Hank was featured in Ken Burns’ “Country Music” miniseries. He looked frail, thin and unhealthy in so many of the photos. His facial skin looked like dress pattern tissue—thin and wrinkly, pale.
I was stunned to learn that he was only 29 years old when he died—he looked like a sickly man in his forties. Like Elvis and Michael Jackson, he was surrounded by enablers and had a fake doctor who gave him all kinds of dangerous drugs.
I remember as a kid hearing my dad playing his Hank Williams records. I would look at the album covers, and there’s no way I would have thought Hank was 29 when he died. I know people looked older back then, after going through the depression and WW2, but Hank really looked like he’d been through the wringer. I remember as a kid going and seeing the George Hamilton biopic of Hank Wiiliams in the 60’s.
Yes, he suffered from spina bifida that caused him tremendous back pain and he drank to kill the pain, but the problem was he drank so much it damaged his heart and then he got into the pain pills and his heart couldn’t handle it and he died in the back seat of a car. I never even heard of him if you can believe it until last month. A friend of mine turned me on to him and I cannot get enough of this guy, every freakin’ song is amazing. I heard of songs before like “Hey good lookin” and “Your cheatin heart” but I always thought they were songs from the 1800s or something. The guy was an amazing writer and singer.
Yes and thanks for mentioning that Country music miniseries, I’ll check it out.