|
From tinymixtapes.com:
Rockabilly Legend Hasil Adkins Dead At 67
According to his official fan club, the legendary Rockabilly pioneer Hasil Adkins has died at the age of 67. He was found dead Tuesday afternoon at his home in Madison, West Virginia, where he lived alone, three days before what would most likely have been his 68th birthday (there is some question as to the exact year of his birth). Initial police reports do not suspect foul play.
To say that Hasil Adkins -- belovedly known as "The Haze" -- was a unique character is very much an understatement. Raised in the hills of West Virginia, he never let that mountain-man heritage slip away. When he appeared on the rock scene in the 1950s, his stage presence was nothing if not frentic, rivaling and easily outsexing Elvis Presley, his stage routine was considered quite shocking; he invented his own regional dance called "The Hunch." He later claimed that he spent thirty years sending demo tapes to record labels, all of whom rejected him, and that he performed as a one-man band because he truly believed that the musicians he heard on records growing up were performing all of the instruments themselves.
It's rumored that Adkins wrote well over 7,000 songs, including such wonderful classics as "I Need Your Head," "She Said" and "No More Hot Dogs," not to mention countless songs dedicated to his one obsession: chicken and chicken products. His career was rekindled by the budding Rockabilly scene of the late 1970s and 1980s by bands such as The Cramps, and though he was often considered an "outsider" artist, Adkins was clearly a man who happily lived in a world all his own, populated by none.
|
