Moving to Alabama, Williams began playing music with Southern rock musicians Toy Caldwell, Marshall Tucker Band and Charlie Daniels, and others. While recording a series of hit songs, Williams began abusing drugs, including alcohol and eventually tried to commit suicide in 1974.

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. 1 songs: 'All For the Love of Sunshine' (1970, featured on the soundtrack to Kelly's Heroes) and 'Eleven Roses' (1972).īy the mid-1970s, Williams had finally found the musical direction that would, eventually, make him a superstar. The song signalled a move to rock and roll and other influences as he stepped from the shadow of his father.Īlso during this time, Williams had his first two No. hit the charts with one of his own compositions, 'Standing in the Shadows'. After recording the soundtrack to Your Cheatin' Heart, a biography of his father, Williams, Jr. 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.Īlthough 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. Audrey, in many ways, wished for young Hank to be nothing more than a 'Hank Williams, Sr. 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. He began performing when eight years old, and in 1963 made his recording debut with 'Lone Gone Lonesome Blues', a staple of his father's career. Born Randall Hank Williams in Shreveport, Louisiana, and known by the nickname Bocephus (a name given to him by his father because he thought his son as a baby resembled a TV ventriloquist dummy named Bocephus), he was raised by his mother Audrey after his father's death in 1953.

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