the chart simultaneously—and his wildly devoted (and just plain wild) fan base delivered him record-setting concert grosses.

The Country Music Association, after years of resisting his rowdy charms, awarded Williams its highest honor, Entertainer of the Year, in 1987, then did it again in ’88. Yet these honors coincided with the beginning of the end of his run as a radio star; he hasn’t had a real hit since 1990. The most memorable was 1989’s “There’s a Tear in My Beer,” another studio-created duet with his famous father, who’d written and recorded the song nearly forty years earlier.

(A popular video for the record appeared to show father and son performing together: something like equals at last.) Just as revealing, but far more troubling, was the record that hit the country Top Ten during the 1988 Presidential primary campaign (when both Jesse Jackson and the former Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon David Duke were candidates): “If the South Woulda Won [We’d’ve Had It Made].” Over a rousing Southern-rock-meets-Dixieland arrangement, with snippets of “Dixie” itself, Williams declared that, as “President of the Southern states,” he’d see to it that “our national holiday” was the anniversary of Elvis Presley’s death—and this at a time when the Martin Luther King holiday was hotly contested. The song also proclaimed that, in a modern Confederacy, “we would take Miami back.” It marked a shift for Williams that’s only intensified in the decades since. He’d clearly been a country conservative since the Reagan era, promoting individualism, nationalism, Southern and working-class pride, law and order, and the Second Amendment. But at least on record his anger had tended to be aimed upward, at the powerful, at those who looked down on him or his people.

“A Country Boy Can Survive,” mad and menacing and demanding the last word, from 1982, became the template for brawny working-class counterattacks post-9/11, in the work of Darryl Worley and Toby Keith, Montgomery Gentry, Jason Aldean, and plenty more to come. “If the South Woulda Won,” though, flipped this populist script, gleefully punching down. And as his records fell from favor, with the rise of Garth Brooks and other Hat Acts , Williams seemed to compensate by punching harder and more erratically—for easy applause on stage and for social-media validation in interviews. Much of his work has both congratulated country’s rural-to-suburban audience and stoked its grievances—insisting that America never stopped being great while also demanding that it be made great again. Celebratory with notes of bitterness, “Club U.S.A.,” another “It’s About Time” track, neatly summarizes the role Williams has played.

Over a generic but blistering blues-rock rhythm, the record places Williams in conversation with Chuck Berry and his civil-rights-era anthem “Back in the U.S.A.” But as is Williams’s way, he delivers the song, aptly in our season of Trump, as a fun-loving country boy who just takes it for granted that he’s a “good-standing member” of the club. There’s one club that Williams doesn’t belong to and isn’t likely to be asked to join anytime soon. On March 29th, the Country Music Hall of Fame will announce its latest class of inductees. It seems unlikely that Hank Williams, Jr., will be among them. A number of artists who are younger than him, who have had far fewer hits and sold millions fewer albums—and who’ve had nowhere near his influence—have already been inducted. In the most poignant number from his new album, the father-and-son-referencing “Just Call Me, Hank,” Williams avows, “I don’t care about the Hall of Fame.” It’s hard to believe him.

At the same time, Hank Williams, Jr., is a man who says things like “We’ve got a Muslim President who hates farming, hates the military, hates the U.S., and we hate him,” as he did from the stage during one 2012 concert. Outside of country circles, and increasingly within them, Williams is recognized less as a country singer with conservative politics and more as a celebrity right-winger who, by the way, is also a country singer. That reputation is going to be as tough a sell for a museum that needs corporate partners as it’s proven to be for radio stations that fear too much controversy will scare off advertisers. The smart money is that Williams will only make it to the Hall when he’s as dead as his dad. By that point, everyone involved will be able to rest assured that he will keep his big mouth shut. David Cantwell is the author of “Merle Haggard: The Running Kind” and the co-author of “Heartaches by the Number.” Career Biography - Hank Williams Jr. Career Biography Join the Email List Career Biography “Stop and think it over,” the big man with the hat and glasses has asked, from a thousand stages, in front of millions of people.

“Try to put yourself in my position.” We can’t. We can imagine, but we can’t know. We can’t know what it’s like to be the only son of Hank Williams, the long gone and lonesome singer whose brief life transformed country music. We can’t know what it’s like to be linked to such a transformative force by blood and name but not by memory, to learn about a famous father from books and photos and others’ stories: Hank Williams died at age 29, when his son was three-years-old. We can’t know what it was like to wrestle with that legacy, to try to honor all that came before, but not wind up a pale approximation of country’s greatest ghost. Born Randall Hank Williams, but singing as Hank Williams, Jr. before he was 10, the son never had much in the way of a career choice. The choice wasn’t whether he’d sing, but what, how and why. “Other kids could play cowboys and Indians and imagine that they’d grow up to be cowboys,” he wrote in his Living Proof autobiography. “I couldn’t do that.

I knew that I would never grow up to be a cowboy or a fireman or the president of the United States. I knew I’d grow up to be a singer. That’s all there ever was, the only option, from the beginning.” At the beginning, mother Audrey Williams worked to mold her son into a miniature version of his late father, and for 20 years he struggled, uncomfortably, to break the mold. When he finally found his own sound and style, he reached sales plateaus that his father never dreamed of: 20 gold albums, six platinum albums (one of which has sold more than five million copies) and 13 chart-topping albums. He has been selling out massive venues for a longer period of time than his father spent on earth. He has done more than honor his father’s legacy; he has extended it, enriched it, enhanced it and elevated it. “My name’s a reminder of a blues man that’s already gone,” he once sang. But the name “Hank Williams, Jr.” is much more than that. Randall Hank Williams was born in Shreveport, Louisiana on May 26, 1949.

A month later, his father made his Grand Ole Opry debut, singing “Lovesick Blues” and drawing six encores. Hank Williams, who nicknamed his son “Bocephus” after comedian Rod Brasfield’s ventriloquist dummy, had three and a half years left to live. He spent much of that time performing for the fans who would celebrate his contributions, but during radio performances he would send a message to his boy, closing shows by saying, “Don’t worry, Bocephus, I’m coming home.” But when Williams came home in January of 1953, it was in a casket. Audrey Williams was left with a family to raise, and with a son who was soon squealing for a guitar of his own. At age eight, Hank made his music debut, dressed in a black suit for a Swainsboro, Georgia show, singing his father’s songs to wild applause. At nine, he was touring in earnest with his mother’s Caravan of Stars. “We listened to Hank, Jr. sing some of the songs which made his dad so famous,” wrote an early reviewer, in 1957. “The similarity of style is haunting.

He has the same lonesome quality, the same break in his voice, the same pronunciation.” Raised in Nashville, Hank, Jr. learned music from the finest of teachers. Earl Scruggs gave him banjo lessons, and Jerry Lee Lewis showed him piano licks. And with rock ‘n’ roll in full flower, Hank, Jr. began playing a lot of electric guitar (though not onstage, where he was taught to do Hank Williams’ songs, in Hank Williams’ style). At age 11, he made his own Opry debut, walking across the same wooden boards his father had walked on, and, just like his daddy, singing “Lovesick Blues” and encoring. “Went on the road when I was eight years old, when I turned 15 I was stealing the show,” he wrote, accurately, in his 1987 No. 1 single, “Born To Boogie.” And after stealing the show, he was often offered the drinks and pills that were so prevalent among country performers (and that had killed his father). Often as not, as was family tradition, he accepted the offers.

He’d also accepted a $300,000-per-year recording contract, and at 15 his version of his father’s “Long Gone Lonesome Blues” climbed to #5 on the country singles chart. Also while 15, he wrote his first serious composition, a slice of autobiography: “I know that I’m not great/ Some folks say I just imitate/ Anymore, I don’t know/ I’m just doin’ the best I can…..It’s hard standing in the shadow of a very famous man.” That shadow grew darker, as Hank, Jr. entered his 20s. The fans that came to see him on the road wanted, and expected, him to do his father’s songs, his father’s way. Yet he yearned to explore the musical changes that were happening in the early 1970s, the melding of country, blues and rock that made the music of Waylon Jennings and the Marshall Tucker Band so distinct. He also grew increasingly dependent on pills and booze, and increasingly upset about his life’s path. “I just felt all this loneliness and depression,” he told interviewer Peter Guralnick. “I was all tore up about the direction I was heading.

Every time I’d play one of Daddy’s records, I’d just start to cry.” An attempted suicide in 1974 was the low point. Had he died then, at 23, his music career would have been a historical footnote, an addendum to his father’s biography and little more. He moved from Nashville to Cullman, Alabama, rethought his life in and out of music, and recorded his first truly original work, an album called Hank Williams Jr. and Friends that featured Jennings, the Tucker Band’s Toy Caldwell, and others who weren’t in the traditional country camp. And Williams’ songs “Living Proof” and “Stoned at the Jukebox” were his most searing, emotional works to date. But while prepping for a tour, he went mountain climbing in Montana. “I just had to show ‘em I didn’t need ‘em/ And so I headed out west to see some old friends of mine,” he would later sing, in “All In Alabama.” “I thought if I’d climb up old Ajax Mountain, maybe that would help me get it all off my mind.” It was a nice climb, right up until the part where he fell down the mountain.

He lived, barely, but emerged disfigured, wounded and, somehow, inspired. After multiple surgeries and a torturous recovery period, he was determined that he would spend no more time as a Hank Williams retread. His new music was a turnoff to some longtime fans, but it was embraced by a new crowd that liked this newly bearded Bocephus, who, as he sang in “The New South,” “started turning up loud and looking at the crowd and bending them guitar strings.” Hank, Jr.’s music was now rambunctious, forthright and distinctive. For Hank, Jr., everything changed with that 1975 dive off Ajax Mountain. The music world caught on to those changes around 1979, the year he released his first million-selling album, Whiskey Bent and Hell Bound, along with his autobiography, Living Proof.

In the early 1980s, he catapulted to full-on superstar status, with major hits including “Texas Women,” “Dixie On My Mind,” “All My Rowdy Friends (Have Settled Down),” and in 1984, “All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight,” a party anthem featuring a riotous video that starred Bocephus in conjunction with stars from inside (Merle Kilgore, Porter Wagoner, Kris Kristofferson, etc.) and outside (Cheech and Chong) country music. In 1987, Hank, Jr. won his first of five country music entertainer of the year awards, and the two albums released that year – Hank Live and studio effort Born To Boogie – were platinum sellers. Born To Boogie was the CMA’s album of the year in 1988, the year he won the CMA and ACM’s top entertainer prize. Hank’s star rose far beyond the country world in 1989, when manager Merle Kilgore arranged a deal with ABC’s Monday Night Football to have Hank, Jr.

rework “All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight” into a theme song to be played before each Monday’s game. Two years later, the Monday Night theme won the first of four straight Emmy Awards, and Hank, Jr. would be the singing voice of Monday Night Football for 22 years. With the Monday Night Football deal in place, Hank Williams, Jr. was now known to millions who had never even listened to country music, and he’d become an ambassador for that musical genre. He’s held that position through the 1990s and up to the present, with hard-charging songs that speak to his truth, his “unique position,” and to our lives. His room-shaking voice is as identifiable to fans as that of his father, and he has passed the family music tradition down to son Shelton and daughter Holly, both of whom are recording artists in their own right. “I’ve been a very lucky man,” he’s fond of saying, but Hank, Jr. has made his own luck, and made his own way. Given a chance to coast on his father’s songs and his father’s royalties, he found a new song to sing, and a new way to sing it.

The father lived 29 years, and the son spent nearly that long standing in his shadow. But it is what the son did after turning 29 that has landed him a place in the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, that has made him a BMI Icon award winner, and one of the best-selling artists in country music history. By finding his own powerful voice, by turns rebellious and vulnerable, he has become a music icon. He remains an inspiration to Alan Jackson, Kid Rock, Jamey Johnson and other followers and a sure-bet for eventual entry into the Country Music Hall of Fame, where his plaque will be displayed in perpetuity, just like his daddy’s, only different. Stop and think it over. Unapologetic Hank Williams Jr. jabs ESPN, 'Fox and Friends' in new song - CNN.com Unapologetic Hank Williams Jr. jabs ESPN, 'Fox and Friends' in new song By the CNN Wire Staff Updated 10:19 AM ET, Tue October 11, 2011 Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what's happening in the world as it unfolds. JUST WATCHED Hank Williams Jr.

fires back in new song 01:30 Story highlights Hank Williams Jr. compared President Obama to Hitler on "Fox and Friends" ESPN dropped use of his songs from its broadcasts, and he apologized But there's no remorse evident in a new song posted on Williams' website He blasts ESPN, Fox and what he calls the United Socialist States of America Days after being dropped from ESPN's "Monday Night Football," Hank Williams Jr. fired back at that network, "Fox and Friends" and what he called the "United Socialist States of America" in his signature style -- a song bellowing biting lyrics in between guitar licks. "This country sure as hell has gone down the drain," Williams sings in a tune posted Monday on his official website. "We know what we need. We know who to blame." In the song, the 62-year-old son of the legendary country singer Hank Williams did not appear to accept any blame for his part in a recent controversy stemming from an appearance last Monday on "Fox and Friends," Fox News' morning show. On the program, he said that the golf outing involving President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, was "like Hitler playing golf with (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu. OK.

Not hardly." When one of the Fox News' interviewers pointed out that Williams invoked "one of the most hated people in all of the world to describe ... the president," Williams responded: "That is true, but I'm telling you like it is, you know. That just wasn't a good thing. It just didn't fly." The next day, the singer offered an explanation, saying, "My analogy was extreme -- but it was to make a point. ... The thought of the leaders of both parties jukin' and high fiven' on a golf course, while so many families are struggling to get by, simply made me boil over and make a dumb statement, and I am very sorry if it offended anyone." JUST WATCHED MUST WATCH Hank Williams Jr. pulled from 'MNF' 01:20 Then, last Thursday, ESPN announced that it "decided to part ways" with Williams. His song "All My Rowdy Friends" had been the "Monday Night Football" theme on both ABC and ESPN since 1991. No remorse was evident in Williams' latest song, titled "Keep the Change" -- an apparent dig at Obama's 2008 campaign promise to bring change to Washington.

The singer has criticized Obama in the past, and he supported the 2008 Republican presidential ticket of Sen. John McCain and running mate Gov. Sarah Palin. Williams sang that he'd keep his freedom, guns, money, religion and "my Christian name," among other things. He added that he'd like to "keep the government out of my business." The singer said that he had expected to talk about his father's new CD on the "Fox and Friends" program, and accused the show of playing "the gotcha game." "Ask for my opinion, then twist it all around," Williams sang. "Just wait and see, don't tread on me." Williams was born May 26, 1949, and his iconic father nicknamed him "Bocephus" after a ventriloquist dummy used by Rod Brasfield, a country comedian, Williams' website says. He debuted on the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee, at age 11.

In addition to "All My Rowdy Friends," his other hits include "Long Gone Lonesome Blues," "Whiskey Bent and Hell Bound," "Old Habits," "Born to Boogie" and "A Country Boy Can Survive." The bearded Williams, who wears a hat and sunglasses during performances, suffered facial and head injuries in a 1975 mountain climbing accident. At the end of his song posted Monday, Williams urged people to "keep 'Fox and Friends' and ESPN out of your homes" in light of the flare-up. "Because Bocephus and all his rowdy friends -- and his song -- is outta there," he concluded. Hank Williams, Jr. (Singer) - Pics, Videos, Dating, & News In 1964, he made his recording debut with "Long Gone Lonesome Blues", one of his father's many classic songs. Williams provided the singing voice of his father in the 1964 film Your Cheatin' Heart.

… Read More He also recorded an album of duets with recordings of his father.<br /><br /> Although Williams's recordings earned him numerous country hits throughout the 1960s and early 1970s with his role as a "Hank Williams impersonator", he became disillusioned and severed ties with his mother.<br /><br /> By the mid-1970s Williams began to pursue a musical direction that would eventually make him a superstar. While recording a series of moderately successful songs, Williams began a heavy pattern of both drug and alcohol abuse. Upon moving to Alabama, in an attempt to refocus both his creative energy and his troubled personal life, Williams began playing music with Southern rock musicians including Waylon Jennings, Toy Caldwell, and Charlie Daniels. Hank Williams, Jr. and Friends (1975), often considered his watershed album was the product of these then-groundbreaking collaborations. In 1977 Williams recorded and released One Night Stands and The New South, and worked closely with his old friend Waylon Jennings on the album Once and For All.

Read Less TWENTIES 1975 26 Years Old On August 8, 1975 Williams was nearly killed in a mountain-climbing accident. … Read More While he was climbing Ajax Peak in Montana, the snow beneath him collapsed and he fell almost 500 feet onto rock. He suffered multiple skull and facial fractures. To hide the scars and the disfigurement from the accident, Williams grew a beard and began wearing sunglasses and a cowboy hat. The beard, hat, and sunglasses have since become his signature look, and he is rarely seen without them.<br /><br /> Williams's career began to hit its peak after the Nashville establishment graduallyâand somewhat reluctantlyâaccepted his new sound. His popularity had risen to levels where he could no longer be overlooked for major industry awards. He was prolific throughout the 1980s, sometimes recording and releasing two albums a year. "Family Tradition", "Whiskey Bent and Hell Bound", Habits Old and New, Rowdy, The Pressure Is On, High Notes, Strong Stuff, Man of Steel, Major Moves, Five-O, Montana Cafe, and many others resulted in a long string of hits.

Read Less THIRTIES Show Less In 1987 and 1988, Williams was named Entertainer of the Year by the Country Music Association. In 1987, 1988, and 1989, he won the same award from the Academy of Country Music. … Read More The pinnacle album of his acceptance and popularity was Born to Boogie. During the 1980s, Williams became a country music superstar known for catchy anthems and hard-edged, rock-influenced country. During the late 1970s and into the mid-1980s, Williams's songs constantly flew into the number one or number two spots, with songs such as "Family Tradition", "Whiskey Bent and Hell Bound", "Old Habits", "Ain't Misbehavin, "Born to Boogie", and "My Name Is Bocephus". Read Less The 1987 hit single Wild Streak was cowritten by Houston native Terri Sharp, for which Williams and Sharp both earned gold records. 1988 39 Years Old In 1988 he released a Southern pride song, "If the South Woulda Won".

… Read More The reference is to a Southern victory in the Civil War. The song proposes a southern holiday honoring Elvis Presley. Williams would run for president of the South. He would place the capital in Montgomery, Alabama, honoring his father, Hank Williams, Sr., with his image on the $100 bill. He also implies that in the current United States killers frequently get off too easily and calls for swift executions instead. Read Less FORTIES 1989 40 Years Old His 1989 hit "There's a Tear in My Beer" was a duet with his father created using electronic merging technology. … Read More The song was written by his father, and had been previously recorded with Hank Williams playing the guitar as the sole instrument. The music video for the song combined existing television footage of Hank Williams performing, onto which electronic merging technology impressed the recordings of Williams, which then made it appear as if he were actually playing with his father. The video was both a critical and commercial success. It was named Video of the Year by both the Country Music Association and the Academy of Country Music.

Read Less 1990 41 Years Old Williams would go on to win a Grammy Award in 1990 for Best Country Vocal Collaboration. … Read More He is well known for his hit "A Country Boy Can Survive" and as the performer of the theme song for Monday Night Football, based on his 1984 hit "All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight". Read Less FIFTIES 2001 52 Years Old In 2001, Hank co-wrote his classic hit "A Country Boy Can Survive" after 9/11, renaming it "America Can Survive". 2004 55 Years Old In 2004, Williams was featured prominently on CMT Outlaws. Show Less … The artists and songwriters named BMI Icons have had "a unique and indelible influence on generations of music makers." <br /><br />In 2011, Williams was named one of "Five Living Legends" of his native Shreveport, Louisiana, by Danny Fox (1954â2014) of KWKH radio.

Others named were Bob Griffin of KSLA and KTBS-TV and James Burton. Two other cited, Claude King and Frank Page, both died in 2013. <br /><br />Like his father, a lifelong Republican, Williams has been politically involved with the Republican Party. For the 2000 election, he redid his song "We Are Young Country" to "This is BushâCheney Country". Read Less On October 15, 2008, at a rally in Virginia Beach for Republican presidential nominee John McCain, he performed "McCainâPalin Tradition", a song in support of McCain and his vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin. In November 2008, Williams explored a run for the 2012 Republican nomination as a U.S. Senator from Tennessee for the seat held by Bob Corker, though his publicist said Williams "has talked about it, but no announcement has been made". … Read More Williams did not run, and Corker was easily reelected to a second term. Read Less On November 11, 2008, Williams was honored as a BMI Icon at the 56th annual BMI Country Awards.

LATE ADULTHOOD 2011 62 Years Old In an October 3, 2011, interview with Fox News Channel's Fox and Friends, Williams referred to a June golf game in which President Barack Obama and Republican House Speaker John Boehner had teamed against Vice President Joe Biden and Ohio Governor John Kasich, saying that match was "one of the biggest political mistakes ever". … Read More Asked about why that golf game disturbed him, Williams said, "Come on. That'd be like Hitler playing golf with Netanyahu... in the shape this country is in?" He also stated the President and Vice President are "the enemy" and compared them to "the Three Stooges". When anchor Gretchen Carlson later said to him, "You used the name of one of the most hated people in all of the world to describe, I think, the president." Williams replied, "Well, that is true.

But I'm telling you like it is." As a result of his statements, ESPN dropped Williams' opening musical number from its Monday Night Football broadcast of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers versus the Indianapolis Colts and replaced it with the national anthem.<br /><br /> Later, Williams stated his analogy was "extreme â but it was to make a point", and "Some of us have strong opinions and are often misunderstood... I was simply trying to explain how stupid it seemed to me â how ludicrous that pairing was. They're polar opposites, and it made no sense. They don't see eye-to-eye and never will." Read Less

Question: What singer, nicknamed Bocephus, sang the theme song to "Monday Night Football"?
Answer: Hank Williams Jr.