Best Hank Williams Quotes & Sayings

Oh, I think country has changed tremendously. I think country has totally changed. Country music when I was a kid was Hank Williams. If you put Hank and Elvis together, there wasn't that musical difference. But as the Beatles showed up and the English invasion, I think country music got pretty far away from rock n' roll. — John Mellencamp

Some high society lady said is your horse outside? No ma'am, he's between my legs, but your too fat to ride. — Hank Williams Jr.

The last song I recorded with [Hank Williams, Sr.] was "I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive." I remember thinking, "Hoss, you're not just jivin'," because he was so weak that all he could do was sing a few lines and then just fall in the chair. — Chet Atkins

One of the reasons I sing so much about smoking or drinking isn't about the addiction, but more so that I'm trying to let people have a good time at my shows and forget their problems. Relax and enjoy. There's not certain religions or politics sold on them. Just come out, have a beer, have a laugh, good energy from stage and have a good time. — Hank Williams III

I had a good friend in New York City. — Hank Williams Jr.

If I'm playing country, I gotta have my country hat and my cowboy boots. I gotta have a voice, and the third thing, I gotta have I guess a little music to keep me in the right mind, a little pre-show something to get ya going. Lots of AC/DC, or I'll sit on youtube and find all kinds of stuff before we take the stage to get pumped up. — Hank Williams III

I always wanted a guitar. I always wanted to be a cowboy singer because I also listened to Hank Williams, and he would always sing these neat romantic songs. — Dick Dale

The best pay off in the world is when someone comes up to you and says, 'your music has helped me with some pretty rough times through life. I don't know if I would still be here if it was for your music whether it be country music or heavy metal has done for me.' That's ultimately the biggest payoff for me. I hear it from young kids to military guys and military women to older folks. — Hank Williams III

He plead insanity like they do now all the time. Sir, what would you have done in 1859? — Hank Williams Jr.

My grandpa taught me how to live off the land. — Hank Williams Jr.

You can do anything that you wanna do, but uh-uh, don't step on my cowboy boots. — Hank Williams Jr.

I got girls that can cook, I got girls that can clean, I got girls that'll do anything between. — Hank Williams Jr.

I always wanted to have my own farm. I've never been able to achieve that. It's kinda tough. — Hank Williams III

You're singing a song about making love to your drummer, well gay guitar pickers don't turn me on. — Hank Williams Jr.

She loved horses and Hank Williams and had a best friend named Babs. — Cheryl Strayed

I'd love to spit some Beechnut in that dude's eye and shoot him with my ole forty-five. — Hank Williams Jr.

When I was asked if I wanted to perform on the Grand Ole Opry, I yelled, 'Are you kidding me?' I've been waiting for that my whole life. To be invited where so many of the greatest country artists have performed is an honor, and I still can't believe it has been bestowed on me. Just to stand in the circle where so many greats have stood-Hank Williams, Kitty Wells, I just couldn't believe it. — Darius Rucker

I get whiskey bent and hell bound. — Hank Williams Jr.

Wherever it left us,
we were barely learning to live with it
when here came Flannery O'Connor and Hank Williams
to tell us that no one has ever been loved
the way everybody wants to be loved,
and that's hard. That's hard.
last stanza of How Step by Step We Have Come to Understand — Miller Williams

Every time the media brings up the tea party, it's painted as racist and extremists
but there's never a backlash, no outrage to those comparisons ... Working-class people are hurting
and it doesn't seem like anybody cares. When both sides are high-fiving it on the ninth hole when everybody else is without a job
it makes a whole lot of us angry. Something has to change. The policies have to change. — Hank Williams Jr.

Killed by a man with a switch blade knife, for 43 dollars my friend lost his life. — Hank Williams Jr.

I realized a lot of my friends were going to nightclubs and listening to house music. I was hanging out with them and going to clubs as well but I didn't really understand that kind of music. I was listening to country music and was heavily into Hank Williams, bluegrass, and Bob Dylan. So I just decided I really needed to understand what this music I was hearing in the clubs was all about. — Hans-Peter Lindstrom

They let dangerous men out of prison now, yes sir, I'm afraid it's so. Cause they're over crowded and it was only his fifth offense. — Hank Williams Jr.

And I flirted with the devil and he dealt me a card. He told me that you will never win. So I sold my soul to the devil. I never thought it could be this bad. And I got the devil takin' me away — Hank Williams III

If Ford is to Chevrolet what Dodge is to Chrysler,
what Corn Flakes are to Post Toasties,
what the clear blue sky is to the deep blue sea,
what Hank Williams is to Neil Armstrong -
can you doubt we were made for each other? — Lyle Lovett

I'm a product of my surroundings. I grew up on Hank Williams Jr., Johnny Cash, Jerry Reed, and also Run-D.M.C., the Beastie Boys, the Fat Boys, and Biz Markie. — Big Smo

Somewhere between raising hell and amazing grace, Lord I know just how they feel. — Hank Williams Jr.

People just didn't write songs that were so directly emotional in those days. They still don't. Part of Hank's [Williams] thing was that he was opening up about relationships between men and women in ways that nobody else did, and I think that's something that made him stand out so much. His songs are just so straightforward about these really deep feelings that are universal, but they're so hard to write about without sounding sappy or over the top. You think of men in that era - they didn't express themselves that way. — Michael McCaul

Animals have always been therapeutic for me to work with; they help me get me grounded from being on the road. — Hank Williams III

Have pity on a dinosaur. — Hank Williams Jr.

You think about people like Hank Williams, who stood on that spot of wood, and Mr. Acuff, and, of course, George Jones. And just about anybody you can think of who has made country music has been on that stage. That's what makes you so nervous - to think about the historical part of the Opry and how it's played such a part in country music. — Alan Jackson

I'm for turning off the tube and turning down the light, cause I'm for nothing else but me and you tonight. — Hank Williams Jr.

Why don't we all just get a long-neck? — Hank Williams Jr.

I listen to the radio and I like all kinds of music, you know, but I like to hear from people who have been there. Hank Williams has been there. — Leonard Cohen