If you decide to sing “All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight” and your name isn’t Hank Williams Jr., you better bring it.
Fortunately, when it came time for someone else to sing it at the CMT Giants: Hank Williams Jr. tribute show in 2007, Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler stepped up to the plate and knocked it right out of the park. And Bocephus had a front row seat to see it all.
The song is one of Hank Williams Jr’s most recognizable, and is from his 1984 album Major Moves. If you’ve never checked out the corresponding music video for it, that’s a must. And if you feel like you’ve heard the song before but it sounded a little different, that’s because Bocephus did a reworked version for it for years called “All My Rowdy Friends Are Here on Monday Night” for Monday Night Football.
This time around though, it was the original song performed by someone other thank Hank. Diehard country fans might be a little hesitant to hear that and continue on, but remember, this was sang by Steven Tyler as an ultimate display of respect. Steven Tyler and Aerosmith wrote some head-bopping songs in their heyday, and the lead singer had to give it his all to keep pace with this Bocephus classic.
Buddy Guy – a legendary artist and guitarist in his own right – joined up with Steven Tyler to offer up a performance of “All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight” that brought the house down. The only way it could have been improved would have been to bring Hank Williams Jr. himself into the tribute song.
And guess what? That sort of happened at the end of the song, when Williams Jr. grabbed the microphone from the rock star to help him out with the song’s conclusion. So all in all, this is all you could ask for in a Hank Williams Jr. song that’s technically not entirely sang by Bocephus himself.
Check it out:
Here’s the aforementioned music video:
