Name: Hank Williams Jr. Had To Fill His Dad's Big Shoes | Letterman
Uploaded: 2022-02-01T16:04:22.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Hank Williams Jr. Had To Fill His Dad's Big Shoes | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-02-01. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Hank Williams Jr. Had To Fill His Dad's Big Shoes | Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-02-01. Transcript available.

My next guest currently has eight albums, eight albums on the Billboard country
charts, unheard of.
He's one of the hottest recording artists in the business and is quickly living
up to his legendary namesake, his latest album.
I have a copy of it right here. It's entitled Hank Williams, Jr. High Notes.
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Hank Williams, Jr.
Hank Howard, come on, guys.
Thank you very much for being here. Now, let's just get some of this taken care
of.
Eight albums on the country charts. Has that not been done before?
Uh-uh.
Now, how? I see.
Yes, yes.
Over what period of time did you record these things and produce them and so
forth?
Let's see. We recorded the first one in 77. This is 82. It's still on there.
Yeah. Now, I'm guessing that there's a pretty good dough in this, huh?
It's a fantastic day.
Yeah.
Things weren't always fantastic for you, though, were they?
No, they weren't.
Yeah.
Hank Williams, Jr., that name gets you started real good in some ways, and it
also closes the door in some other ways.
Now, we're talking about how many years ago did you find that it was a start
and also a hindrance?
I played my first show when I was eight years old, recording for MGM at 14.
Uh, and it was fun to be, uh, for the little, little boy, you know, to be doing
Hank Williams, but it was hell for the man.
Mm-hmm.
So, right about 20 and 21, that's what it was.
Now, for people who may not know what you're talking about, when your dad died,
who was a legendary musician, and people loved him so that they, actually, you
were just called upon to kind of fill in, right?
Yeah, well, at eight years old.
You know, they wanted any part of him that could get back, and, uh, uh, I didn't
have music on my mind very much.
I'd go out and do these shows.
I wasn't too serious about it at eight, 14, 16, you know, and did the MGM movie,
You're Cheating Heart.
That was a gold album, and, uh, then after some marriages and divorces and
things like that, then it got serious, you know, and started writing some of my
own things.
Uh, now, whose idea was it to put you out there on stage and, uh, start, you
were essentially doing your dad's act, right?
Oh, it was my idea, without a doubt.
My mother, you know, I was on the road with her, but I couldn't wait to do it.
I've got my nine-year-old boy on this tour.
He can't wait.
Mm-hmm.
But I had, uh, a, uh, manager later on where it was exploited to the point of,
like, daddy's original band and make records with his voice over mine, and, uh,
it got a little out of hand there.
Yeah.
Do you have any resentment, or did you have any resentment at the time, uh, for
your father's success when you were doing that?
Oh, no, not, not back then, you know.
I had him on a pedestal, and then I've got a song called Family Tradition, you
know, if I get stoned and sing all night long, that's a family tradition.
And I would ask Ernest Tubb, like, what about it, Ernest?
Well, yes, son, that's the way it was, you know, you know.
You know, uh, and, uh, I started getting the truth from some of these guys, and,
uh, uh, that's when it all started for us.
You, uh, you weren't always really well-received when you were doing this, over
here.
Oh, no.
No, you start with Sweet Home Alabama at volume 20, you know, and they came to
hear, uh, uh, you're cheating hard, and there's a thousand there, and 800 left,
and 200 stayed, you know.
Yeah, but I'm, I'm talking about when, even when you were doing your dad's act,
that didn't satisfy people, did it?
Uh, yeah, it did.
Yeah, it did then.
Did they?
Real good.
Yeah, but weren't you, didn't you suffer some abuse?
It didn't satisfy this person.
Yeah.
Or they'd say, well, sing, you know, sing this song, and I said, well, I don't
know that.
Why are you a little so-and-so your daddy would have?
Oh, I see.
So I said, well, uh, whoever, what would daddy have said?
He would have said, kiss my butt.
Uh-huh.
So that's where we took it from there.
So, at what, what, now, how did, how were you able to finally, uh, uh, shed
this and become your own performer?
Uh, writing songs and doing shows and showing off.
Mm-hmm.
Hoping for some people like Marshall Tucker Band, the Allman Brothers, Waylon
Jennings.
Yeah.
To another audience.
Uh.
That's what helped me with Johnny Cash, all my old rowdy friends.
Uh, tell me about, uh, Falling Off a Mountain.
Well, we cut an album called Hank Jr. and Friends, Charlie Daniels, Tori Caldwell,
and Chuck Lavelle.
That's the Marshall Tucker Band and, uh, the Allman Brothers, some of the
hottest groups back then in 75.
Things were opened up, we're gonna start doing some shows.
Uh, we were descending from about 10,800 feet on the Montana-Idaho border.
No, not you and the whole band.
No, no, no, no, just me and, uh, and a rancher and his son, uh, and, uh, I went
down this mountainside, 470 or 80 feet, and from the back of the head and
between the eyes, and this is all plastic, this is plastic, no gums, and all of
this.
And, uh, I was doing eight operations, and I thought singing is over, and, uh,
never look at any ladies again, and, uh, really thought it was all over.
How long ago was all of that?
75.
Hmm.
Good heavens.
Well, let's dispense with the funny stuff.
We'll come back.