In his brief life, Hank Williams created one of the defining bodies of American music. Songs like Your Cheatin' Heart, Hey Good Lookin' and Jambalaya sold millions of records and became the model for virtually all country music that followed.
But by the time of his death at age twenty-nine, Williams had drunk and drugged and philandered his way through two messy marriages and out of his headline spot on the Grand Ole Opry. Even though he was country music's top seller, toward the end he was so famously unreliable that he was lucky to get a booking in a beer hall.
After his death, Williams' records sold more than ever, and have continued to do so in the half-century since. His oft-covered catalog has produced hits for artists ranging from Fats Domino and John Fogerty's Blue Ridge Rangers to Ray Charles and B.J. Thomas; from Bob Dylan and jazz diva Norah Jones, to crooner Perry Como, R&B star Dinah Washington, and British punk band, The The.
In this definitive account Colin Escott vividly details the singer's stunning rise and his spectacular decline, and reveals much that was previously unknown or hidden about the life of this country music legend.
Now, over sixty years after his death, a major motion picture starring Tom Hiddleston and Elizabeth Olsen brings Hank Williams' tragic story to the screen. I Saw The Light first premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and will be distributed by Sony Picture Classics in the UK.
- ISBN10 147363461X
- ISBN13 9781473634619
- Publish Date 19 November 2015 (first published 10 November 2015)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher John Murray Press
- Imprint Two Roads
- Format Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
- Pages 480
- Language English