Hank Williams Jr. hailed as BMI Icon

Hank Williams Jr. will be named a BMI Icon at the annual celebration of the best in country music by the performing rights association Broadcast Music Inc.

The Nashville-based celebration Nov. 11 will include a musical tribute to Williams, who wrote and performed 10 No. 1 country hits, including Country Boy Can Survive, Born to Boogie, Dixie On My Mind, Family Tradition, Whiskey Bent and Hell Bound and Texas Women.

The honky-tonk singer is best known to mainstream audiences for writing the Emmy award-winning theme to Monday Night Football, based on his song All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight.

Williams, 59, is the son of late country singer Hank Williams, who nicknamed him Bocephus after Grand Ole Opry comedian Rod Brasfield's ventriloquist dummy. Williams Sr. died in 1953.

Early in his career Williams Jr. sang his father's songs and imitated his style, but he began writing his own songs and struck out on his own in the 1970s.

He'll be honoured at a ceremony that includes naming of the country songwriter, country publisher and most performed country song of the year.