Publisher's Summary After he died in the backseat of a Cadillac at the age of 29, Hank Williams - a frail, flawed man who had become country music's first real star - instantly morphed into its first tragic martyr. Having hit the heights with simple songs of despair, depression, and tainted love, he would, with that outlaw swagger, become in death a template for the rock generation to follow. Six decades later, Mark Ribowsky now weaves together the first fully realized biography of Hank Williams in a generation. Examining his music while also re-creating days and nights choked in booze and desperation, Ribowsky traces the miraculous rise of this music legend - from the dirt roads of rural Alabama to the now-immortal stage of the Grand Ole Opry and finally to a sad, lonely end on New Year's Day 1953. The result is an original work that promises to uncover the real Hank beneath the myths that have long enshrouded his legacy. ©2017 Mark Ribowsky (P)2016 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books