Perhaps no one has ever been simultaneously such a major star and so much in the shadow of his father as Hank Williams, Jr. As an eight-year-old, Williams began his career as an imitator of his deceased father, then still the biggest name in country music. Ultimately trading on the fact that his name made it impossible for the country establishment to reject him, he was to become perhaps the most significant force in bringing rock music into country.

In an industry that has never been ashamed of exploitation, young Williams was shamelessly exploited. Between the ages of eight and fourteen, he played fifty shows a year, singing his father's songs. By the time he was in his mid-teens, he was signed to MGM Records, his father's old label, and he was recording overdubbed duets with his father; he even overdubbed the...