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still known to many as Glenn. On radio, Nallie remembered, “ Every once in a while they’d let George sing. Eddie kind of had his own style. He sang [in] just a normal country voice. Didn’t sound like anybody. Eddie was a good MC. Pearl—she looked older than Eddie—played that bass, very simple. She’d sing ‘Make Room in Your Heart for a Friend.’ When George was playin’ with them, he added a little relief on the instrumental part. Eddie used to call him ‘Glennie Boy.’ He’d say, ‘Now here’s Glennie Boy gonna sing a song for ya!’”
    He generally got on well with the couple, even when Eddie’s drinking at the end of the night sometimes forced Pearl to drive everyone home. Over time, his solo spots started gaining attention among Eddie and Pearl’s fans, Nallie remembered. “They all called him Glenn. They’d say, ‘You know Glenn Jones?’ They loved him. They loved the way he sang.” If there was a conflict, it involved the “kitty” Eddie set up at shows for tips from the crowd, especially for requests. George’s singing earned him his own tips, causing occasional dustups when Eddie pushed him to throw his tips in with the rest. He often flatly, angrily refused.
    As he gained greater stage experience, George found a new idol who, to him, surpassed Acuff and Monroe: Hank Williams. Eight years George’s senior, Williams got started singing around Alabama as a teenager. In those days he busted his ass to emulate Acuff’s emotional vocals and using them as the basis for his own style. Unlike Acuff, Hank also possessed a rare, innate genius for writing simple tunes that conveyed humor, anger, sarcasm, or deep emotional pain. He’d learned the ropes of performing on the radio in Montgomery and in rural Alabama honky-tonks,some so violent he bought the original members of his Drifting Cowboys band blackjacks for self-defense. Occasionally, he sacrificed a guitar on an assailant’s head. While his youthful taste for booze evolved into full-blown alcoholism, in 1946 he had the good fortune to connect with Fred Rose, a veteran pop and country songwriter who’d formed the Acuff-Rose song publishing company with the business-savvy Roy Acuff. Rose, who published Hank’s songs, became a benevolent father figure to the young singer. He got Hank a short-term recording contract with a small New York label, then maneuvered him into a new contract with the larger MGM label and became his producer. The year 1947 brought four hit singles in a row, beginning with “Move It On Over,” followed by “Honky Tonkin’,” “I’m a Long Gone Daddy,” and “Mansion on the Hill,” all Williams originals. That notable start didn’t impress officials at the Opry. Aware of his reputation as an unreliable boozer, the show was reluctant to even offer him a guest shot. Less concerned was Shreveport’s KWKH Louisiana Hayride, a Saturday-night Opry-like stage and radio show launched in April 1948. The Hayride welcomed him as a cast member that August. Randall Hank Williams, Hank and his wife Audrey’s only child, was born in Shreveport in May 1949.
    Hank’s rising fame took a drastic turn after he recorded a song he’d picked up from fellow Alabama singer Rex Griffin. “Lovesick Blues” was a 1920s pop number that Rose saw little value in recording. When an obstinate Hank stood firm, the producer relented. In May 1949, it knocked George Morgan’s ballad “Candy Kisses” out of the No. 1 spot. The single was still riding high when MGM issued a new single May 13: “Wedding Bells,” a ballad that Hank didn’t write. Neville Powell, KRIC’s program director, knew Hank personally, and when Powell heard he wasplaying Beaumont’s Blue Jean Club, he invited Hank to swing by Eddie and Pearl’s broadcast to promote the new record. For