After he died in the back seat of a Cadillac at the age of twenty-nine, Hank Williams-a frail, flawed man who had become country music's first real star-instantly morphed into its first tragic martyr. Having hit the heights with simple songs of despair, depression and tainted love, he would become in death a template for the rock generation to follow.
Mark Ribowsky weaves together the first fully realised biography of Williams in a generation. Examining his music while re-creating days and nights choked in booze and desperation, he traces the rise of this legend-from the dirt roads of Alabama to the immortal stage of the Grand Ole Opry and to a lonely end on New Year's Day, 1953. This original work uncovers the real Hank beneath the myths that have long enshrouded his legacy.
- ISBN10 1631491571
- ISBN13 9781631491573
- Publish Date 6 January 2017 (first published 22 November 2016)
- Publish Status Inactive
- Out of Print 4 March 2021
- Publish Country US
- Publisher WW Norton & Co
- Imprint Liveright Publishing Corporation
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 496
- Language English