My name is Bocephus... I am a son of a gun!
Randall Hank Williams (born May 26, 1949), better known as Hank Williams Jr., is a Country Music artist. Obviously, he's the son of the legendary Hank Williams. Defying the common pattern for sons of famous musicians, Williams Jr. managed to establish a career at least as fruitful as his father's, in terms of chart and sales success, but did so on his own terms; whereas the elder Hank did so with pure honky tonk, Hank Jr. fused his father's music with Southern rock to create a sound and movement that few have equalled. His son Hank III, daughter Holly, and estranged half-sister Jett are country music artists in their own right.Early in his career, Hank Jr. sang most of his dad's material, but he eventually grew tired of imitating his father and decided to forge a sound of his own, taking cues from Southern Rock. Not surprisingly, the demons hit him pretty hard as well — pills and booze nearly drove him to suicide in 1974, but he soon regrouped. In 1975, he fell 442 feet off a Montana mountain and seriously damaged his skull and face, re-emerging in 1977 after re-learning how to sing and talk. He also grew his trademark thick beard and began wearing large dark sunglasses to hide the visible scars from his injuries and surgery.
Although it took him a while to get his career back on track, he broke through again 1979, following in the tradition of outlaw singers such as Waylon Jennings. For the rest of his career, he would balance his rock and country sound, managing to include chest-beating party anthems and sincere tributes to his father's sound in equal measure. Although he never had a Top 10 hit after 1990, he continued to release the occasional album. His backing band, The Bama Band, has also charted a few solo singles.
In 2020, Hank Jr. was elected to the Country Music Hall Of Fame, an honor many believe was long overdue.
Despite what you might have read on some websites, Hank Williams Jr. is not the father of Kid Rock. This rumor was based on a misinterpretation of a lyric sung by Williams in his collaboration with the latter. Williams' real son, Hank III, addressed this rumor in his song "Not Everybody Likes Us". He also is not related to Paramore singer Hayley Williams or to alt-country singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams.
Tropes about Hank Jr. himself:
- Artistic License – History: He references both his severe addiction and his near-fatal accident in "Family Tradition", but places them both in 1973, because "1975" didn't work for the rhyme.Lordy, I have loved some ladies, and I have loved Jim Beam
And they both tried to kill me in 1973
When that doctor asked me "Son, how'd you get in this condition?"
I said, "Hey, sawbones, I'm just carrying on an old family tradition." - Audience Participation Song: "Family Tradition" became one over the years, with the crowds responding to the questions in the chorus.Hank: They get on me, wanna know, "Hank, why do you drink?"Audience: To get drunk!Hank: "Hank, why do you roll smoke?"Audience: To get stoned!
- Child Prodigy: Had his first hit at 14, and his first #1 country hit at 21 (which for a long time made him the youngest male artist to do so).
- Generation Xerox: A very literal example at first, but eventually developed his own style while still paying respect to his father.
- Gun Nut / Manly Men Can Hunt: According to Kid Rock, Hank's biggest three passions are hunting, collecting guns, and making music.
- I Have Many Names: There's his birth name Randall Hank Williams, his performing name Hank Williams Jr., and his longstanding nickname Bocephusnote (which he even used to release some early Rock-tinged singles to avoid alienating his country fans), then he also released some early material as Luke the Drifter Jr., and played some shows under the name Rockin' Randall when he first began experimenting with Southern Rock.
- In the Blood: Became a country music superstar along with abusing alcohol and drugs like his father. His song "Family Tradition" lampshades thisI am very proud of my daddy's name
Although his kind of music and mine ain't exactly the same
Stop and think it over, put yourself in my position
If I get stoned and sing all night long, it's a family traditon - Non-Actor Vehicle: At age 19 he starred in the 1968 film A Time to Sing, an Elvis-like musical drama about
a young country singer, with the likes of Shelley Fabares, Ed Begley and D'Urville Martin around to do the heavier lifting when it came to acting. - Sunglasses at Night: It's rare that you see Hank without sunglasses, regardless of what time it is. He started wearing them to hide the scars after the mountain-climbing accident (along with growing a beard and wearing a cowboy hat), and they quickly became a trademark.
- Signature Style: He likes to write about the South, a lot. Usually in the form of thumping uptempos.
Tropes from/about Hank Jr.'s music:
- Call-Back: "All My Rowdy Friends Have Settled Down" is referenced in "All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight" and "Born to Boogie".
- Cover Version: He did a whole bunch of his father's songs, especially in his early years, but he also had hits with "Kaw-Liga" and "Mind Your Own Business" in The '80s. By that point he was writing most of his material, but he'd still do a wide variety of covers, even scoring a #1 country hit with a faithful take on "Ain't Misbehavin'".
- Domestic Abuse: The third verse of "Attitude Adjustment" mentions the narrator and his wife beating each other up.
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- Just about anything before the late 70s — he hadn't yet found his Southern rock and outlaw influences, so most of his earlier stuff is more mainstream countrypolitan and/or covers of his dad. Even though he had early #1 hits with "Eleven Roses" and "All for the Love of Sunshine," they are at total odds with his signature sound ("Sunshine" is a gospel-tinged waltz tempo love ballad, "Eleven Roses" is in the vein of the songs George Jones was doing in The '70s).
- His first Rock-styled song, 1967's "Meter Reader Maid" (released as a single credited to Bocephus, and a big local hit in Nashville that got a small bit of Top 40 radio play elsewhere) is a Soul-influenced novelty song with Hank singing in scratchy, nasal voice.
- Hand Cannon: Invoked in the first verse of "I Got Rights":I said, "Gimme one of them Smith and Wesson magnum 44s"
- Massive Multiplayer Crossover:
- His cover of his father's "Mind Your Own Business" had Reba McEntire, Tom Petty, Reverend Ike, and Willie Nelson.
- His 1988 single "Young Country" featured several up-and-comers and also-rans: Butch Baker, Steve Earle, Highway 101, Dana McVicker, Marty Stuart, Keith Whitley, and T. Graham Brown. (Incidentally, Marty Stuart joined Hank Jr. as a 2020 Country Music Hall Of Fame inductee.)
- New Sound Album: Blues My Name in 1966 was his first album where he tried to perform in a contemporary Nashville style, rather than just imitate his dad or do older country throwbacks (though he still did those for a while afterwards). Hank Williams Jr. and Friends in 1975 was his first Rock-influenced album, and Family Tradition in 1979 (his first album for Elektra Records) was where his idiosyncratic mix of outlaw country, traditional country and Southern Rock finally got fully-formed.
- Off on a Technicality: Directly cited in "I Got Rights" about the murderer.I'll never forget the way he looked all through the trial
He had his big-name lawyer and he had that smirky smile
Yeah, he got you off on a technicality
But you'll have to grow wings and fly to ever get away from me - Old Man Conversation Song: He crossed this with Country Star Song, Write What You Know and Exactly What It Says on the Tin early in his career with 1968's "I Was With Red Foley (The Night He Passed Away)", a recitation credited to Luke the Drifter Jr., where he talks about how he and Foley (a big country star in The '50s who was also a longtime close Williams family friend) had a talk in a Fort Wayne, Indiana hotel after they did a package show together, only for Foley to die in his sleep later that night.So he came over to my room, he was just next door there
Lit a cigarette and sat down in the chair
And he started talkin' bout all the worries that a country music singer has
I said "awww Red, I reckon it's not that bad"
He said "yeah, you're workin' a lot now and you'll have 'em someday
Your dad had 'em, and I have 'em, I guess it's just meant that way" - Posthumous Collaboration:
- The 1969 album Songs My Father Left Me had Hank Jr. add music to several sets of lyrics that Hank Sr. left behind. One of the songs, "Cajun Baby", became one of his biggest hits in the early part of his career.
- "There's a Tear in My Beer", which incorporated a vocal track recorded by his father. The video digitally inserted Hank Jr. into a performance of Sr.'s with a rather obvious CGI-inserted mouth over Hank Sr's to have him singing this song.
- The entire album Three Hanks: Men with Broken Hearts, using Hank Sr.'s vocal tracks, and newly recorded vocals by Hank Jr. and Hank III.
- Repurposed Pop Song: "All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight" was repurposed by ABC for Monday Night Football.
- Rearrange the Song: "A Country Boy Can Survive". He released a Y2K version in late 1999 (featuring Chad Brock, John Anderson,note and George Jones), a re-written patriotic version ("America Will Survive") after 9/11, and re-released the original recording in 2007.
- Sequel Song: "All My Rowdy Friends Have Settled Down" begat "All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight" and its repurposed version for Monday Night Football.
- Singer Name Drop: He namedrops his nickname, "Bocephus", in many of his songs. Example from "Born to Boogie": "Well, my name is Bocephus, I drink whiskey by the gallon."
- Vocal Evolution: His voice was a lot higher and smoother on his early "countrypolitan" material.
- Visit by Divorced Dad: "Custody", his biggest hit under his Luke the Drifter Jr. alias, is narrated by a father lamenting how he doesn't get to live with his young daughter anymore, he can only visit her sometimes.
