The Ballad Of Hank Williams

Well in 1950 I took a little nip Along with Mr. Williams on the way to Mississipp' We was stacked 8 deep in a Packard limousine And we met this promoter in the town of New Orleans Now the man told that he had what it took And he liked the way he sang and he liked the way he shook He said pretty soon he'd make us all rich And we started believin' that fat sumbitch Now the man told if you wanna make some dough Take a little money and book me on a show And we played them dates and we filled the places well But Hank, he'd done blowed the profits all to hell Cause he'd run through a 10 and he'd run through a 20 And he'd run through a 100 just as fast as it would go Like a big dose of sauce to a little bitty fella He'd spend a 1000 dollars on a 100 dollar show Hank looked at me with a funny lookin' grin, Said "I've been to the Opry and I'm goin' back again" We met the owner in a little office there And a big fat fella with some artificial hair He told Hank he wanted half of everything he made Or he'd have to tell Audrey 'bout some women Hank had laid And you told Daddy he'd better get smart, Get rid of them fellas and make a new start Chorus: So he fired my ass and he fired Jerry Rivers And he fired everybody just as hard as he could go He fired old Cedric and he fired Sammy Pruitt And he fired some people that he didn't even know Well, every song he made it went to number one, Y'all was workin' like hell and you was havin' fun We was ridin' every day and playin' every night And every 20 minutes some of us had a fight Now, Daddy he was makin' money hand over fist, And y'all was getting' screwed but you wasn't getting kissed Yeah, I told him to pass a little bit around But he said he'd rather send it to his folks in Alabam' Repeat 2nd Chorus Now the owner of the Opry, he's a-doin' pretty good, He's got a music company that they call Cedarwood And Hank played nothing but sold out halls And I was pumpin' gas in greasy overalls Repeat 1st Chorus