On August 8, 1975, Williams was nearly killed in a mountain-climbing accident in southwestern Montana. September 14, 2021, 5:02 am, by Jackie Treehorn After the accident and recovery, Hank Williams Jr. would become one of the most successful country music artists in history by mixing elements of traditional country with Southern rock, just as hed planned to before the accident. Saw him in Columbus, GA in 1980. During the fall, Hank Jr.s head impacted on several rocks jutting out from the snow field, and then he landed face first on a boulder. Looking to clear his mind and hopefully help find the inner voice he needed to persevere on his new career path, Hank Jr. took a retreat to Montana before a big tour was scheduled to commence. Sadly, the "Family Tradition" artist recently lost one of his daughters in a tragic car crash on Saturday evening. We started a redneck punk band called Hellstomper back in 94. He has a beautiful voice, and he gives his fans a great show. I agree, Dinosaur and Whisky Bent and Hell Bound are two of my favorite country songs. #5. 9. Both of my son-in-laws and grandsons, and 127 Alabama doves. August 10, 2015 @ About 1,000 feet below the summit, the two friends came to a snow field, but as Williams crossed it, the snow suddenly gave way under his feet. Williams Jr.'s celebration of down-home country grit hit No. 9. 3. When I finally got a car that had a CD player instead of a tape player one of the first things I did was go out and buy that album. 4. Hank Jr. fell nearly five hundred feet. Old School, Fuzzy TwoShirts Just a quick correction, though: the accident occurred on August 8, not October 8. On the way down, he says that he felt his head hit a boulder and heard the thud that his head made. On August 8, 1975, Williams Jr, who was 26 at the time. Since the location of Hanks fall was so remote, it took many hours to rescue him as he laid on the side of the mountain, clinging to life. Scotty J August 10, 2015 @ 10:41 am. Im most thankful, however, that Jr. led me to Hank 3 who, as a metalhead myself, has somehow transformed me into a total country music nut. The blood was coming out and I grabbed my face and there wasnt any face there, hardly I had a great big hole from my nose up to my hairline, is what it amounted to. Also loved the new south, great album. The most satisfying thing was knowing that I could do it and that the fans were liking it maybe not the industry folks, but the fans were connecting with the sounds and the songs., Editors picks Some high society lady says is your horse outside.. Curt Woods However, it wasnt just a fashion decision. 10:36 pm, Brian Davis On This Day: Hank Williams Jr. Has Near-Fatal Mountain Climbing Accident in 1975. 10:46 am. Facts Verse I like how Merle and Jr. traded songs in 80 and 81. But Jr is real close. I'm curious, does anybody know which route good 'ol Hank was on and were exactly on the route he fell? I thought, no telling what loud, noisy music this girl will play. Its August 8th, 1975, and the career of an important country music star carrying one of the most famous names in American music is at a crossroads. Jrs going to get in as certain as pickled red hots in a barrel. He grew a beard and donned sunglasses and a cowboy hat for public appearances to cover the scars on his face and head, and though these were initially only practical accessories, they became part of his signature look when he returned to performing. At age 15, Williams had his first Top 5 hit on the country charts with a cover of his father's . Hank Williams Jr. tried and failed to get up and walk away from where he laid. He set the remainder of Bocephus face in order and wrapped the singers head in his shirt. Sadly, just three months after Hank Jrs accident. I could not count the teens I knew who really disliked most if not all country music until Hank Williams Jr. came along. Tried to share this and get you some views. October 15, 2016 @ Williams was a country legend whose life had collapsed. In 1989, he told reporters that he still had dreams about the accident. The fatal head-on collision occurred as she drove along Banner Road. Bocephus music has given me great pleasure and comfort over the years. As of 2022, the age Hank is 73 years old and his zodiac sign is Gemini. It was a big turning point in my career, he tells Rolling Stone Country of the LP. He changed his appearance to cover up the scars he earned when he fell off of Ajax Peak in Montana back in 1975. But the shows [] More, You might remember her as Mindy in the off-beat yet endearing 70s and 80s sitcom Mork and Mindy. My first country music concert was Bocephus and Waylon Jennings. Williams survived a serious fall while hiking in 1975. He did, but Jrs interpretation was the first I heard and I still think of it as being one of his songs. Hank Jr was in Corpus Christi Texas back in the the mid-90s he was booed off-stage he was drunk high and very disrespectful but Charlie Daniels was there for a great concert. So I would go out there and sing Your Cheatin Heart, and Hey, Good Lookin, and the people would go crazy, he recalls. We almost lost Hank Williams Jr. forty-six years ago today. Also, thank you for writing this article and your contributions to trying to Save Country Music. Of course they were expecting to get the new version of the old Hank, and thats what they received. He went on to record dozens of albums and singles, with his most recent being 2016s Its About Time. Hank Sr would sadly die in the backseat of his Cadillac while en route to a show in the early hours of New Years Day 1953. Country music legend Hank Williams Jr. has said his wife, Mary Jane Thomas, is the love of his life and they share a real-life fairytale that began in 1992 . Im not a huge fan of his All My Rowdy this and that songs, but Have Settled Down is a good song. August 10, 2015 @ BUT this is a forum about music: My response to your top ten list is as follows In that interview, he speaks frankly about the moments right after the fall. And before you go, be sure to show us a little support by giving this video a like and by subscribing to Facts Verse if you havent already. His face was split open down the middle, hairline to chin as if struck with an axe. She was 27 years old. The country legend recently signed a contract with Nash Icon Records and is ready to surprise fans once again. His 1975 album Hank Williams Jr. and Friends introduced fans to a new sound from the singer, who had previously followed more in the vein of his famous father. 7:16 pm. It shows Hank Jr. along with one of his sons and three of his grandchildren with their trophy after a successful deer hunt. Remember this one: Dress Like an Icon,' he teases. The son of the country music legend Hank Jr. was 3 years old when Hiram King "Hank" Williams, the one who nicknamed his son "Bocephus," died of heart failure Jan. 1, 1953 was born in. Facts Verse Cher But the thing that weighed heaviest on her heart before her death was her sons accident which nearly took his life. 8:36 am. He did, however, spend two years recovering from his injuries as well as the surgeries he endured to repair them. The song was a song called I Broke Wahoos Leg. It was a scary time.". Let alone talk. Williams slipped and fell about 500 feet, sustaining "serious head injuries as he. On Aug. 8, Williams, then 26, and a friend went hiking along rugged terrain near Ajax Lake in search of goats. Isbell is an insufferable point-dexter about his silly political beliefs. View this post on Instagram Texas Women, is my favorite. Fuzzy TwoShirts 9:24 am. August 10, 2015 @ Katherine Williams-Dunning, the. Her husband, Tyler Dunning, was the passenger in the vehicle and they were towing a boat. RELATED: 10 Fascinating Facts About Hank Williams Jr. August 10, 2015 @ August 9, 2015 @ Junior may technically be the better singer but no one sings with more true emotion than Sr. did. Keep it coming, Trigger Williams was born with a mild undiagnosed case of spina bifida occulta, a disorder . Twenty-four hours after admitting we loved each other, I became a monster on a mountainside with most of my face gone, the singer tellsPeoplemagazine. And break away he did. Director Dick Lowry Writers Joseph The Blues Man 8:30 am. Hank Williams Jr. reflects on his career-changing 1975 album and a near deadly fall off a Montana mountain. 6:34 pm. 3:01. So say what u wish but I challenge anyone to tell me another act that was playing shows with patsy cline can headine a 15000 seat arena in 2015, Dan D. May 22, 2020 @ I never knew if I would sing again or not, talk again or not, let alone think about what I was going to look like. So we were sitting around writing for my last album Wordsmith. Tragic accidents have marked the timeline of country music like little else. The 100 Greatest TV Shows of All Time 20,768. It was the moment Hank Jr. broke free from the preconceptions of who he should be as a musician, and began to forge his own path. Im no huge Oak Ridge Boys fan, but Milsap is one of the best singers in country music history. When I fell, there were only two people I saw when I woke up in the hospital bed, and that was Johnny and June, Williams recalls. Hassan His mid-70s to late 80s output is great. He was the son ofHank Williams andAudrey Mae Sheppard Williams, both of whom were renowned musicians of their times. On August 8th, 1975, he fell close to 500 feet while climbing Ajax Mountain in Montana. He signed to his first record deal when he was 14 and earned a number-five hit in 1964 with a cover of his fathers signature tune; Long Gone Lonesome Blues. Artists like Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Fats Domino stepped in to teach him about music and how to play different instruments. "Twenty-four hours after admitting we loved each other, I became a monster on a mountainside with most of my face gone," Williams Jr. tellsPeople magazine. The two men were searching for goats at about 2 P.M. on that Saturday afternoon at about a 9,000-foot elevation when Hank Jr. slipped on a snow field covering the side of the mountain, and fell 500 feet. August 10, 2015 @ His style began to change on 1975s Hank Williams Jr. and Friends, a musically adventurous fusion of country, blues and Southern rock. Jr. has the greatest singing voice I think Ive ever heardso evident in those late 70s/early 80s years . Hank Williams Jr Wife: Accident Crash Video CCTV# The accident occurred on the outskirts of Nashville, Tennessee. I dont mind an artist recording a political song, but it should be buried as an album track, and I dont think an artist should use their celebrity status to advance a political agenda. 75 Comments. She and Mother were very tight. She had been facing financial struggles, and her home had been seized by the IRS for failure to pay taxes, but her son's near-death experience reportedly weighed heaviest on her. He was driving Hank Williams, 29, who died that night. She was 27. Hats off to Hank Jr. for making it through it all and making his own name. 10:05 pm. On August 8, 1975, Bocephus was hiking on Ajax Peak in Beaverhead County, Montana. 7: Forged by Fire According to Fox News, Williams' sister Katie passed away on June 13, 2020, after a car accident. In 1976, Hank opened up about his fall in an interview where he spoke frankly about the moments right after he lost his footing. I know he takes a lot of flak from some folks but man he did go through a hell of a lot. He spent two years in recovery from his mountain climbing accident in 1975. Hank Williams Jr spent most of the early days of his career living in the giant shadow of his legendary father. On the evening of Dec. 30, 1952, the restless, rail-thin 29-year-old tossed . 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Born Randall Hank Williams on May 26, 1949, in Shreveport, Louisiana, to father Hank Williams and mother Audrey, Hank Jr. Immersed in the musical world from the day he was born. But things took a dark turn shortly after that when he started struggling with drugs and alcohol just as his father had. While scaling Ajax Peak in Montana, the snow under Williams' feet gave way, and he fell crashing face first into a boulder 500 feet below. Hank eventually lost all of his teeth, his gums were virtually gone, his right eye was hanging out of its socket, and parts of his brain were exposed through his skull. Wow. I looked at my hands first. And he started calling his new bouncing baby boy Bocephus after a ventriloquist dummy that comedian Rod Brasfield used while performing at the Grand Ole Opry. Chris and me have been playing and writing music since we were in high school. Thankfully, Williams survived. The daughter of country singer-songwriter Hank Williams Jr. was killed in a car crash in Tennessee on Saturday night. What happened to Hank Williams Jr face? Standing in the Shadows I think along with Dinasour, Whiskey Bent & Hell Bound, Family Tradition & Country Boy Can Survive are my top five and the Rowdy Album was my favorite. August 10, 2015 @ Merle did I Dont Have Anymore Love Songs For You and Jr. answered with Footlights. Lawremce Smith Coroner. Mary Jane Thomas, the wife of country singer Hank Williams Jr., died from a collapsed lung just one day after having liposuction surgery, officials said. Milsap is a legend and up there with greatest country voices of all time. Grew up on Hank Jr, he was by far my favorite artist and was a member of his fan club for 10 years. Hank Williams Jr now keeps a beard and wears glasses to hide the scars on his face. She was 27. Stories like these make us value and appreciate these artists even more than ever. Feeling Better Ive been shot, cut up, and hurt before, and I looked at my hands immediately. Totally stunned that she played Texas Women, was ready to propose to her. yeah, him and Charlie Daniels have both become pretty insufferable with their incessant natterings on political this and thats. Photos and Premium High Res Pictures - Getty Images CREATIVE EDITORIAL VIDEO All Sports Entertainment News Archival Browse 2,721 hank williams jr. stock photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more stock photos and images. 3:04 pm. As I got older and started to realize that I needed to create my own sound and identity, it took people back. The 27-year-old was . It took plastic surgeons two years to reconstruct the shattered bones and torn flesh; and . When help arrived, they found the front of Hank Jr.s head was split and fractured from his chin to his hairline. In the second verse I spit-out I went mountain climbing with old bocephus and I pushed him down I looked across at Chris with my I dont know what comes next look on my face. And by 1966 the younger Hank had signed a recording contract with MGM. But since the location Hank Jr. was in was in such remote country, six men had to hike to Hank Jr.s location, and carry him a 1/4 mile to where the helicopter could land. Shastacatfish The first thing that he did after reaching the ground below was look at his hands. Falling a reported 500 feet onto rock after the snow beneath his feet gave way, Williams sustained multiple . Rock stars are infamous for their insatiable appetites for all things in excess. Its probably selfish on my part to wish that artists (and athletes and movie stars) keep their politics to themselves. 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