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Speaker 1: Disgraceland as a production of Double Elvis. The stories about

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Speaker 1: Hank Williams are insane. He drunkenly fired rounds into his

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Speaker 1: own home and didn't think twice about where he aimed.

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Speaker 1: He was repeatedly pummeled to a pulp by police officers,

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Speaker 1: fellow musicians, and anyone else who was foolish enough to

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Speaker 1: pick a fight with. His benders often lasted the better

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Speaker 1: part of a week as he drifted in between bars

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Speaker 1: and stints at the sanatorium. His hours spent in the

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Speaker 1: local drunk tank exceeded his number of hit songs, and

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Speaker 1: Hank Williams logged a lot of hit songs. He established

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Speaker 1: a distinct line between folk and quote unquote country and Western,

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Speaker 1: a new fangle genre. He helped pioneer with his signature

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Speaker 1: yodel in blue collar blues. He didn't shape the face

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Speaker 1: of country. He is the face of country. And it's

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Speaker 1: because Hank Williams made great music, some of the greatest

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Speaker 1: music ever made. Unlike that music I played for you

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Speaker 1: at the top of the show that wasn't great music.

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Speaker 1: That was a preset loop from my mellotron called Schlock

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Speaker 1: around the Clock MK One. I played you that loop

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Speaker 1: because I can't afford the rights to off Wheederson Sweetheart

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Speaker 1: by Vera Lynn, And why would I play you that

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Speaker 1: specific slice of drowsy deutsch Land Cheese?

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Speaker 2: Could I afford it?

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Speaker 1: Because that was the number one song in America on

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Speaker 1: August eleventh, nineteen fifty two, And that was the day

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Speaker 1: Hank Williams was fired from the Grand Old Aubry, sending

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Speaker 1: him further down a spiral of alcoholism and shattering his

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Speaker 1: greatest dream. On this episode, week long Benders, Stints at

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Speaker 1: the Sanatorium, blue collar blues, shattered dreams in the face

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Speaker 1: of country music, Hank Williams, I'm Jake Brennan and this

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Speaker 1: is Disgraceland. Hank Williams was drunk, plastered, actually, and his

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Speaker 1: wife Audrey, was not happy about it. Neither were his

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Speaker 1: touring partners on the Louisiana Hay Ride. This was supposed

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Speaker 1: to be a family event, a picnic a little north

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Speaker 1: of Shreveport at cattle Lake, egg hunts, roasted wieners, sack

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Speaker 1: races for the kids, that sort of thing. But there

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Speaker 1: was also a tub of beer and a bottle of

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Speaker 1: tranquilizers and nasal and hailers boosted by Ben's a dream.

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Speaker 1: Hank Williams was into all of it that weekend, which

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Speaker 1: came as a surprise to those who knew Hank. This

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Speaker 1: weekend was for the kids, and Hank was normally more

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Speaker 1: discerning and choosing his drunks. Usually they were while he

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Speaker 1: was away from his young family, his wife, Audrey and

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Speaker 1: her daughter from another marriage, Lucretia. Let something set him

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Speaker 1: off this weekend, most likely Audrey. Hank Williams was the

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Speaker 1: type of drunk who controlled his alcoholism and fits and starts.

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Speaker 1: He'd go long stretches of time without a drink, and

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Speaker 1: then when the notion took him, he'd have a beer,

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Speaker 1: then quickly another, then some whiskey, and pretty soon he'd

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Speaker 1: forget he was drinking, and he'd go on forgetting and

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Speaker 1: drinking for the next three to six days until someone

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Speaker 1: either hauled him out of whatever local drunk tank was

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Speaker 1: nearest or to the nearest local sanatorium.

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Speaker 2: To dry out.

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Speaker 1: Then Hank would fly sober for a bit, fall victim

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Speaker 1: to the drink soon enough, and right back into the

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Speaker 1: same routine, repeat, repeat, repeat. It made for a hard life,

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Speaker 1: made achieving his dream of performing on the Grand Old Opry,

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Speaker 1: especially hard, but it made for great songwriting. The darkness

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Speaker 1: Hank Williams tapped into for the songs he wrote and

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Speaker 1: performed came from some sort of place that previous country

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Speaker 1: musicians had yet to mine.

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Speaker 2: He knew it, even when others didn't.

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Speaker 1: Like Fred Rose, Hank's music publisher, Rose knew his shit,

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Speaker 1: especially when it came to recording hit songs. He had

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Speaker 1: seriously elevated roy Acuff's profile, after all, and roy Acuff

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Speaker 1: was the model for Hank, a smoky Mountain country singer

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Speaker 1: whose star had seriously ascended and left a major shine

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Speaker 1: on old Hank. Hank loved roy Acuff, and Hank loved

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Speaker 1: the new tune he was fiddling with in the studio

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Speaker 1: on Fred Rose's dime. But Fred didn't believe in the

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Speaker 1: tune love Sick Blues, the old Emma Miller song.

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Speaker 2: Only Hank did. Emmett pulled the.

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Speaker 1: Song from some old tin pan alley poser and made

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Speaker 1: a country Hank made it hillbilly, but Fred Rose didn't care.

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Speaker 1: Fred didn't want to record it, neither really did the

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Speaker 1: session players Fred had hired to back Hank on that

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Speaker 1: recording session. But Hank knew his version of the song

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Speaker 1: had something, so Hank dug in. He was mulelike in

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Speaker 1: his insistence, and this may have been a fred Rose

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Speaker 1: finance production, but Hank was the artist. They recorded Love

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Speaker 1: Sick Blues last without much thought. The first take breezed by,

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Speaker 1: and fred Rose was so offended by the unconventional timing

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Speaker 1: Hank had insisted on it to match the natural length

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Speaker 1: of his yodeling rather than any conventional songwriting meter, that

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Speaker 1: fred Rose decided to leave the studio in hopes that

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Speaker 1: this whole debacle would just go away before he returned.

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Speaker 2: It didn't go away.

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Speaker 1: Hank and the band nailed the song on the second take,

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Speaker 1: and when they were done, no one in the room

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Speaker 1: knew what Hank Williams knew that they had just recorded.

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Speaker 1: Hank Williams's first smash hit, Love Sick Blues rocketed up

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Speaker 1: the charts. Hank and his band, The Drifting Cowboys would

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Speaker 1: close with the song and audiences would lose their collective mind.

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Speaker 1: They'd insist Hank play it again and again and again.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes the band would play the song at the ends

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Speaker 1: of their sets up to seven times in a row

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Speaker 1: to get the crowd to finally settle down.

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Speaker 2: Hank Williams's version.

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Speaker 1: Of Love Sick Blues had something that no other country

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Speaker 1: song had. Hank would tell you it's quote unquote hillbilly,

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Speaker 1: meaning it's a perfect meld of folk and blues. But

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Speaker 1: it's more than that. There's a drive to it. The

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Speaker 1: drive is very much intentional. The song takes you somewhere,

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Speaker 1: but does so with loose abandon. Hank's yodels are less

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Speaker 1: woe is Me and more life affirming, as if he's saying, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I'm love sick, but so what.

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Speaker 2: At least that lived.

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Speaker 1: Love Sick Blues made Hank Williams the premier performer on

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Speaker 1: the Louisiana hay Ride back in the late nineteen forties.

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Speaker 1: The Louisiana hay Ride was the farm team to the

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Speaker 1: Big League Grand Old Opry, and the hay Ride launched

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Speaker 1: not only Hank Williams, but country stars Webb Peers, Kitty Wells,

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Speaker 1: and eventually, after Hank had long since moved on from

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Speaker 1: the Traveling Jamboree, the Louisiana Hayride gave Johnny Cash and

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Speaker 1: Elvis Presley their starts as well. But the hay Ride

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Speaker 1: for Hank Williams was never meant to be a long

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Speaker 1: term play. It was just a step toward his near

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Speaker 1: term goal of being invited to perform regularly on the

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Speaker 1: grand Ole Opry. The Opry was, without a doubt, for

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Speaker 1: country musicians the big leagues. The Opry was where legends

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Speaker 1: began and where legends stayed forever. Membership meant lifelong status

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Speaker 1: next to the best in the business, Roy Acuff, Minnie Pearl,

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Speaker 1: Ernest Tubb, Red Foley. There was no higher privileged country

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Speaker 1: music than to entertain at that level to thousands of

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Speaker 1: homes over WSM's far reaching airwaves every week. But the

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Speaker 1: challenge of the grand Ole Opry seemed to weighs off

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Speaker 1: right now. Hank Williams's biggest challenge was his wife, Audrey.

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Speaker 1: The chair flew across the cattle lake cabin. It nearly

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Speaker 1: missed Hank's head. He was drunk, unable to react, so

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Speaker 1: he got lucky the legs of the small wooden chair

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Speaker 1: bust off its seat when it missed him and hit

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Speaker 1: the wide wood paneled floor. Audrey was undeterred and not

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Speaker 1: any less pissed at Hank for ruining their family getaway.

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Speaker 1: The Williamses had a reputation to uphold, didn't Hank know

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Speaker 1: that Audrey had her own singing career to think about.

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Speaker 1: Didn't Hank know that Hank Williams didn't know shit. So

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Speaker 1: Audrey Williams did her best Warren spawn and rocketed the

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Speaker 1: glass tumbler at Hank's belly. Hank took it in stride

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Speaker 1: as the air spurret it out of his lungs from

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Speaker 1: the impact of the hard glassware. He fell back on

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Speaker 1: the cheap cabin's sofa and laughed to himself, obliterated yet again.

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Speaker 1: When he awoke finally, whether it was the next morning,

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Speaker 1: or the morning after that, or the morning after that,

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Speaker 1: Hank woke to good news. Love Sick Blues had paid off.

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Speaker 1: The song owned the charts in nineteen five nine, and

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Speaker 1: the Grand Old Opry had noticed. Hank didn't quite have

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Speaker 1: an invitation. He had a meeting with the WSM program director.

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Speaker 1: Based on the strength of that meeting, and perhaps so

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Speaker 1: Lord Hank Hope not in audition, then Hank would maybe

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Speaker 1: be invited to perform as part of the Grand Old Opry.

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Speaker 1: Hank was on his way, stretched out in the back

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Speaker 1: of his American sedan with his bandmates up front.

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Speaker 2: Hank's back eight.

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Speaker 1: He tried extending his lanky legs to take some of

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Speaker 1: the pressure off his back. As far back as he

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Speaker 1: could remember, his back was an issue, and today was

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Speaker 1: worse than normal. The car ride from Hank's current home

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Speaker 1: in Shreveport, Louisiana, to Nashville was going to be a bear,

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Speaker 1: and there were pills that, no doubt, whiskey along the

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Speaker 1: way to help Delva Paine. But whiskey and pills presented

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Speaker 1: their own complications, diminishing returns. Hank knew this. He knew

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Speaker 1: he needed to be sober for the Opry. He leaned

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Speaker 1: back in the back seat and listened to the radio WSFA,

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Speaker 1: the station that helped launch Hank Williams. Hank had been

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Speaker 1: performing live on the station since nineteen thirty six. It

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Speaker 1: was his first taste to professionalism, and it was his

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Speaker 1: unprofessionalism that led to his departure from the station. No

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Speaker 1: skin off his back. WSFA was small potatoes. The Grand

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Speaker 1: Ole Opry was his destiny. Hank closed his eyes and

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Speaker 1: let the gravel grind of the rubber meeting the road

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Speaker 1: lull him to sleep. The dream would keep him company,

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Speaker 1: it always did. It wasn't scary anymore, not like it

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Speaker 1: was when he was a kid. Hank felt a sharp

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Speaker 1: surge of pain shoot through his back and thought, just

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Speaker 1: hold on, It'll be all right.

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Speaker 2: It isn't my time. It's only a dream. Death is

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Speaker 2: only a dream.

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Speaker 1: Eleven year old Hank Williams was transported. He learned this

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Speaker 1: song as a hymn in his own Sunday school lessons.

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Speaker 1: The version he learned was nothing like the version floating

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Speaker 1: through the Alabama breeze right now, drifting on the back

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Speaker 1: of the Southern wind from the open windows of the

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Speaker 1: black church located down the road from Hank's mother's boarding house.

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Speaker 1: Death is only a dream. The words took him somewhere else,

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Speaker 1: away from the pain, the pain in his back spina bifida.

187
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Speaker 1: The adult said, whatever that was, why should we weep

188
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Speaker 1: when weary ones rest in the bosom of Jesus Supreme?

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Speaker 1: Even at eleven, that sounded like a better deal.

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Speaker 2: To Hank. It sounded like peace, which was a far

191
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Speaker 2: cry from what.

192
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Speaker 1: He was experiencing. His father was gone, ill, they said, disabled,

193
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Speaker 1: unable to provide. His mother was all he had, and

194
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Speaker 1: she was busy trying to make a living, setting up

195
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Speaker 1: a boarding house. Springing in transience, those passing through, Some

196
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Speaker 1: overstayed their welcome. Ramblers, gamblers, women, lots of women, experienced women.

197
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Speaker 1: Some of the boys in town talked. What were those

198
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Speaker 1: women up to? What exactly did they do for work?

199
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Speaker 1: Over at old Hank's mother's place. Hank didn't know, but

200
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Speaker 1: he wished the rumors weren't there, but there.

201
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Speaker 2: Was little he could do about it. Same as the

202
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Speaker 2: pain in his back, it wasn't going anywhere.

203
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Speaker 1: He learned to live with it. The music helped, listening

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Speaker 1: to it, even playing it. His mother took some of

205
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Speaker 1: that boarding house money and sent Hank to singing school.

206
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Speaker 1: He learned out of shape notes in his mouth how

207
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Speaker 1: to take those hymns he heard drifting through the Alabama countryside.

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Speaker 1: It meld them into something that suited him, that kept

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Speaker 1: him occupied, and that was enough for the moment that

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Speaker 1: in the alcohol alcohol, hooch, white lightning, moonshine, whatever. It

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Speaker 1: was hard to come by for an eleven year old,

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Speaker 1: but there was plenty around rural Alabama if he knew

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Speaker 1: where to look. Just follow the loggers. The local blue

214
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Speaker 1: collar workers would stash their bottles in the woods on

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Speaker 1: the way to work and pick them up on their

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Speaker 1: way out. In the meantime, Hank would raid their stash

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Speaker 1: and hit various bottles to make his head spin. That

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Speaker 1: he'd sit and strum the guitar his mother had given him,

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Speaker 1: an attempt to mouth the hymns. He'd become familiar with

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Speaker 1: all of it, the high of the alcohol, the thrill

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Speaker 1: of the illicit take, the music. It was a perfect

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Speaker 1: distraction from the physical pain and the confusion of early adolescents.

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Speaker 1: And then Hank met Tea Todd. Tee Todd was a

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Speaker 1: black Alabama street musician whose real name was Rufus Payne.

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Speaker 1: Tee Tat was young Hank Williams's two obsessions, music and

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Speaker 1: alcohol personified. The name tee Tot was a silly, ironic

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Speaker 1: pawn on the word teetotaling. Tee Tot was seldom found

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Speaker 1: without a bottle of homebrewed hooch in an array of

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Speaker 1: home fashioned instruments. He'd take to perform as a one

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Speaker 1: man band. Cymbals strapped to his knees, stopboard under his foot,

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Speaker 1: harp around his neck, guitar and hands, singing.

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Speaker 2: To the heavens.

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Speaker 1: Local kids were plenty amused and took to following Tee

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Speaker 1: Tot all over what young Hank Williams was the only

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Speaker 1: one among them who wanted to do more than listen.

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Speaker 1: He wanted to learn. Where and how Tee Tot learned

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Speaker 1: his craft is a matter of debate, but most places

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Speaker 1: musical education to New Orleans early twentieth century, Gone of

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Speaker 1: the jazz age. Tee Tot swung lazy. Tee Tot also

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00:14:53,440 --> 00:14:56,240
Speaker 1: drove hard. Te Tot hit you with that sock rhythm.

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Speaker 1: Te Tot hit him high. Te Tot hit him low.

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Speaker 1: Tea Tot rocked, rolled. Tee Tot roiled those emotions, those

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Speaker 1: sneaky feelings.

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Speaker 2: Tee Tot connected.

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Speaker 1: Hank Williams took note, and by the time he was

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Speaker 1: sixteen and had dropped out of school to play music

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Speaker 1: full time in his own group, the Drifting Cowboys, Hank

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Speaker 1: Williams had distilled down the infectious jazz and blues feel

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Speaker 1: of te Tot's tunes with the sharp directness of folk

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Speaker 1: and country music by way of Jimmy Rogers and the

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Speaker 1: Carter Family, and all of it underpinned by the eerie

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Speaker 1: darkness of Hank's beloved gospel music. It made for a

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Speaker 1: particularly unique musical style, one that's now been emulated so

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Speaker 1: much that it's hard to hear its special qualities. But

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Speaker 1: when Hank Williams made the scene showing up in dive

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Speaker 1: bars around Alabama and the Florida Panhandle and on air

257
00:15:47,080 --> 00:15:51,960
Speaker 1: at Montgomery, Alabama's WFSA radio station, Hank Williams didn't sound

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Speaker 1: like anyone else. He was country, but lacking almost completely

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00:15:55,720 --> 00:15:59,040
Speaker 1: in sophistication. He hinted at blues and gospel, but he

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Speaker 1: was whiter than a ghosts. His music swung, but with

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00:16:02,200 --> 00:16:05,160
Speaker 1: tiny instrumentation compared to the big bands of the day.

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00:16:05,800 --> 00:16:10,200
Speaker 1: Hank just called it hillbilly music, and the people loved it. Folks,

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00:16:10,720 --> 00:16:15,120
Speaker 1: ordinary folks, playing spoken folks, hard working folks, hard drinking folks.

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00:16:15,840 --> 00:16:19,360
Speaker 1: Radio station managers, promoters, record label bosses not so much,

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00:16:19,400 --> 00:16:20,520
Speaker 1: but ordinary folks.

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Speaker 2: They went wild for Hank Bolliams's music, even in those

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Speaker 2: early days.

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Speaker 1: His music was primal. It moved people, compelled them just

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00:16:31,720 --> 00:16:34,400
Speaker 1: like Tee Tot. It hit high and it hit low.

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00:16:34,680 --> 00:16:37,920
Speaker 1: It connected on a purely visceral level. It was driving,

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Speaker 1: sexual and it hit you in the heart. It tapped

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00:16:40,600 --> 00:16:42,800
Speaker 1: into the darkness you felt when the lights were low

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Speaker 1: and no one else was around. Those feelings you thought

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00:16:45,280 --> 00:16:48,120
Speaker 1: only you felt you were wrong. Hank felt them too,

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00:16:48,480 --> 00:16:50,680
Speaker 1: you could tell from his words, and that meant other

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00:16:50,720 --> 00:16:53,320
Speaker 1: people felt them as well. You weren't alone after all,

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00:16:53,520 --> 00:16:59,320
Speaker 1: at least for the moment. The moments were fleeting. The

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00:16:59,360 --> 00:17:02,000
Speaker 1: harder Hank at his career and at life in general,

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00:17:02,320 --> 00:17:06,639
Speaker 1: the faster the moments flew by. Hank's relationship with alcohol

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Speaker 1: didn't slow things down. Neither did his relationship with his

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00:17:10,040 --> 00:17:14,600
Speaker 1: new bride, Audrey. Alcohol and Audrey both were enough to

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00:17:14,640 --> 00:17:18,520
Speaker 1: send Hank Williams spinning off the planet. Audrey fancied herself

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00:17:18,520 --> 00:17:21,359
Speaker 1: a singing talent and wanted her own career. She also

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00:17:21,440 --> 00:17:25,040
Speaker 1: wanted a husband. Hank Williams's alcoholism made him ill equipped

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00:17:25,040 --> 00:17:27,840
Speaker 1: to give her either, so he chose among the two

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00:17:28,160 --> 00:17:33,359
Speaker 1: Alcohol and Audrey. Alcohol won out, and Hank Williams spun

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00:17:33,440 --> 00:17:39,400
Speaker 1: out repeatedly. Hank Williams was in his and his wife's

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00:17:39,440 --> 00:17:42,280
Speaker 1: new front yard, howling at the moon. Hank was in

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00:17:42,320 --> 00:17:44,679
Speaker 1: the mud, howling like a wolf, rolling around like a

290
00:17:44,720 --> 00:17:47,080
Speaker 1: pig that had been married barely a minute, and Audrey

291
00:17:47,160 --> 00:17:49,479
Speaker 1: had thrown him out already over what. Hank didn't know,

292
00:17:49,600 --> 00:17:52,119
Speaker 1: but his drunkenness surely had something to do with it,

293
00:17:52,640 --> 00:17:55,160
Speaker 1: and now Audrey was throwing Hank's clothes out the door

294
00:17:55,200 --> 00:17:56,960
Speaker 1: and into the mud with him in the front yard.

295
00:17:57,400 --> 00:18:00,560
Speaker 1: Hank howled some more. Audrey screamed out to shut the

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00:18:00,600 --> 00:18:02,760
Speaker 1: hell up. Hank kept at it. Audrey went in the

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00:18:02,760 --> 00:18:08,280
Speaker 1: house and called the police. Hank didn't let up, and

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00:18:08,320 --> 00:18:11,040
Speaker 1: the police didn't play. Hank Williams was a well known

299
00:18:11,080 --> 00:18:18,359
Speaker 1: local nuisance cuffs arrested in the drunk tank, Hank's steel

300
00:18:18,400 --> 00:18:21,680
Speaker 1: guitar player, Don Helms, bailed him out. On Hank's way

301
00:18:21,680 --> 00:18:23,840
Speaker 1: out of the station, the cops told him cheekily to

302
00:18:23,880 --> 00:18:26,159
Speaker 1: come back and see them soon, and Hank told him

303
00:18:26,160 --> 00:18:31,280
Speaker 1: to go to hell, but he surely would not before

304
00:18:31,359 --> 00:18:33,680
Speaker 1: sobering up and putting in some work again with the

305
00:18:33,760 --> 00:18:37,160
Speaker 1: drifting cowboys and trying to fly right as Audrey's husband.

306
00:18:37,200 --> 00:18:40,240
Speaker 1: But soon enough Hank would find a bottle, and when

307
00:18:40,240 --> 00:18:42,520
Speaker 1: he did a couple months later, he went.

308
00:18:42,359 --> 00:18:44,600
Speaker 2: Looking for a fight with a little while.

309
00:18:46,160 --> 00:18:49,639
Speaker 1: Hank knew just where to look wherever Dad krysl and

310
00:18:49,680 --> 00:18:53,080
Speaker 1: his band of local wannabe Western Swing cowboys were slinging

311
00:18:53,119 --> 00:18:58,440
Speaker 1: that tired, pseudo sophisticated crap. Hank hated Western Swing, thought

312
00:18:58,480 --> 00:19:01,320
Speaker 1: it was for long hairs, it was hillbilly, and Dad

313
00:19:01,400 --> 00:19:03,199
Speaker 1: Chrysler should have known better than to take it to

314
00:19:03,240 --> 00:19:07,320
Speaker 1: the stage. Hank Williams bum rush. Dad sat heckled him

315
00:19:07,359 --> 00:19:09,280
Speaker 1: and his band from right there on the dance floor

316
00:19:09,280 --> 00:19:12,440
Speaker 1: for playing that garbage. Dad and his boys were more

317
00:19:12,440 --> 00:19:14,439
Speaker 1: than happy to drop their fiddles and jump into the

318
00:19:14,480 --> 00:19:17,520
Speaker 1: audience and pummel Hank to a pulp. Hank had a

319
00:19:17,560 --> 00:19:21,480
Speaker 1: coming penance. He reckoned. Hank knew he had to atone

320
00:19:21,680 --> 00:19:25,800
Speaker 1: for any number of things. Most things were forgivable, However,

321
00:19:25,840 --> 00:19:28,720
Speaker 1: blowing it on stage was not, which is why he

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00:19:28,800 --> 00:19:32,480
Speaker 1: counted himself among the lucky ones. No matter how legless

323
00:19:32,480 --> 00:19:36,200
Speaker 1: he drank himself, he could nearly always bring it on stage,

324
00:19:36,560 --> 00:19:41,879
Speaker 1: nearly always. And there was that time in Southern Alabama

325
00:19:41,920 --> 00:19:44,640
Speaker 1: when Hank started singing There's a Moon over my shoulder

326
00:19:44,720 --> 00:19:47,720
Speaker 1: in one key and playing it on guitar in another key.

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00:19:48,240 --> 00:19:51,119
Speaker 1: The band politely ushered him off stage to save Hank

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00:19:51,160 --> 00:19:54,639
Speaker 1: from further embarrassment. Hank wandered off stage, out into the

329
00:19:54,680 --> 00:19:57,959
Speaker 1: parking lot and promptly picked a fistfight with a policeman.

330
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Speaker 1: You're gonna pick a fight with me, boy, Hank was

331
00:20:04,080 --> 00:20:06,639
Speaker 1: promptly beat to a pulp and then thrown into jail

332
00:20:06,680 --> 00:20:14,560
Speaker 1: once again, penance once more, then the sanatorium in Prattville, Alabama,

333
00:20:14,640 --> 00:20:15,320
Speaker 1: to dry out.

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00:20:15,960 --> 00:20:17,560
Speaker 2: That was back in forty five.

335
00:20:21,359 --> 00:20:24,119
Speaker 1: Here in nineteen forty nine, in the back seat of

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00:20:24,119 --> 00:20:26,639
Speaker 1: his sedan en route to Nashville for a shot at

337
00:20:26,680 --> 00:20:29,720
Speaker 1: the Opry, the pain Hank felt in his back reminded

338
00:20:29,800 --> 00:20:33,160
Speaker 1: him of the sanatorium. Hank would dry out in numerous

339
00:20:33,160 --> 00:20:36,080
Speaker 1: facilities over the years, and each time the pain of

340
00:20:36,119 --> 00:20:39,680
Speaker 1: getting sober drifted away, the pain at his back would return.

341
00:20:40,520 --> 00:20:43,960
Speaker 1: It was a vicious cycle, one pain to replace a

342
00:20:44,000 --> 00:20:47,880
Speaker 1: different pain. Hank let his head sink back on top

343
00:20:47,960 --> 00:20:52,800
Speaker 1: of the car seat. On the car radio, the Carter

344
00:20:52,960 --> 00:20:56,040
Speaker 1: family's version of death is only a dream, crackled out

345
00:20:56,080 --> 00:21:00,399
Speaker 1: of the speakers, Only a dream, only a dream of

346
00:21:00,520 --> 00:21:06,120
Speaker 1: glory beyond the dark stream, darkness pain. Despite the pain

347
00:21:06,240 --> 00:21:08,960
Speaker 1: Hank was in, he knew it still was in his time.

348
00:21:09,440 --> 00:21:12,160
Speaker 1: It was still much to be done, too much life

349
00:21:12,200 --> 00:21:15,600
Speaker 1: to live. Death may only have been a dream that

350
00:21:15,760 --> 00:21:21,080
Speaker 1: the Grand Ole Opry was life.

351
00:21:21,160 --> 00:21:29,119
Speaker 2: We'll be right back after this word word word, Nashville,

352
00:21:29,440 --> 00:21:30,520
Speaker 2: nineteen forty nine.

353
00:21:31,119 --> 00:21:34,639
Speaker 1: Country music had just become quote unquote country music.

354
00:21:35,280 --> 00:21:37,440
Speaker 2: Up until that year, Billboard.

355
00:21:37,040 --> 00:21:39,720
Speaker 1: Magazine and the rest of the music industry categorized the

356
00:21:39,720 --> 00:21:43,399
Speaker 1: new genre as folk tunes and if country music had

357
00:21:43,440 --> 00:21:46,440
Speaker 1: a super Bowl back in the forties. It happened weekly

358
00:21:46,520 --> 00:21:49,960
Speaker 1: on Saturday nights at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee,

359
00:21:50,359 --> 00:21:54,080
Speaker 1: and broadcast over one hundred and fifty stations via WSM's

360
00:21:54,160 --> 00:21:57,159
Speaker 1: fifty thousand watts straight into the homes of Hillbillies and

361
00:21:57,200 --> 00:22:02,159
Speaker 1: country sophisticates alike from muscle shows to Minneapolis. Inside the

362
00:22:02,240 --> 00:22:04,879
Speaker 1: walls of the rhyme. In that evening, past, present and

363
00:22:05,000 --> 00:22:09,800
Speaker 1: future country Royalty assembled off stage Minnie Pearl, Little Jimmy Dickens,

364
00:22:09,880 --> 00:22:14,440
Speaker 1: roy Acuff, Porter Wagoner Eddie Arnold. On stage, twenty five

365
00:22:14,520 --> 00:22:17,479
Speaker 1: year old Hank Williams hit his mark under the opry

366
00:22:17,560 --> 00:22:21,960
Speaker 1: spotlight seemingly shown by the Lord himself, highlighting the darkness

367
00:22:21,960 --> 00:22:26,679
Speaker 1: imbued into the young songwriter. Hank swung that darkness in

368
00:22:26,720 --> 00:22:29,800
Speaker 1: the form of his signature song, the Emmett Miller tune

369
00:22:30,000 --> 00:22:34,000
Speaker 1: Love Sick Blues From the jump. The discerning opry audience

370
00:22:34,040 --> 00:22:36,440
Speaker 1: in the room was with Hank Williams and his band,

371
00:22:36,440 --> 00:22:39,840
Speaker 1: The Drifting cowboys, and by the time the second chorus hit,

372
00:22:40,160 --> 00:22:42,479
Speaker 1: all in attendance were affirming from the top of their

373
00:22:42,520 --> 00:22:46,680
Speaker 1: lungs that they, like Hank Wirey Gone intense hillbilly musician

374
00:22:46,760 --> 00:22:50,200
Speaker 1: on stage before them, had a feeling too the love

375
00:22:50,280 --> 00:22:54,439
Speaker 1: Sick Blues. Jenny said, goodbye, Patsy would do you, but

376
00:22:54,480 --> 00:22:56,879
Speaker 1: then do your best friend mary Anne would call you

377
00:22:56,920 --> 00:22:59,320
Speaker 1: sweet daddy one minute, but make it clear she didn't

378
00:22:59,320 --> 00:23:01,880
Speaker 1: care about you in the next. Ruthy had that kind

379
00:23:01,920 --> 00:23:03,600
Speaker 1: of love, and you grew used to her but couldn't

380
00:23:03,600 --> 00:23:06,400
Speaker 1: make her stay. She, like Audrey, was the leaving kind,

381
00:23:06,400 --> 00:23:08,720
Speaker 1: and old Janne was surely going to say goodbye. You

382
00:23:08,880 --> 00:23:10,880
Speaker 1: like everyone else, didn't know what you were going to do.

383
00:23:11,119 --> 00:23:13,359
Speaker 1: You were nobody's sugar daddy, not now, not ever. You

384
00:23:13,359 --> 00:23:16,240
Speaker 1: were just regular folk like Hank up there singing into

385
00:23:16,280 --> 00:23:20,199
Speaker 1: the opry mic. And your girl Lucinda, she was just

386
00:23:20,240 --> 00:23:22,679
Speaker 1: like the others, just like all the girls who occupied

387
00:23:22,760 --> 00:23:25,040
Speaker 1: all the dreams of all your friends and all your neighbors.

388
00:23:25,320 --> 00:23:27,360
Speaker 1: One day she was going to say goodbye. But until then,

389
00:23:27,440 --> 00:23:29,280
Speaker 1: all Hank up there could lay it out for you

390
00:23:29,359 --> 00:23:32,640
Speaker 1: for everyone the truth, and the truth was this, despite

391
00:23:32,640 --> 00:23:36,960
Speaker 1: your girl, despite your troubles. Despite the darkness, life was

392
00:23:37,080 --> 00:23:44,360
Speaker 1: such a beautiful dream. When Hank finished Loved Sick Blues,

393
00:23:44,560 --> 00:23:48,560
Speaker 1: the Opry crowd erupted. Hank made quick work of his

394
00:23:48,640 --> 00:23:51,520
Speaker 1: momentum and called off the next tune, his recent hit,

395
00:23:51,760 --> 00:23:54,480
Speaker 1: mind Your Own Business, And when he finished that one,

396
00:23:54,560 --> 00:23:58,680
Speaker 1: the crowd went nuts. Hank Williams's Grand Old Opry debut

397
00:23:58,760 --> 00:24:03,920
Speaker 1: made an immediate impact on country music. From there, Hank

398
00:24:03,960 --> 00:24:07,520
Speaker 1: Williams took country music by storm. Fred Rose hooked Hank

399
00:24:07,640 --> 00:24:10,080
Speaker 1: up with a recording contract with MGM in a matter

400
00:24:10,119 --> 00:24:13,760
Speaker 1: of days. Soon, his time crooning before audiences at the

401
00:24:13,840 --> 00:24:17,800
Speaker 1: Ryman Auditorium became time crooning before crowds across the country.

402
00:24:18,240 --> 00:24:21,119
Speaker 1: He started his leather cowboy boots across the South, the

403
00:24:21,119 --> 00:24:24,600
Speaker 1: West Coast, even pieces of Canada. As it turned out,

404
00:24:24,680 --> 00:24:27,680
Speaker 1: touring paid even better than royalties did, which were also

405
00:24:27,800 --> 00:24:30,360
Speaker 1: pouring in now thanks to new hits like My Bucket's

406
00:24:30,359 --> 00:24:33,439
Speaker 1: Got a Hole in It in wedding Belts. The year's

407
00:24:33,480 --> 00:24:36,480
Speaker 1: excitement peaked in November when Hank packed up his guitar

408
00:24:36,600 --> 00:24:39,080
Speaker 1: and nicest suit to join the Grand Ole Opry on

409
00:24:39,119 --> 00:24:42,240
Speaker 1: their first ever tour of Europe. For two weeks, he

410
00:24:42,280 --> 00:24:45,600
Speaker 1: spent his nights bringing cheer to American military bases with

411
00:24:45,720 --> 00:24:49,840
Speaker 1: other members of the Opry. Minnie Roy read his heroes

412
00:24:50,080 --> 00:24:54,120
Speaker 1: were family now. Upon his return, he found a surprise

413
00:24:54,200 --> 00:24:57,240
Speaker 1: when he flipped open a new copy of Billboard. There

414
00:24:57,600 --> 00:25:01,760
Speaker 1: was his name, Hank Williams listed as the second best

415
00:25:01,760 --> 00:25:05,560
Speaker 1: selling country artist of nineteen forty nine, second only to

416
00:25:05,680 --> 00:25:10,520
Speaker 1: Eddie Arnold. But despite what his wife Audrey thought, and

417
00:25:10,560 --> 00:25:13,159
Speaker 1: despite what Dad Chrysol or any of the local pde

418
00:25:13,320 --> 00:25:17,040
Speaker 1: back in Mobile or Shreveport from parts surrounding the Panhandle thought,

419
00:25:17,520 --> 00:25:21,600
Speaker 1: success had not gone to Hank Williams's head. Hank was

420
00:25:21,760 --> 00:25:25,840
Speaker 1: still Hank. He sang, he drank, drank, and sang, drank

421
00:25:25,880 --> 00:25:28,200
Speaker 1: some more, got himself in trouble, then locked up, then

422
00:25:28,280 --> 00:25:31,000
Speaker 1: dried out, then got sober, stayed that way long enough

423
00:25:31,000 --> 00:25:34,480
Speaker 1: for those around him to justify tolerating his bullshit, and then,

424
00:25:34,720 --> 00:25:37,200
Speaker 1: just when anyone would least expect it, he'd do the

425
00:25:37,240 --> 00:25:40,960
Speaker 1: whole routine over again. For those in Hank's circle, his

426
00:25:41,000 --> 00:25:44,800
Speaker 1: wife Audrey, fred Rose, his bandmates, his fellow Opry performers.

427
00:25:44,840 --> 00:25:50,080
Speaker 1: It was maddening, but none of that deterred MGM. MGM

428
00:25:50,160 --> 00:25:54,200
Speaker 1: knew what they had. Despite Hank Williams's very well publicized

429
00:25:54,240 --> 00:25:57,600
Speaker 1: troubles with alcohol and the law, MGM knew they had

430
00:25:57,600 --> 00:26:00,760
Speaker 1: a star on their hands. In star were meant to

431
00:26:00,840 --> 00:26:04,800
Speaker 1: shine on the biggest stage possible, or in this case,

432
00:26:05,080 --> 00:26:10,280
Speaker 1: on the biggest screen possible. The Grand Old Opry was

433
00:26:10,320 --> 00:26:12,920
Speaker 1: one thing, but having your face blasted on a movie

434
00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:16,760
Speaker 1: screen's thirty feet tall all over America was another thing entirely,

435
00:26:17,320 --> 00:26:20,880
Speaker 1: and that's exactly what MGM intended to do. That's why

436
00:26:20,920 --> 00:26:24,160
Speaker 1: Hank was there in New York City to meet with MGM,

437
00:26:24,240 --> 00:26:25,919
Speaker 1: to hear them out on their pitch, to put him

438
00:26:25,960 --> 00:26:29,840
Speaker 1: in pictures. Hank Williams wasn't just ol Hank from the

439
00:26:29,840 --> 00:26:33,119
Speaker 1: Grand Old Opry. No, Hank Williams was potentially just like

440
00:26:33,280 --> 00:26:37,119
Speaker 1: Old Blue Eyes from the Saloon. Hank had appeal everywhere,

441
00:26:37,400 --> 00:26:40,600
Speaker 1: from the Smoky mountains to the streets of Manhattan. Hank

442
00:26:40,680 --> 00:26:44,560
Speaker 1: Williams's songs connected his words, his themes. They were relatable

443
00:26:44,600 --> 00:26:47,399
Speaker 1: all over. I saw the light Mansion on the hill

444
00:26:47,600 --> 00:26:50,479
Speaker 1: Lost Highway in the Big Daddy of all big Daddies,

445
00:26:50,520 --> 00:26:53,239
Speaker 1: the King of the Heartbreak songs, I'm so lonesome, I

446
00:26:53,240 --> 00:26:57,720
Speaker 1: could cry this kind of relatability was rare, the ability

447
00:26:57,760 --> 00:27:02,080
Speaker 1: to cross cultures, the ability to over Just as Frank

448
00:27:02,119 --> 00:27:05,479
Speaker 1: Sinatra was capable of appealing to blue collar, working class

449
00:27:05,560 --> 00:27:09,080
Speaker 1: Joe's and their girlfriends, Hank Williams could just as easily

450
00:27:09,160 --> 00:27:12,040
Speaker 1: turn on that shine for urbane intellectuals in their one

451
00:27:12,160 --> 00:27:16,679
Speaker 1: night stands. Hank's appeal was potentially even broader. Sure, at

452
00:27:16,680 --> 00:27:19,480
Speaker 1: the moment it was quote unquote country, but his songs

453
00:27:19,520 --> 00:27:23,360
Speaker 1: took flight, his words had wings, His music was not

454
00:27:23,440 --> 00:27:27,159
Speaker 1: going to be restricted by geographical regions. The proof was

455
00:27:27,240 --> 00:27:30,639
Speaker 1: right there in front of Hank. He sat in the

456
00:27:30,680 --> 00:27:34,800
Speaker 1: posh Manhattan hotel lounge after his meeting with MGM annoyed

457
00:27:34,800 --> 00:27:39,919
Speaker 1: by the whole experience. Him a star on screen, What

458
00:27:39,960 --> 00:27:42,359
Speaker 1: the hell did they know about it? Anyway, Hank was

459
00:27:42,480 --> 00:27:45,639
Speaker 1: just Hank, a hillbilly. He was a regular folk, just

460
00:27:45,720 --> 00:27:48,920
Speaker 1: like his fans. Hank eagerly pulled on a tumbler of

461
00:27:49,000 --> 00:27:52,159
Speaker 1: cheap whiskey, the cheapest the bar had, and filling the

462
00:27:52,200 --> 00:27:54,720
Speaker 1: air from the speakers of the jukebox was one of

463
00:27:54,720 --> 00:27:55,480
Speaker 1: his songs.

464
00:27:56,040 --> 00:27:58,560
Speaker 2: Damn right there in Manhattan, not in.

465
00:27:58,600 --> 00:28:01,040
Speaker 1: Mobile, not in Shreveboard, hell, not even in the Athens

466
00:28:01,040 --> 00:28:05,400
Speaker 1: of the South. Nashville in Manhattan. But it wasn't Hank's voice.

467
00:28:05,720 --> 00:28:09,440
Speaker 1: It was Tony Bennett's voice, the Tony Bennett, the pop star,

468
00:28:09,840 --> 00:28:14,320
Speaker 1: singing his cover version of Hank's Cold Cold Heart. Hank

469
00:28:14,440 --> 00:28:17,560
Speaker 1: let the whiskey drown Tony Bennett out. He lay his

470
00:28:17,640 --> 00:28:20,480
Speaker 1: head back on the plush fabric of the oversized armchair

471
00:28:20,520 --> 00:28:22,920
Speaker 1: he was sitting in and thought back to Dad krysl

472
00:28:24,280 --> 00:28:27,480
Speaker 1: that brawl back in Shreveport or was it mobile? Did

473
00:28:27,520 --> 00:28:30,560
Speaker 1: it even matter? In Hank's mind, he was now winning

474
00:28:30,600 --> 00:28:33,000
Speaker 1: the brawl with Dad and his voice, taking them all

475
00:28:33,040 --> 00:28:35,359
Speaker 1: on and fending them off with that long reach of

476
00:28:35,400 --> 00:28:39,719
Speaker 1: his beating them back. But the fantasy was short lived.

477
00:28:40,360 --> 00:28:42,600
Speaker 1: Soon enough, the pain in his back beat back the

478
00:28:42,640 --> 00:28:44,840
Speaker 1: fantasy of it all, and the real memory crept in

479
00:28:44,920 --> 00:28:48,320
Speaker 1: alongside the back pain, the memory of getting pummeled, and

480
00:28:48,360 --> 00:28:52,040
Speaker 1: deservedly so. Hank knew deep down it wasn't his place

481
00:28:52,080 --> 00:28:54,520
Speaker 1: to heckle another man while he worked. That was just

482
00:28:54,560 --> 00:28:58,840
Speaker 1: the whiskey barking. But that pain, that pain was something else.

483
00:28:59,120 --> 00:29:01,920
Speaker 1: That pain took away the other pain, and that meant something.

484
00:29:03,040 --> 00:29:06,280
Speaker 1: Hank belted back the rest of his whiskey, then another

485
00:29:06,480 --> 00:29:09,640
Speaker 1: and another, but When Hank Williams woke up, he was

486
00:29:09,680 --> 00:29:15,400
Speaker 1: back in Nashville and contemplating taking the cure. The sanatorium

487
00:29:15,440 --> 00:29:18,400
Speaker 1: in Louisville sealed it as if Hank didn't know it already.

488
00:29:19,200 --> 00:29:22,360
Speaker 1: The doctors at this institution officially pronounced Hank to be

489
00:29:22,480 --> 00:29:26,640
Speaker 1: an alcoholic. His binge drinking now with the pressures of success,

490
00:29:27,080 --> 00:29:29,840
Speaker 1: the busier than ever schedule, and the increased back pain

491
00:29:29,840 --> 00:29:32,960
Speaker 1: that went along with the stress and physical exertion, led

492
00:29:32,960 --> 00:29:36,680
Speaker 1: to more frequent bouts with the bottle, and increasingly, when

493
00:29:36,720 --> 00:29:39,600
Speaker 1: Hank wasn't drinking, he was twisted up in some sort

494
00:29:39,640 --> 00:29:42,800
Speaker 1: of withdrawal pain. It got so that not drinking was

495
00:29:42,920 --> 00:29:47,000
Speaker 1: just as painful as drinking. The circle was closing, The

496
00:29:47,080 --> 00:29:52,400
Speaker 1: snake was eating itself. Hank knew what was happening. He

497
00:29:52,520 --> 00:29:55,320
Speaker 1: hated it, hated the feeling, but was helpless to the pain.

498
00:29:56,000 --> 00:29:58,720
Speaker 1: He carried around with him his medicine. They called it

499
00:29:58,800 --> 00:30:03,360
Speaker 1: the Curer, basically a poison pill. Alcoholics took it to

500
00:30:03,400 --> 00:30:05,840
Speaker 1: curb the craving, but the rub was that if you

501
00:30:05,920 --> 00:30:08,560
Speaker 1: drank any alcohol while you had the cure in your system,

502
00:30:09,040 --> 00:30:10,880
Speaker 1: you'd likely die. If he didn't make it to a

503
00:30:10,920 --> 00:30:15,440
Speaker 1: hospital in short order. Hank took the cure, and of course,

504
00:30:15,600 --> 00:30:18,760
Speaker 1: then he drank, and then he wound up in the hospital,

505
00:30:18,920 --> 00:30:21,640
Speaker 1: and then again the sanatorium to dry out, and the

506
00:30:21,640 --> 00:30:25,560
Speaker 1: cycle continued. But Hank's career continued to thrive. But when

507
00:30:25,560 --> 00:30:28,800
Speaker 1: he wasn't filling his time with performances and recording engagements,

508
00:30:29,040 --> 00:30:31,520
Speaker 1: Hank did his time at home. It was not a

509
00:30:31,560 --> 00:30:35,320
Speaker 1: happy experience. He and Audrey were constantly on the outs.

510
00:30:35,560 --> 00:30:38,880
Speaker 1: Hank tried to beat back the beast, but to little success.

511
00:30:39,280 --> 00:30:43,080
Speaker 1: Audrey was a problem. Audrey was unfaithful. Hank was too,

512
00:30:43,160 --> 00:30:45,360
Speaker 1: But what did that matter? He reasoned, He was a

513
00:30:45,400 --> 00:30:48,000
Speaker 1: traveling musician. He wore the pants, brought home the bake

514
00:30:48,040 --> 00:30:50,760
Speaker 1: and that sort of thing. What did Audrey do besides.

515
00:30:50,520 --> 00:30:51,800
Speaker 2: Spend his money?

516
00:30:52,040 --> 00:30:54,600
Speaker 1: There was that state trooper. Hank knew what he and

517
00:30:54,640 --> 00:30:58,600
Speaker 1: Audrey were up to. What was the point of staying

518
00:30:58,640 --> 00:31:01,080
Speaker 1: sober for someone if that's someone was up to something

519
00:31:01,080 --> 00:31:03,880
Speaker 1: with someone else. There was a lyric in there somewhere,

520
00:31:03,920 --> 00:31:05,760
Speaker 1: if Hank could only keep his head clear enough to

521
00:31:05,800 --> 00:31:06,400
Speaker 1: fish it out.

522
00:31:07,160 --> 00:31:07,560
Speaker 2: Fuck it.

523
00:31:08,040 --> 00:31:11,160
Speaker 1: He sat in his and Audrey's home and stewed she'd

524
00:31:11,200 --> 00:31:15,520
Speaker 1: be home soon. Hank loaded his pistol. The gun in

525
00:31:15,560 --> 00:31:19,000
Speaker 1: his hand comforted him. The gun was true, the gun

526
00:31:19,080 --> 00:31:22,200
Speaker 1: shot straight. More than he could say for Audrey. She

527
00:31:22,320 --> 00:31:26,520
Speaker 1: shot herself all over town. Hank sat on his back porch.

528
00:31:26,840 --> 00:31:30,200
Speaker 1: He took aim randomly, had something off in the distance,

529
00:31:30,240 --> 00:31:33,160
Speaker 1: and fired off around and then he took a slug

530
00:31:33,200 --> 00:31:39,480
Speaker 1: from his tumbler. Then another shot, just then a scream. Shit.

531
00:31:39,840 --> 00:31:43,360
Speaker 1: Audrey was home, hell on wheels to the front door, screaming,

532
00:31:43,360 --> 00:31:46,320
Speaker 1: bloody murder. What the hell, Hank Williams, was your drunk

533
00:31:46,360 --> 00:31:50,080
Speaker 1: ass up to now? Hank screamed something back. Another shot

534
00:31:50,160 --> 00:31:55,800
Speaker 1: went off, this one inside of the house. Audrey lost it, tears, feared,

535
00:31:56,080 --> 00:32:00,480
Speaker 1: The door slammed. Audrey was gone for good. Hank another

536
00:32:00,520 --> 00:32:08,360
Speaker 1: slug from the tumbler. When he emerged from his bender,

537
00:32:08,560 --> 00:32:12,200
Speaker 1: divorce was on the horizon. Hank drowned his pain and

538
00:32:12,280 --> 00:32:16,640
Speaker 1: more alcohol. He performed, He wrote, He drank, dried out,

539
00:32:16,760 --> 00:32:20,400
Speaker 1: performed some more recorded perform drank fought, sobered up, drank

540
00:32:20,440 --> 00:32:23,160
Speaker 1: and played some more. Inevitably missed some shows. Then he

541
00:32:23,200 --> 00:32:26,760
Speaker 1: missed even more shows. Hank Williams was an electric but

542
00:32:26,920 --> 00:32:30,480
Speaker 1: unreliable performer. It was too much for the Grand Ole

543
00:32:30,560 --> 00:32:34,479
Speaker 1: Opry too many missed performances, and sponsors started to worry,

544
00:32:35,000 --> 00:32:37,440
Speaker 1: and maybe the Opry wasn't such a safe bet, Maybe

545
00:32:37,480 --> 00:32:39,479
Speaker 1: the Opry wasn't such a good place to park all

546
00:32:39,480 --> 00:32:44,880
Speaker 1: those advertising dollars. Hank Williams was warned. Hank Williams didn't listen.

547
00:32:45,400 --> 00:32:48,880
Speaker 1: Hank Williams was fired from the Grand Ole Opry. Hank

548
00:32:48,920 --> 00:33:16,920
Speaker 1: Williams hit his personal rock bottom. Sadly, we sing with

549
00:33:17,080 --> 00:33:21,400
Speaker 1: tremulous breath as we stand by the mystical stream in

550
00:33:21,480 --> 00:33:24,360
Speaker 1: the valley and by the dark river of death. And

551
00:33:24,440 --> 00:33:31,000
Speaker 1: yet 'tis no more than a dream. The gunplay, the

552
00:33:31,160 --> 00:33:34,920
Speaker 1: errant bullet flying around his in Audrey's home, the random

553
00:33:35,000 --> 00:33:38,120
Speaker 1: beating from the police, the beating from Dad krysl and

554
00:33:38,160 --> 00:33:42,320
Speaker 1: his boys, the horror filled nightmares, and the various sanatoriums,

555
00:33:42,640 --> 00:33:46,720
Speaker 1: the poison pills. None of it spelled death for Hank Williams.

556
00:33:47,160 --> 00:33:52,920
Speaker 1: Not then anyway. It wasn't his time. Yet death was

557
00:33:53,000 --> 00:33:57,360
Speaker 1: still only a dream.

558
00:33:57,600 --> 00:33:59,680
Speaker 2: Hank Williams hadn't yet filled his bucket.

559
00:34:00,480 --> 00:34:03,720
Speaker 1: Life sometimes escaped from the buckets hole, sure, but Hank

560
00:34:03,840 --> 00:34:07,000
Speaker 1: just went on living, went on filling that bucket, carried

561
00:34:07,040 --> 00:34:11,360
Speaker 1: on not just with living, but loving, fighting, drinking, connecting,

562
00:34:12,000 --> 00:34:14,319
Speaker 1: whether he knew it or not. Despite the pain, the

563
00:34:14,360 --> 00:34:16,880
Speaker 1: physical pain, the mental pain from the breakup of his family,

564
00:34:16,960 --> 00:34:19,719
Speaker 1: or perhaps from the early abandonment of his father, from

565
00:34:19,719 --> 00:34:22,360
Speaker 1: the humility and shame of being kicked off the grand

566
00:34:22,400 --> 00:34:26,920
Speaker 1: Ole opry. From whatever the pain gave Hank Williams purpose,

567
00:34:27,760 --> 00:34:31,880
Speaker 1: he wrote. He was the hillbilly Shakespeare. His words mattered,

568
00:34:32,080 --> 00:34:36,239
Speaker 1: his songs mattered. His music gave others, regular people, good folk,

569
00:34:36,400 --> 00:34:38,319
Speaker 1: a light, a path away.

570
00:34:38,120 --> 00:34:39,360
Speaker 2: A conduit, a connection.

571
00:34:40,239 --> 00:34:43,400
Speaker 1: His songs were relatable enough to comfortably be programmed on

572
00:34:43,440 --> 00:34:45,880
Speaker 1: the radio alongside other pop bits of the day, but

573
00:34:46,000 --> 00:34:49,200
Speaker 1: also heavy enough to drive listeners back again and again

574
00:34:49,239 --> 00:34:52,799
Speaker 1: for repeat listening. And that is what the best pop

575
00:34:52,880 --> 00:34:58,000
Speaker 1: music does. It connects on both levels. By nineteen fifty two,

576
00:34:58,160 --> 00:35:01,360
Speaker 1: due to his chronic and now debilitating pain, which originated

577
00:35:01,360 --> 00:35:04,400
Speaker 1: as a child and was exacerbated by his constant drinking

578
00:35:04,440 --> 00:35:06,920
Speaker 1: as an adult and made even worse by a recent

579
00:35:07,000 --> 00:35:10,520
Speaker 1: hunting accident, by fifty two, what little life Hank had

580
00:35:10,600 --> 00:35:13,719
Speaker 1: left in him he funneled into his songwriting, and for

581
00:35:13,840 --> 00:35:16,759
Speaker 1: good reason. Songwriting was one of the only things that

582
00:35:16,840 --> 00:35:20,319
Speaker 1: worked for Hank Williams in his short time as a professional,

583
00:35:20,560 --> 00:35:24,240
Speaker 1: dating back to nineteen forty seven, Hank Williams had landed

584
00:35:24,280 --> 00:35:26,359
Speaker 1: thirty two songs in the top ten.

585
00:35:26,800 --> 00:35:28,399
Speaker 2: Eleven of them went to number one.

586
00:35:29,120 --> 00:35:32,040
Speaker 1: This from a man who couldn't read or write music,

587
00:35:32,239 --> 00:35:34,799
Speaker 1: but who just sang what he felt, who tapped into

588
00:35:34,840 --> 00:35:37,600
Speaker 1: the darkness we all have in us, and was brave

589
00:35:37,719 --> 00:35:39,480
Speaker 1: enough to bear it in the service of his art.

590
00:35:39,880 --> 00:35:41,680
Speaker 1: A word he would have hated to hear used to

591
00:35:41,719 --> 00:35:42,319
Speaker 1: describe his.

592
00:35:42,360 --> 00:35:44,839
Speaker 2: Music by the way art.

593
00:35:46,320 --> 00:35:49,600
Speaker 1: Nevertheless, Hank Williams wrote about the pain and wrote through

594
00:35:49,640 --> 00:35:53,040
Speaker 1: the pain, and in nineteen fifty two, Hank recorded what

595
00:35:53,080 --> 00:35:57,080
Speaker 1: would become his final statement, the expertly penned emotional harpoon

596
00:35:57,320 --> 00:35:59,920
Speaker 1: entitled I'll Never get out of this world A lot.

597
00:36:01,120 --> 00:36:02,319
Speaker 2: The title said it all.

598
00:36:04,320 --> 00:36:07,839
Speaker 1: As nineteen fifty two started to turn into nineteen fifty three,

599
00:36:08,239 --> 00:36:12,239
Speaker 1: Hank Williams's bucket was close to full. That hole, the

600
00:36:12,280 --> 00:36:15,640
Speaker 1: one where life gushed out, had seemingly been plugged by

601
00:36:15,640 --> 00:36:19,719
Speaker 1: the pain. The pain was ever present, now, performing had

602
00:36:19,760 --> 00:36:23,320
Speaker 1: long since lost its luster. After the writing and recording

603
00:36:23,360 --> 00:36:25,759
Speaker 1: of I'll Never get out of this World alive, there

604
00:36:25,760 --> 00:36:29,160
Speaker 1: didn't seem to be much left to say. Hank filled

605
00:36:29,160 --> 00:36:32,279
Speaker 1: the void and buried the pain with more alcohol, and

606
00:36:32,360 --> 00:36:37,320
Speaker 1: more recently, with a dangerous cocktail of pharmaceutical narcotics, morphine

607
00:36:37,320 --> 00:36:40,880
Speaker 1: injections for his back during his waking hours, and chloral

608
00:36:41,000 --> 00:36:44,880
Speaker 1: hydrate to help him sleep through the agony. But on

609
00:36:44,920 --> 00:36:49,360
Speaker 1: December thirtieth, nineteen fifty two, Hank Williams was up early.

610
00:36:50,000 --> 00:36:55,040
Speaker 1: There was money to make, shows to do. He had

611
00:36:55,040 --> 00:36:58,120
Speaker 1: a new driver, a seventeen year old son of a friend.

612
00:36:58,560 --> 00:37:01,960
Speaker 1: The boy's name was Charles. He looked silly peering over

613
00:37:02,120 --> 00:37:05,200
Speaker 1: the massive steering wheel of Hank's Cadillac, but he'd get

614
00:37:05,239 --> 00:37:07,920
Speaker 1: the job done so long as Hank could stretch out

615
00:37:07,920 --> 00:37:11,040
Speaker 1: in the back seat. En route gigs in Charlestown, West Virginia,

616
00:37:11,120 --> 00:37:15,160
Speaker 1: in Canton, Ohio, first stop, however, was a general store

617
00:37:15,200 --> 00:37:18,000
Speaker 1: for a six pack of Flagstaff. Hank got to the

618
00:37:18,040 --> 00:37:21,200
Speaker 1: bottom of all six cans in no time. He and

619
00:37:21,239 --> 00:37:24,560
Speaker 1: his driver spent the night in a Birmingham hotel. Hank

620
00:37:24,640 --> 00:37:26,480
Speaker 1: bonded with a bottle of bonded bourbon.

621
00:37:26,800 --> 00:37:27,760
Speaker 2: He was leveled.

622
00:37:28,120 --> 00:37:31,400
Speaker 1: He spread some cash out for the hotel staff, crashed

623
00:37:31,440 --> 00:37:33,759
Speaker 1: and woke up early to a fresh snowfall. On New

624
00:37:33,840 --> 00:37:38,200
Speaker 1: Year's Eve Day, Hank and Charles drove through the snow.

625
00:37:38,800 --> 00:37:41,879
Speaker 1: It whipped up and down the two lane highway. This

626
00:37:42,120 --> 00:37:46,120
Speaker 1: could be the day, This could be his time. In

627
00:37:46,200 --> 00:37:48,479
Speaker 1: the back of that car. It was hard to see

628
00:37:48,520 --> 00:37:51,400
Speaker 1: anything else through the blinding worlds of snow and sharp

629
00:37:51,520 --> 00:37:55,320
Speaker 1: tusks of pain. Over the turbid and on rushing tide.

630
00:37:55,600 --> 00:37:59,160
Speaker 1: Got the light of eternity gleam in the ransom, the

631
00:37:59,280 --> 00:38:03,880
Speaker 1: darkness and storm shell outride to wake with glad smiles

632
00:38:03,920 --> 00:38:08,560
Speaker 1: from the dream. Hank lay his weary head back on

633
00:38:08,600 --> 00:38:11,239
Speaker 1: the car seat, all six feet two inches of them,

634
00:38:11,280 --> 00:38:14,440
Speaker 1: stretched out, trying to grab a wink, trying to push

635
00:38:14,440 --> 00:38:17,920
Speaker 1: his consciousness into the slip stream of slumber, trying to

636
00:38:17,960 --> 00:38:24,000
Speaker 1: outrun the pain, trying to dream. As the Cadillac rambled

637
00:38:24,040 --> 00:38:27,600
Speaker 1: north through the snow, through the darkness toward Ohio, Hank

638
00:38:27,640 --> 00:38:31,080
Speaker 1: slipped into a half sleep. His back pain raged, and

639
00:38:31,200 --> 00:38:34,279
Speaker 1: they stopped for gas. Hank woke, got out of the car,

640
00:38:34,320 --> 00:38:36,560
Speaker 1: stretched his legs. His driver asked him if he wanted

641
00:38:36,560 --> 00:38:39,719
Speaker 1: anything to eat. Nah, Hank replied, I just want to

642
00:38:39,760 --> 00:38:44,200
Speaker 1: get some sleep. They were the last words Hank Williams said,

643
00:38:44,719 --> 00:38:48,000
Speaker 1: and like the words Hank Williams wrote he meant them deeply.

644
00:38:48,560 --> 00:38:52,240
Speaker 1: He was done negotiating with the pain. Sleep, He reasons,

645
00:38:52,280 --> 00:38:56,000
Speaker 1: in the moment is the answer, and death is only

646
00:38:56,000 --> 00:38:59,680
Speaker 1: a dream. Hank Williams crammed his body into the back

647
00:38:59,719 --> 00:39:03,160
Speaker 1: seat of his Cadillac and settled in for his last ride.

648
00:39:03,680 --> 00:39:07,520
Speaker 1: He wrapped his bespoke blazer over his chest, laid himself out,

649
00:39:07,920 --> 00:39:11,239
Speaker 1: closed his eyes, and heard that distant traditional roll through

650
00:39:11,239 --> 00:39:16,160
Speaker 1: his memory. Only a dream, only a dream of glory

651
00:39:16,239 --> 00:39:20,400
Speaker 1: beyond the dark stream. How peaceful the slumber, how happy

652
00:39:20,440 --> 00:39:28,080
Speaker 1: the waking, Where death is only a dream. The cadillac

653
00:39:28,200 --> 00:39:30,719
Speaker 1: rolled softly into the parking lot of the Oak Hill,

654
00:39:30,760 --> 00:39:35,160
Speaker 1: West Virginia Hospital on New Year's Day, nineteen fifty three.

655
00:39:35,320 --> 00:39:38,239
Speaker 1: The sun had yet to break through the darkness of Appalachia,

656
00:39:38,680 --> 00:39:41,879
Speaker 1: and darkness rested peacefully at long last in the back

657
00:39:41,960 --> 00:39:47,600
Speaker 1: seat of the cadillac. The driver, in his heart knew

658
00:39:47,680 --> 00:39:50,680
Speaker 1: the worst was true, but still he hoped for death

659
00:39:50,719 --> 00:39:54,520
Speaker 1: to be forgiving. He pulled two interns from the hospital

660
00:39:54,520 --> 00:39:57,319
Speaker 1: to attend to the matter of the unconscious songwriter in

661
00:39:57,360 --> 00:40:01,480
Speaker 1: his back seat. One look was all took. He's dead.

662
00:40:02,719 --> 00:40:05,040
Speaker 1: The driver asked if there wasn't anything they could do

663
00:40:05,640 --> 00:40:08,440
Speaker 1: of course there wasn't and there wasn't anything left for

664
00:40:08,440 --> 00:40:11,839
Speaker 1: Hank Williams to do at the age of twenty nine.

665
00:40:12,480 --> 00:40:16,120
Speaker 1: By then, for him anyway, he'd done it all, written

666
00:40:16,160 --> 00:40:18,480
Speaker 1: all he could write, loved as hard as he could

667
00:40:18,520 --> 00:40:26,600
Speaker 1: have loved, lived, His bucket was full. Death came as

668
00:40:26,640 --> 00:40:30,440
Speaker 1: a welcomed friend, as a dream. The driver asked the

669
00:40:30,480 --> 00:40:34,120
Speaker 1: interns again, nothing, you can't do anything. This is Hank Williams.

670
00:40:35,680 --> 00:40:39,399
Speaker 1: One in turn looked at the driver coldly. No, he's

671
00:40:39,520 --> 00:40:59,759
Speaker 1: just dead. I'm Jake Brennan in This is Disgraceland. Disgraceland

672
00:41:00,040 --> 00:41:02,560
Speaker 1: created by Yours Truly and is produced in partnership with

673
00:41:02,640 --> 00:41:05,719
Speaker 1: Double Elvis. Credits for this episode can be found on

674
00:41:05,760 --> 00:41:09,319
Speaker 1: the show notes page at disgracelampod dot com. If you're

675
00:41:09,360 --> 00:41:12,360
Speaker 1: listening as a Disgraceland All Access member, thank you for

676
00:41:12,400 --> 00:41:13,200
Speaker 1: supporting the show.

677
00:41:13,239 --> 00:41:16,000
Speaker 3: We really appreciate it, and if not, you can become

678
00:41:16,000 --> 00:41:19,400
Speaker 3: a member right now by going to disgracelampod dot com.

679
00:41:19,440 --> 00:41:21,840
Speaker 2: Slash Membership members.

680
00:41:21,440 --> 00:41:25,280
Speaker 3: Can listen to every episode of disgracelan ad free, plus

681
00:41:25,280 --> 00:41:29,240
Speaker 3: you'll get one brand new exclusive episode every month, weekly

682
00:41:29,320 --> 00:41:33,120
Speaker 3: unscripted bonus episode, special audio collections and early access to

683
00:41:33,239 --> 00:41:38,840
Speaker 3: merchandise and events. Visit disgracelampod dot com slash membership for details,

684
00:41:39,160 --> 00:41:42,080
Speaker 3: Rate and review the show, and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter,

685
00:41:42,120 --> 00:41:46,040
Speaker 3: and Facebook at disgracelampod and on YouTube at YouTube dot

686
00:41:46,080 --> 00:41:49,920
Speaker 3: com slash at disgracelampod Rock a Roller.

687
00:41:52,320 --> 00:41:53,440
Speaker 2: He then