His name is Bocephus…but why?
Whether you call him Hank Williams Jr., Hank Jr., or an Icon, there’s no denying the impact Bocephus has had on country music.
The son of country music royalty, Hank Jr. got his start at an early age and recorded his first song, his own version of his father’s “Long Gone Lonesome Blues,” when he was just 15 years old. But early on in his career, Hank Jr. struggled to get out from his father’s shadow and blaze his own trail with his own sound, rather than simply singing his father’s songs.
When speaking about this struggle during a 1982 interview, Hank admitted that it was fun for him as a child to follow in his dad’s footsteps, but described it as “hell” when he got older:
“It was fun for the little boy to do Hank Williams, but it was hell for the man.”
In fact it got so bad that he admitted that he wasn’t sure if he wanted to keep going.
Discussing the mental toll that the pressure to follow in the footsteps of his father took on him, Bocephus said that while going through a divorce at the same time, it finally got to be too much:
“My mother, my wife, my manager, everybody was, ‘He’s nuts. Because he’s not gonna be his daddy, he’s nuts.’”
Hank Jr. eventually found the freedom to become his own artist – and his own man – cultivating the outlaw reputation that he’s known for through songs like “Family Tradition,” “Whiskey Bent And Hell Bound,” and of course, “A Country Boy Can Survive.”
He’s also embraced his legendary father though, recording his own versions of some of the biggest Hank Williams songs like “There’s A Tear In My Beer,” “Move It On Over” and “Kaw-Liga.”
But that’s not the only thing he’s embraced from his legendary father: It’s also where he got the nickname “Bocephus” that’s followed him throughout his life.
Many may not even know how Hank Jr. came to be known as Bocephus, but it actually came from his father when he was just a little boy.
Hank Jr. was just 3 years old when his father died on January 1, 1953. But in the time that they had together, the elder Hank called his son “Bocephus” after a ventriloquist dummy used by comedian Rod Brasfield.
Brasfield was a Mississippi native who often poked fun at country life, and was eventually recruited to perform at the Grand Ole Opry by the radio show’s founder, George D. Hay. And it was there that Hank Williams saw his act, and his dummy Bocephus, and adopted the name for his son.
In the late 1940s, Brasfield began performing alongside another Grand Ole Opry star, Minnie Pearl, and also performed with names like June Carter and Elvis Presley.
Here’s one of his routines with Minnie Pearl from the 1950s:
Well obviously the nickname stuck, and has been embraced by Hank Williams Jr. throughout his life and career. In 1975 he released an album simply titled Bocephus, and his 1986 album Montana Cafe featured a song called “My Name Is Bocephus.”
It’s one of the most well-known nicknames in a genre that’s featured artists like The Possum, Shotgun Willie, The Man In Black. And it all started because his father saw a ventriloquist dummy at the Grand Ole Opry.
