Faron Young met a sad end to his life when he shot himself in December of 1966 after encountering health problems, career downturn and breakup of his 40 year marriage.
Faron Young singing his No.1 hit Hello Walls.
Faron Young was born in Shreveport, Louisiana on February 25, 1932. He died 64 years later on December 10, 1996 of a self-inflicted gunshot to his head.
He took his girlfriend at the time Billie Jean Jones to the Grand Ole Opry in 1952 on his first visit to the country music shrine.
By the time the night was over she was his ex-girlfriend when she met Hank Williams and Young said Williams pulled a gun on him to let him know she was no longer Young’s girlfriend.
Young co-founded the Music City News the newspaper that covered the Nashville country music scene.
Young was mostly forgotten after his last No.1 song Four In The Morning in 1971 and felt like the country music industry had neglected to give him credit for what he had done in his career.
It was sad to see his life end so tragically but his music will be around for years to come.
That was a tradegy that shouldn,t have happened. Faron really was introverted and felt like he was not a success, but he was. Very interesting about Hank Williams pulling a gun on him, since he done the same thing to Jimmie sometimes during the fifties. I only heard about this from time to time. Williams was on the HayRide and he went to Jimmies muisc company to ask for a spot on his radio show on K.W.K.H. Hank was drunk and even had a bottle with him , and when Jimmie told him he run a clean show and that he would have tio clean up his act he told Jimmie “I’ve got the difference here in my pocket. Jimmie said, he mis-understood his meaning and said to Williams ., Oh no You wouldn’t have to pay, I just can,t use you. Then Hank surprised the whack out of Jimmie by pulling out a gun and said this is what talks for me. Well that one got Hank arrested as well as many other times. I heard Minnie Pearl say one time in our presence that Hank had so much talent, but couldn’t leave the bottle alone. She tried to talk to him about his drinking and mentioned all the gospel songs he sang, and ask him if that didn.t touch his heart. She said she mentioned I Saw The Light, and Hank looked at her really pitiful and said I Only See Darkness, It’s too late for me. And of course he died shortly aft in Alabama going to a gig. Sad for all these great talents .You do a great Hank Williams sound on many old Gospel songs.
That is very sad to know Hank Williams let his gun do his talking for him. That shows how irrational he was. I saw Your Cheatin’ Heart movie and it really got me started on country music.
At least Minnie Pearl tried and can’t ever say she didn’t try to help him. Wish someone had been there for Faron.
Our group always compared Faron and Jimmie on their clothes they wore for performances. Most of the time they dressed very conservatively in business suits, compared to the other performers with their flashy clothes. I saw Jimmie in a checked jacket similar to the one Faron is wearing in the video only once, and very seldom saw Faron dressed in any thing that bright.
I can’t ever remember Jimmie wearing flashy clothes. He let his singing make a statement without making a fashion statement.
Nobody ever did a song with spoken parts better than Jimmie. Hello Walls was a great talking/singing song.