Country legend Hank Williams Jr. marked the 48th anniversary of his near-fatal accident in the 1970s as he talked about how “very blessed” and thankful he was to still be alive.
The 74-year-old country singer definitely got everyone’s attention on Tuesday when he posted an aerial picture on Twitter of the location where he almost died on a mountain, falling more than 500 feet after hitting the trails with a pal in southwestern Montana on August 8, 1975.
“48 years ago today 530 feet and 17 operations later this picture says it all,” Williams Jr. tweeted to his hundreds of thousands of followers in a post that showed the exact place where he fell and landed.
48 years ago today 530 feet and 17 operations later this picture says it all. I am a very blessed and thankful man. HWJR pic.twitter.com/yU8nY70a5s
— Hank Williams, Jr. (@HankJr) August 8, 2023
“I am a very blessed and thankful man. HWJR,” he added.
The “Family Tradition” hitmaker’s life changed that day in August after he and buddy, Dick Willey, went out for a hike in the mountains near the Idaho border around Ajax Lake, Whiskey Riff.com noted.
The peak sits at 10,000 feet and the two men encountered a field covered with snow. While the pair where attempting to cross, the “Country state of mind” hitmaker stepped on snow that gave way under him and he plummeted 500 feet down the mountain.
In his own autobiography, “Living Proof: The Hank Williams Story,” recalled touching his face and feeling it crushed after he struck a boulder in the fall that fractured his skull, leaving part of his brain exposed.
“I put my hands up to feel my nose,” Williams Jr. wrote. “Where my nose should be there’s nothing there. My teeth and parts of my jaw fall out in my hand.”
“I raise my hand to my forehead, and where my forehead should be, there’s something soft and squishy,” he added. “That’s my brain, I think.”
Once Willey found him the country star was helicoptered to Missoula Community Hospital. He underwent seven hours in surgery, just to get him into stable condition, the outlet noted. And as Hank tweeted himself, 17 operations later he survived and is still here to tell the tale.
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