When I finished reading my Patsy Cline book I didn’t know what to start reading next. My Mom suggested that I read a biography that she had about Hank Williams. I had recently watched a Hank Williams Video Tribute so I thought it might be interesting to read about his life. My Mom hadn’t read the book so she couldn’t tell me if it was good or not.

The Author:

Your Cheatin' Heart was written by Chet Flippo. He explains in the preface that this book would have been just another story by a fan except for one thing. Much of the book is based on papers that were in a private collection of Hank’s first wife, Audrey Williams.

The Book:

Hank Williams was born as Hiram Williams in Alabama. He lived in poverty with a mother like a sergeant and a father who ended up leaving the family. He made money by shining shoes and selling peanuts. He met a black street singer who he called “Tee-Tot”. Tee-Tot taught Hank a lot about singing for people and helped to influence him towards a blues sound.

Hank met and married Audrey Mae Sheppard. They came to Nashville where Hank eventually signed a recording contract. They had a son, Hank Williams, Jr., and also Audrey’s daughter, Lycrecia, from her first marriage. The marriage was rocky and they had their share of knock out fights. Both would cheat on each other. Audrey divorced him twice with the last and final time being in 1952.

Hank Williams became a huge star and is known today as a country music legend. He lived his life with constant back pain, loneliness and heartbreak. Audrey controlled his every thought and many of his songs were written while thinking of her. In October 1952 he married Billie Jean Jones. He would never love her like Audrey though.

Because of Hank’s constant back pain he became addicted to alcohol and all kinds of pain medication. Those would be a factor to the ending of his short life. On January 1, 1953 Hank was found dead in the back of his Cadillac on the way to do a show. He was only twenty-nine years old.

My Thoughts:

I thought this was one of the best books that I have read in a long time. I found it to be very interesting. It was a book that was easy to read and hard for me to put down. It read almost like a novel to me. The flow was great and I felt like I really got to know Hank Williams and those closest to him. There are two sections of pictures for a total of twenty-eight black and white photos. There is even a picture of Hank in his coffin, which I’m sure some would consider morbid.

The author told us a lot of interesting details about Hank's life. I enjoyed reading about the assets that Hank had at the time of his death. It was interesting to read how his mother Lilly, ex-wife Audrey and wife Billie Jean battled it out in the courts to gain from Hank’s death. Also printed in this book for the first time were the last words that Hank ever wrote. They were found on a piece of paper that he held in his hand when he was discovered dead.

I really felt a lot of pain for Hank while reading the book. It seems that the majority of his life was filled with hurt and pain. His mother controlled him and was abusive to him. His first wife was nearly the same way as his mother. Reading the book I really felt sorry for him. He went through so much in his life. Being a big success as a singer really didn’t make him happy.

Now I will tell you what I didn’t like about the book. It really bothered me the amount of profanity that the book used. There was an excessive amount of bad language that I had considered quitting reading the book. If it had not been so interesting I think I might have stopped in the middle. At one point there were two sentences that I had read “gd” five times.

I would have liked to have read about the reactions of Hank’s stepdaughter, Lycrecia and son, Hank, Jr. to his death. It didn’t tell anything about what they thought or felt. I also would have liked to have read about the reaction of more of Hank's friends such as Minnie Pearl and Roy Acuff. It touched on what a few people thought of his death, but I would have liked the author to go into more detail.

The author tells us in the preface that much of the book is based on a personal collection of papers that belonged to Audrey Williams. That is the only time in the whole book that he mentions these papers. It would have been nice if he had told how he had gotten the papers and a little more detail about that.

Overall, I was very glad that I read the book. If you can look over the bad language I think you will find it to be a very interesting biography.

Related Reviews:

In the Hank Williams Tradition Video

20 Greatest Hits CD


Recommended: Yes