Hasil Adkins has died

[swag]

Rolling Stone

Rockabilly artist HASIL ADKINS, 68, was found dead on Monday in his Madison, West Virginia, home after sustaining injuries from an undisclosed accident .





From the All Music Guide:
Biography by Cub Koda

A crazed rockabilly one-man band, Adkins has been recording in a tarpaper shack in the hills of West Virginia since the mid-'50s. The absolutely crudest and wildest of all rock & rollers, Hasil's lyrics stray as far from the standard '50s clichés as you can get. Songs about eating peanut butter on the moon, chopping girls' heads off and mounting them on his wall, and doing something called the "hunch" are typical lyrical fare for Adkins. Combining a three-octave voice that can go from sub-glottal Elvis moans to blood-curdling screams with an over-amplified guitar that sounds like a gigantic rubber band, there is nothing in pop music that sounds like Hasil Adkins, a true rock & roll primitive.

[flamingyouth]

1. NOOOOOOO!

One of my favorites! Oh man, I'm sad. :cry:

[Fenris]

2. Fuck.

:cry:

[tuvor]

3. Oh, no!

Learned about him through RE/Search's Incredibly Strange Music, and ended up purchasing Achy Breaky Ha Ha Ha. I confess I didn't listen to it much, but it's a sadder world knowing he's not in it.

[swag]

4. I agree, it's very sad. He was a the king of crazy rock and roll.

And I like your Booji Boy avatar.

[CanuckAmok]

5. DAMMIT!

And he was only 68?! That, in itself, is surprising. I figured he'd be much older. He's been around since Methusulah had a paper route.

Dammit again.

[swag]

6. AP Story is pretty good. I have no link yet.

The son of a coal miner, Adkins learned to played guitar before he was 10. He claimed the only time he practiced his songs was on stage.

Known to his fans as The Haze, Adkins struggled for decades to get
noticed. In a 2002 interview, he said he mailed out thousands of tapes and records over a 30-year period while fishing for a record deal.

Even Richard Nixon got one, courtesy of U.S. Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va. The president's reply to Adkins came on White House stationery in 1970: "I am very pleased by your thoughtfulness in bringing these particular selections to my attention."
. . .
"People told me they wondered how I could stick with it, so many
heartaches and letdowns. I had 'em by the hundreds, millions I guess," Adkins said. "I said, well, I didn't start to quit."

"It was just amazing. It was like nothing you've ever heard," said Leslie Nahodil, a Boone County nurse who met Adkins during his occasional visits to her hospital's emergency room. "It was just pure,
homespun, country rock-a-billy music." (AP)