Country music lost another legend this week so soon after losing Porter Wagoner. Singer and bandleader Hank Thompson died late Tuesday of lung cancer at his home in Keller, TX. He was 82. His last show was in Waco, TX on October 8th. Texas Governor Rick Perry and Waco Mayor Virginia DuPuy officially named that day “Hank Thompson Day.” Thompson death came quickly as it was just days ago that he cancelled his remaining tour dates and announced he was retiring from the music business.
Thompson had twenty-nine Top 10 hits starting in 1948 and stretching all the way through 1975. He was known for his musical style, a type of Western swing, as well as his voice. His first hit was titled “Whoa, Sailor” and it hit the charts in 1946. That same year, he formed his band, Brazos Valley Boys. The Brazos Valley Boys won the Billboard Touring Band of the Year award an amazing fourteen consecutive times.
Among Thompson’s songs that are more famous were “Humpty Dumpty Heart,” “Six Pack to Go,” and “Broken Heart and a Glass of Beer.” Thompson was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1989.
Another country music singer from a well-known musical family is set to have brain surgery. Roseanne Cash, daughter of Johnny Cash and his first wife Vivian, has a rare, but benign condition called chiari I malformation, which is a congenital malformation of the skull that affects both the brain and the spinal cord.
Roseanne, age 52, is expected to make a full recovery, but for now, she has to cancel her remaining dates, including a November 30th show in Washington, D.C., on her Black Cadillac tour. After recovery, she plans to return to the studio, resume touring, and finish writing a new book to be published in 2009.