Country music legend Hank Williams, Sr. (1923–1953) was born Hiram Williams on this day in Mount Olive, Alabama. With a restless passion for music, he learned guitar at seven and formed his first group, the Drifting Cowboys, by sixteen. The music was already in his heart, alive and honest.

“I don’t know what you mean by country music. I just make music the way I know how,” he said. That plain truth, and the raw ache in his voice, made him unforgettable. He sang what he felt and we believed every word.

On his first trip to the Grand Ole Opry in 1949, Williams stunned the audience with six encores after singing Lovesick Blues. They called it “the night of the blue smoke,” because the crowd’s stomping and clapping kicked up clouds of dust. The earth itself was keeping time for him.

“When tears come down, like fallin’ rain, you’ll toss around and call my name,” he wrote in his iconic hit Your Cheatin’ Heart. “A song ain’t nuthin’ in the world but a story just wrote with music to it,” he explained.

For Hank, every story came straight from life—and straight to the heart.

With chart-toppers like Hey Good Lookin’, Jambalaya, and Move It On Over, Williams carried country and western music to the world. “A good song is a good song,” he said simply. “And if I’m lucky enough to write it, well… I get more kick out of writing than I do singing. I reckon I’ve written a thousand songs and had over 300 published.”

Williams was the first artist elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1961. His plaque reads: “The simple beautiful melodies and straightforward, plaintive stories in his lyrics of life as he knew it will never die.” His music reminds us to tell our truth and let our hearts sing while we can.