Quite a few of the biggest names in country music had to deal with hardship in their life,
tragedies and difficulties that informed their music. Here are some tragic details
about classic country musicians.
Hank Williams is one of the biggest names in country music history,
thanks to seminal songs like "Cold, Cold Heart," "Your Cheatin' Heart,"
"Hey, Good Lookin'," and "I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive." As a child,
his family didn't have a lot of money, and he struggled with the health condition spina bifida.
His singing and songwriting career started taking off in the early 1940s, but his chronic
back pain led to alcohol abuse, and it wasn't uncommon for him to perform drunk onstage.
Despite these difficulties, Williams' career soared after the release of the 1949 song
"Lovesick Blues." The more successful he got, though, the more he drank, and he also started
abusing morphine. Eventually, he was fired by the Grand Ole Opry, gained 30 pounds,
started losing his hair, and had a minor heart attack. On Dec. 30, 1952,
the singer fell unconscious in a hotel room, yet a doctor allowed him to keep working. A few days
later on New Year's Eve, he had a heart attack in his car and died. Williams was just 29 years old.
Born during the Depression, Patsy Cline, born Virginia Patterson Hensley,
was abused by her father as a child. After he abandoned everyone, Cline dropped out
of high school to help support her family, turning her passion for music into a career.
Despite personal issues that included a divorce,
Cline's career took off, thanks to hits like "Walkin' After Midnight," "Pieces,"
"Crazy," and "She's Got You." In 1961, she survived a terrible car crash,
but it deeply affected her; she later told friends that she was having premonitions of her own death.
Tragically, those premonitions came true: She died in a plane crash alongside the pilot and
Opry stars Cowboy Copas and Hawkshaw Hawkins. She was just 30 years old.
George Jones was one of eight children and grew up poor in Texas. He wrote in
his autobiography "I Lived to Tell It All" that his father was an alcoholic who would
become violent when under the influence - traits that set George on a very similar path.
After his first marriage failed because of his drinking and anger issues, Jones went on to
remarry three more times, once in a tumultuous relationship with fellow star Tammy Wynette.
And his career suffered too: after becoming a massive star with numerous number one hits,
he went off the rails.He would disappear for days, missing concert dates and recording sessions,
earning him the nickname “No Show Jones”. He also started abusing cocaine, which led to significant
weight loss. This was followed by a drunk driving arrest and other issues with the law.
In 1983, he was malnourished and losing his mind. According to Texas Monthly, he,
quote "ended up in a straightjacket at Hillcrest Psychiatric Hospital." He stopped drinking for
several years after marrying his fourth wife, but a relapse in the '90s led to a car accident.
Jones later claimed the crash finally stopped him from drinking. In 2012,
Jones received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and he died the following year at age 81.
Charley Pride made his mark as a country music star from the '60s through the '80s,
with songs such as "Is Anybody Goin' to San Antone" and "Kiss an Angel Good Mornin'." His
father was a sharecropper, and Pride picked cotton to save money for his first guitar. It paid off,
as Pride rose to become the CMA's 1971 Entertainer of the Year.
Tragically, on December 12, 2020, Pride died of complications from COVID-19.
He was admitted to the hospital in late November and passed away a couple weeks
later. His death devastated the country music community, with stars from Reba McEntire and
Brad Paisley to Dolly Parton and the Oak Ridge Boys delivering heartfelt tributes. He was 86.
Tammy Wynette was shopping with her eight-year-old daughter on October 4, 1978, when she claimed that
she was kidnapped from a parking lot in Nashville, Tennessee. The singer reported that an armed,
masked man carjacked her. He proceeded to strangle her with pantyhose and beat her,
before abandoning her in a town 80 miles away, according to The Boot.
Wynette suffered a fractured cheekbone among other injuries. She told People later that month,
"It was the most terrifying experience of my life."
During the investigation, the police had trouble determining a motive or a suspect. Over 20 years
later, Wynette's daughter, Jackie Daly, claimed in a book that her mother made the incident up
to hide the abuse she received from her fifth husband, George Richey, allegations he denied.
But another of Wynette's daughters, Georgette Jones, backed up her sister's claims that
Richey had beat up their mother. Georgette wrote in her 2011 memoir,
"He threatened to destroy her life and write a tell-all book so she
decided to stay with him [...] so he concocted the kidnapping story for PR."
Johnny Cash met Vivian Liberto in 1951 when she was just 17 years old. The pair married in 1954,
after Cash was discharged from the military and set up a home in Memphis, Tennessee. Over the
years, the couple had four children: Cindy Cash, Rosanne Cash, Kathy Cash, and Tara Cash. In 1956,
Cash released "I Walk The Line," which sold 2 million copies and hit No. 1 on the country
charts, catapulting his career. The family moved to California, and Cash spent a lot
of time on the road touring - while spending more and more time with singer June Carter.
Cash's alcohol and drug abuse, and his extramarital affairs, led to the dissolution
of his marriage to Vivian in 1966. But those weren't the only factors. Their marriage was
put under attack a year earlier when a Ku Klux Klan magazine published altered photos of Vivian,
leading to death threats from white supremacists, because Vivian appeared to be Black in a time when
miscegenation laws were still in effect across much of the South. The couple threatened a lawsuit
and had to prove her Sicilian ancestry in order for Cash to continue performing at some venues.
Roseanne Cash said that racist backlash against
the pair was another strain on her parents' relationship.
"My dad got in a public battle with the KKK, and, so I knew about that, and it was scary!"
In 2021, the genealogy show "Finding Your Roots" discovered that Liberto and Cash
actually both had Black ancestors, something Rosanne - who it turns
out is a distant cousin of Angela Bassett - enthusiastically embraced.
"It makes me feel like a badass!"
In 1959, Waylon Jennings was the bass player in Buddy Holly's backing band.
Jennings was supposed to fly to a venue on February 3 with Holly,
but instead he gave his seat to J.P. "Big Bopper" Richardson, who wasn't feeling well. The winter
weather had caused problems throughout the tour, and Holly joked with Jennings that
he hoped his tour bus broke down. Jennings joked back, "I hope your ol' plane crashes."
The plane did crash. In 1999,
Jennings opened up about his fear that someone would find out that he had joked
about the plane crash. He blamed himself and had survivor's guilt. He told CMT,
"I hadn't contributed anything to the world at that time compared
to Buddy. Why would he die and not me? It took a long time to figure that out,
and it brought about some big changes in my life — the way I thought about things."
Willie Nelson has produced some of country's most beloved songs,
including "Crazy" and "On the Road Again." Popular since the 1960s,
the octogenarian is still touring despite a number of scares - especially from his first marriage.
In 1952, before his music career kicked off, the 19-year-old Nelson married 16-year-old Martha
Matthews. Nelson told People magazine that the couple fought constantly, and, by 1960,
when they moved to Nashville with their kids, the relationship was on the rocks.
Willie was drinking a lot and even tried to kill himself by lying down in the street and
waiting for a car to run him over. Martha intervened. But she got so fed up with his
drinking that when he passed out drunk one night, she sewed him inside a sheet. Willie recalled,
"Then she got a broomstick and started beating the hell out of me. I woke
up in this straitjacket, getting pounded like a short-order steak."
When he was finally able to escape, Martha had left with both the kids and Willie's clothes.
That was the end of their marriage.
Merle Haggard was responsible for a string of hits during his career,
including "Today I Started Loving You Again," "Old Man from the Mountain," "Workin' Man Blues," and
"I Think I'll Just Stay Here and Drink." He was raised by his mother after his father died, and he
proceeded to run away from home and spend time in reform school, escaping from jail numerous times.
In 1957, to make sure he wouldn't escape again, he was finally sent to San Quentin
for burglary. While there, he saw Johnny Cash play live and was inspired to pursue music as
a career, which he did upon his release in 1960. Over the course of his career,
he was involved in over 150 albums, including soundtracks, reissues, and compilations.
Unfortunately, in 2008, a fire at the Universal Studios backlot resulted in
the loss of master tapes from Haggard and a variety of other country music stars.
Over 500,000 song titles were destroyed, including those by Haggard, Patsy Cline,
Loretta Lynne, Lynyrd Skynyrd, George Strait, George Jones,
Buddy Holly, and more. The fire was described as the loss of "a huge musical heritage."
In March 2001, H.K. Covel, Toby Keith's father, died in a car accident that could
have been prevented. Covel was driving his truck in Goldsby, Oklahoma, when another
vehicle bumped into him. Covel's truck went over the median, and a charter bus struck him,
causing his death. Keith and his family filed a lawsuit for wrongful death and negligence and
received a $2.8 million settlement, according to Country Standard Time. The blame for the accident
was placed on Rodriguez Transportes of Tulsa and the Republic Western Insurance Company.
The Rodriguezes bought the bus in October 2000, and during an inspection the following
month in Tulsa, inspectors determined that it "urgently" needed brake work. If the bus
had been properly serviced and the driver properly trained to operate the vehicle,
Covel would have survived, according to expert testimony in court. The driver did
not have a commercial driver's license, and the jury determined that the crash
was "clearly avoidable." It decided that Covel was not at fault for the accident,
and Rodriguez Transportes behaved in "reckless disregard." Keith said after the trial,
"We were only there to find the truth and the
jury saw it so plainly that they awarded us a unanimous decision."
In 2012, a drunken Randy Travis crashed his car in Tioga, Texas.
What made matters worse was that he was naked, he threatened to shoot the police officers,
and he said he hoped that they got cancer. In addition, the entire incident - including a
bizarre Godfather-themed threat - was caught on video, ensuring Travis national embarrassment.
“I know the head of a mafioso family, man, I promise you I do.”
Travis pleaded guilty, received probation, and spent several years trying to block the release of
the video. However, a judge allowed its release in 2017. In a bid to save Travis' reputation,
a rep explained in a statement that the country star was impaired and coping with mental health
issues, which caused him to, quote, "do and say things that were entirely out of character."
The rep also noted that Travis felt "deeply apologetic for his actions."
In 2013, Travis, then 54, suffered a massive stroke. At one point,
he was put on life support, and doctors told his wife he had a 1% chance of survival,
according to Everyday Health. He survived, and the couple started The Randy Travis
Foundation to aid victims of stroke and cardiovascular diseases. In 2016,
during his induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame, he was even able to sing some
lyrics to "Amazing Grace," but sadly the stroke all but ended his recording career.
If you or anyone you know is struggling with addiction issues,
help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).