50 Years Ago Today, Hank Williams Jr. Survived A 530-Foot Fall Down A Montana Mountain: “I Should’ve Died”

Hank Williams Jr. is quite the living legend in the country music world, and one would venture to guess he has more than a few dates burned into his memory. Like May of 1964, when he released his first career single at just 14 years old, a cover of his father’s “Long Gone Lonesome Blues.” Or how about October 12, 1987? The date he won his first of 5 Entertainer of the Year Awards. And perhaps August 12, 2020? The date he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

As country music royalty, the son of the legendary Hank Williams, ol’ Bocephus has garnered quite the music career of his own with more than 50 studio albums, tons of #1 hits, Country Music Hall of Fame status, a handful of Entertainer of the Year awards, Grammy wins, ACM wins, CMA wins, not to mention just about anybody worth anything in country music right now would call him an inspiration. The accolades are as impressive as anyone in country music, and we could go on listing dates and accomplishments… the list would be long.

However, I’d be willing to bet that August 8th, 1975…. 50 years ago today…. might be one of the days that will haunt him forever. It’s the day that he fell 530 feet down a mountain and he lived to talk about it. And believe it or not, he can remember the entire thing… vividly.

Here it goes…

The Years Before

In the late ’60s, Hank Jr.’s career in music was starting to take off, but it was largely still in the shadow of his father. And he hated it. Beginning at the age of just 14 years old, he recorded a number of Hank Sr. songs, some even doing quite well on the country charts, but by age 18, he was tired of being a “Hank Williams impersonator.”

He cut ties with his mother, Audrey, and the spiraled out of control. Much like his father, he got wrapped up in drugs and alcohol, and then around 25 years old, he made a suicide attempt on his life in 1974. Thankfully a doctor put the fear of God into him, and also gave him some pretty good advice about being his own man:

“There was a doctor, he said: ‘You’ve been taught to look like, act like, and be like Hank Williams your whole life. He died at twenty-nine. And you’re going to beat him.’ Those were his exact words. And he said, ‘I want you to start saying, ‘the hell with that.’ And you go do your thing and you kiss that other stuff goodbye.’ That was some pretty good advice.”

Hank famously recalled the pressure to fill his own man’s shoes, saying:

“Hank Williams Jr., that name gets you started real good in some ways, and it also closes some doors in other ways. I played my first show when I was eight years old, recording for MGM at fourteen. And it was fun for the little boy to do Hank Williams, but it was hell for the man.”

Hank later moved down to Alabama to get refocused on music and started playing with the likes of Charlie Daniels, Waylon Jennings, and the Marshall Tucker Band, before recording his breakout album, Hank Williams Jr. & Friends, in the early part of 1975.

However, before the album was released, Hank Jr. had the hiking accident that would forever alter the course of his career, or at least his image… an accident that he was incredibly lucky to survive.

The 500 Foot Fall

On August 8th, 1975, Williams and a buddy, Dick Willey, went hiking in Montana, up near the Idaho border around Ajax Lake. With Ajax peak resting up 10,000 feet, Hank encountered a snow field about a thousand feet below the mountain’s peak. He attempted to cross and the snow underneath him gave way. He plummeted down the steep slope, coming to rest about 530 feet down the mountain.

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His face struck a boulder on the way down, fracturing his skull in a number of places, and to say his injuries were graphic would be the understatement of the year. His nose, teeth and jaw were broken to pieces, his eye was hanging out of the socket, and a fracture in his skull had even left his brain exposed and sticking out through the hole in his forehead.

In his autobiography, Living Proof: The Hank Williams Story, Hank recalled the gruesome aftermath:

“I put my hands up to feel my nose. Where my nose should be there’s nothing there. My teeth and parts of my jaw fall out in my hand. I raise my hand to my forehead, and where my forehead should be, there’s something soft and squishy. That’s my brain, I think.” 

His friend, Dick Willey, was able to run back up the mountain and find a park ranger who would radio for help. Hank was eventually rescued by helicopter, which flew him to Missoula Community Hospital…. but the damage was extensive. Williams spent over seven hours in surgery, just to get him stable.

Hank Jr. joked during an interview that the ride down was pretty rough, and as someone who broke both their arms at the same time snowboarding in the mountains, I will tell you that getting off the mountain is NOT fun. Of course, two broken arms pales in comparison to Hank’s fall, but the sentiment is the same, it’s a rough ride out of there. But perhaps the most unsettling part of all of it is that Hank never lost any consciousness throughout the entire process… he remembers all of it. And that is why he believes that he was able to survive.

“All of it. That’s why I lived, they said, because I remember every bit of it… they strapped me to the outside of a helicopter. That ride was pretty rough. Cold. Then you get down there and they cut everything off. I said, ‘Don’t cut my cross off.’ They cut everything off. I had a gun in the shoulder holster when I fell, cut the whole straw, cut all of that off. Operated all night. Woke up, I don’t know, a day and a half later or something like that. 

And when he finally woke up, another member of country music royalty was there to greet him.

A Miracle Recovery

Hank Jr. woke up in that Missoula hospital, the first two people Hank Jr. saw were none other than his godmother, June Carter Cash and her husband Johnny Cash.

“When I fell, there were only two people I saw when I woke up in the hospital bed, and that was Johnny and June. June put a cross on me and told me it was all going to be OK. I never knew if I would sing again or not, talk again or not, let alone think about what I was going to look like. It was a scary time.”

According to The Tennessean, Audrey Williams, Hank Jr.’s mom flew up to Montana to attend to her son’s needs.

“It’s just a miracle the boy is living, but he’s young and he’s tough. It was just God’s will for him to live.”

Audrey died shortly thereafter.

Hank Jr. would go on to endure nine more surgeries to repair the damage to his head and face alone. We’re talking plates, skin grafts, the whole nine yards. All in all, it took 17 surguers to get him fixed up right. And as he would later joke, the 76-year-old still has the occasional back pain at times:

“530 feet with a long way and 17 operations, yeah, I have a little bit of back pain now.”

Truth be told, that accident is actually responsible for how Hank Williams Jr. looks to this very day. To cover the scars and permanent disfiguration, Hank grew out his beard, started wearing sunglasses and a cowboy hat… and Hank Williams Jr.’s signature look was born.

“I’ve had dreams about it. I should have died. The doctor said he had worked on plenty of boys in Vietnam and, to be frank, they looked good compared to me. It was a long time after that, it was starting all over.”

And start over he did. But the rest is history…

Many doctors thought might never sing again went on to release another 20-something albums, win countless awards, and forever enshrine himself among the country music legends. Hank discussed the accident in more detail during this 1987 feature on ABC’s 20/20.

His song “All In Alabama,” a cut off his 1980 Habits Old And New album, details the aftermath of the accident.

14-Year-Old Hank Williams Jr. Make His TV Debut

Taking it back to the beginning.

Much like the name Dale Earnhardt and his son Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the racing world, when you think of country music, it’s hard not to immediately think Hank Williams, as well as his son, Hank Williams Jr.

Of course ol’ Hank is iconic as anybody to every pick up a guitar and sing country music, but ol’ Bocephus was, and still is, quite the powerhouse himself.

Throughout the ’70s, ’80s and early ’90s, nobody was cranking out music like Hank Jr., sometimes putting out two or three albums in a single year. He’s a five time Entertainer of the Year winner (both ACMs and CMAs), Grammy winner, and member of the Country Music Hall of Fame.

At 73 years old, he recently released a blues project, Rich White Honky Blues, which debuted at #1 on the Country, Americana, and Blues charts. A bluesman at heart, Hank Jr.’s father Hank Williams Sr. was taught to play guitar as a small child by a bluesman named Rufus “Tee-Tot” Payne, so this project was a return to his roots.

But speaking of his roots, let’s take it all the way back to the early ’60s when Hank Jr. was just 14 years old.

In 1964, Hank Jr. made his first television appearance of his career on ABC’s The Jimmy Dean Show.

Already standing over 6 feet, the youngster performed a number of his dad’s hits, including “Long Gone Lonesome Blues.”

When Jimmy introduced Hank Jr., he called Hank Sr. his favorite songwriter:

“My favorite songwriter, I think I would have to say Hank Williams. He wrote with a lot of heart, he was a fine performer… we are delighted to have his son with us, and we’d like you to give a nice, warm welcome to Mr. Hank Williams Jr.”

Written and released by Hank Williams in 1950, “Long Gone Lonesome Blues,” was his second-career #1 single on the Country & Western Charts.

Hank Jr. would release a cover himself in 1964, and that would go on to peak at #5 of the chart.

And the rest is history…

Hank Williams Jr. On The Pressure To Be Like His Father: “It Was Driving Me Crazy”

I can’t imagine the pressure that comes with being a famous person’s child.

Especially when the famous person passed away at a young age, and the child is expected to fill the parent’s shoes and continue the legacy, just like Hank Williams Jr. had to do.

As most know, Hank Williams passed away when he was only 29-years-old due to a long battle with alcohol and drug abuse, when Hank Jr. was only three-years-old.

As soon as Hank Jr. turned five, he was pressured by his mother, Audrey Williams, and the rest of the country music world to become exactly like his father, and become the next Hank Williams.

In an ABC 20/20 segment with Barbara Walters back in 1987, Hank Jr. detailed the struggles he faced while always being compared to his father growing up.

“It was always ‘Your daddy went through this stuff, and you’ll have to go through it. We have to go through these things (booze and drugs)’ ya know… depression, that’s a big sport to a lot of these people I think. It was just drilled into me a lot.”

He discussed how he was already playing shows and covering his father’s songs at an incredibly young age:

“I was on the road when I was eight. When they came to see an eight to 10 year old it wasn’t for his wonderful voice, it was because he was the son of Hank Williams.

They were trying to give me a drink when I was 10 or 12, you know saying ‘Hey give ol’ Hank a little drink here,’ the old steel player and everything.”

He was then asked if anybody ever told him he wasn’t supposed to drink and take pills, and he responded:

“No, the road wasn’t ever like that. I grew up quick… I was in the hospital several times, all the way out. The pills, you know, the whiskey, and the whole thing. I was really rolling in it.

I thought I was gonna die a couple times and it scared the heck out of me.”

He also weighed in on the pressure he felt from fans to be like his father, and if it didn’t sound exactly like his father sounded, he would take heat for it:

“They’d be like ‘Sing Hey Good Lookin’,’ and I’d just be like, ‘well I just sang it, you were just so drunk you didn’t hear it or I’m just gonna do this other one.'”

“Oh you little sore, your daddy would have…”

“So that didn’t go over too good… I punched one of ’em, in Salt Lake City and boy that felt good. It was driving me crazy.

I had a psychiatrist tell me he said, ‘Hey you’ve been living, talk like, act like, be like, sing like your daddy, your lifestyles exactly like his, and you’re gonna be gone too.’

I said ‘To hell with this, I’m not putting up with this crap.'”

That’s when he decided at the age of 26 to go a completely different direction with his country music career, and become his own person, transforming into the Hank Jr. we all know and love, taking his influence from the likes of Jerry Lee Lewis and Ray Charles.

He began to pursue a different sound that mixed together southern rock, the blues, and country music all into one.

Nevertheless, it truly is hard to fathom the amount of pressure he felt on the daily growing up to become a spitting image of his father… but despite that pressure, he emerged a legend in his own right.

 The post 50 Years Ago Today, Hank Williams Jr. Survived A 530-Foot Fall Down A Montana Mountain: “I Should’ve Died” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.