In his brief life, Hank Williams created one of the defining bodies of American music. Songs such as '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 29, 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, Williams was so famously unreliable toward the end that he was lucky to get a booking in a beer hall. Now Colin Escott adds the fruit of several years of impeccable new research to what was already the most full-blooded portrait of Hank Williams. With the benefit of recently discovered legal files, exclusive access to Williams's autopsy, and new research on the singer's final hours, Escott brings to light much that was previously unknown or hidden about Hank Williams.
