Faron Young

At 64 years old, Faron Young has this physical status:

Faron Young (February 25, 1932-1996), an American country music singer and songwriter from the 1950s to the mid-1980s, and one of the country's most popular and colorful performers.

His hits include "If You Ain't Lovin" and "Live Fast, Love Hard, Die Young"; and his chart-to-top singles "Hello Walls" and "It's Four in the Morning" demonstrated his versatility as a singer; and "Live Fast, Love Hard, Die Young" (You Ain't Livin') established him as a honky-tonk singer with a distinct personality;

The Young Sheriff, Young's singles charted for more than 30 years, despite being known as the Hillbilly Heartthrob and following a film role.

In 1996, he committed suicide.

Young is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Early years

Young was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, and was the youngest of Harlan and Doris Young's six children. He grew up on a dairy farm that his family operated outside of the city. Young began singing at an early age, imagining a career as a pop star. However, Young changed to country music after he joined some friends on the Louisiana Hayride. He was born at the local Optimist Club and was introduced by Webb Pierce, who brought him to the Hayride in 1951, who then broadcast on KWKH-AM. He graduated from Fair Park High School the year before and attended Centenary College of Louisiana.

Personal life

Young briefly dated Billie Jean Jones before becoming the second wife of country music legend Hank Williams. Jones was first introduced to Williams in October 1952 by Young, who went on to wed Williams.

In 1952, while Young was stationed at Fort McPherson, he met Hilda Macon, the daughter of an Army master sergeant and the great-granddaughter of Uncle Dave Macon. Young was discharged from the Army two years later in November 1954. They had four children, the sons Damion, Robyn, and Kevin, as well as their daughter Alana.

Young's later life was plagued by bouts of depression and alcoholism. Young was arrested and charged with assault for spanking a child in the audience at a West Virginia concert in 1972 after she spat on her. Young appeared in court for the first time in Wood County, West Virginia, justice of the peace, and was fined $24, plus $11 in court costs. Young fired a pistol into the kitchen ceiling of his Harbor Island home on the night of December 4, 1984. Young and his wife Hilda separated from their house and bought individual houses when he refused to seek assistance for his alcoholism problem. Young said "not at all." When asked at the divorce trial if he worried about hurting someone by shooting holes into the ceiling. After 32 years of marriage in 1986, the two wedy people separated.

Young shot himself on December 9, 1996, citing a combination of feeling he had been abandoned by country music and fear of his declining health. He died in Nashville the following day and was cremated. His ashes were passed around by his family over Old Hickory Lake outside Nashville, Tennessee, and June Carter Cash's home when the Cashes were absent.

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Career

Young recorded in Shreveport. His first releases were on Philadelphia's Gotham Records. By February 1952, he was signed to Capitol Records, where he recorded for the next ten years. His first Capitol single appeared that spring.

Young moved to Nashville, Tennessee, and recorded his first chart hit, "Goin' Steady" in October 1952. His career was sidetracked when he was drafted into the United States Army the following month. "Goin' Steady" hit the Billboard country charts while Young was in basic training. It peaked at No. 2, and the US Army Band took Young to replace Eddie Fisher on tours—its first country music singer—just as "If You Ain't Lovin'" was hitting the charts. He was discharged in November 1954.

From 1954 to 1962, Young recorded many honky-tonk songs for Capitol, including the first hit version of Don Gibson's "Sweet Dreams". Most famous was "Hello Walls", a Willie Nelson song Young turned into a crossover hit in 1961. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc.

During the mid-1950s, Young starred in four low-budget films: Hidden Guns, Daniel Boone, Trail Blazer, Raiders of Old California and Country Music Holiday. He appeared as himself in cameo roles and performances in later country music films and was a frequent guest on television shows throughout his career, including ABC-TV's Ozark Jubilee. His band, the Country Deputies, was one of country music's top bands and they toured for many years. He invested in real estate along Nashville's Music Row in the 1960s and, in 1963, co-founded, with Preston Temple, the trade magazine, Music City News.

The same year, Young switched to Mercury Records and drifted musically, but by the end of the decade he had returned to his sound including "Wine Me Up". Released in 1971, waltz-time ballad "It's Four in the Morning" written by Jerry Chesnut was one of Young's records and his last number one hit, also becoming his only major success in the United Kingdom, where it peaked at No. 3 on the pop charts. By the mid-1970s his records were becoming overshadowed by his behavior, making headlines in 1972 when he was charged with assault for spanking a girl in the audience at a concert in Clarksburg, West Virginia, who he claimed spat on him, and for other later incidents. In the mid-70s, Young was the spokesman for BC Powder.

Young signed with MCA Records in 1979; the association lasted two years. Nashville independent label Step One Records signed him in 1988 where he recorded into the early 1990s (including a duet album with Ray Price), then withdrew from public view. Though country acts including BR549 were putting his music before audiences in the mid-1990s, Young apparently felt the music industry, which had undergone a revolution of sorts in 1991, had mostly rejected him.

Faron Young's son Robyn followed him into the country music business starting in 1975. Robyn was the main headliner at his father's night club, Faron Young's Jailhouse. In the early 1980s Robyn began touring with his father, performing as an opening act.

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