Before he could reach the height of his fame, Hank Williams Jr.’s life was nearly cut short following a tragic accident that left the musician hospitalized and fighting to survive in 1975.
Now, Williams Jr. is reflecting on the incident that nearly changed his life so many decades ago.
“48 years ago today 530 feet and 17 operations later this picture says it all. I am a very blessed and thankful man,” Williams Jr. wrote to his Instagram, alongside a photo that illustrated his horrific fall.
HANK WILLIAMS JR., MARTY STUART AND DEAN DILLON INDUCTED INTO COUNTRY HALL OF FAME
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Williams Jr. was just 26 when he slipped and fell off Montana’s Ajax Mountain in a climbing accident. He sustained serious injuries, including multiple facial and skull fractures.
The fall happened before Williams Jr.’s could even promote what would be a highly successful album in “Hank Williams Jr. and Friends.”
Hank Williams Jr. is pictured performing just two years after his accident. (Paul Natkin/Getty Images)
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In an interview with Rolling Stone back in 2015, Williams Jr. remembered waking up in the hospital, surrounded by two special people.
“Many people don’t realize that June Carter Cash was my godmother. She and mother were very tight. When I fell, there were only two people I saw when I woke up in the hospital bed, and that was Johnny [Cash] and June,” he said. “June put a cross on me and told me it was all going to be OK. I never knew if I would sing again or not, talk again or not, let alone think about what I was going to look like. It was a scary time, but having people like Waylon [Jennings], Johnny and June around really helped me.”
Hank William Jr. was only 3 when his famous father Hank Williams Sr. died. (Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images)
The son of the late Hank Williams Sr., Williams Jr. has seen great success throughout his life, but also lived through great sorrow.
In 2022, Williams Jr.’s wife Mary Jane Thomas died at 58 after suffering from a “collapsed lung that was punctured during elective surgery,” Fox News Digital confirmed from medical reports.
Mary Jane Thomas’ cause of death was revealed to be due to a punctured lung. She died in March 2022 during an elective surgery in Florida. The couple attended his 2021 Medallion Ceremony, celebrating the Induction of the Class of 2020 at Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum on Nov. 21, 2021 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Jason Kempin)
In 2020, his daughter Katherine, the only one of his five children that did not follow in his footsteps as a musician, died in a car accident.
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Then in 2013, his other daughters, Hilary and Holly, were also gravely injured in a car crash, with Hilary actually being pronounced dead twice before regaining a pulse.