25 Facts About Hasil Adkins

Hasil Adkins's genres include rock and roll, country, blues and more commonly rockabilly, and because of his unusual playing and singing style, he is often cited as an example of outsider music.

Hasil Adkins generally performed as a one-man band, playing guitar and drums at the same time.

Hasil Adkins was born in Boone County, West Virginia on April 29,1937, where he spent his entire life.

Hasil Adkins was the youngest of ten children of Wid Adkins, a coal miner, and Alice Hale, raised in a tarpaper shack on property rented from a local coal company.

Hasil Adkins's parents were unable to provide him shoes until he was four or five years old.

Hasil Adkins dated a girl named Hazel, and was later given the nickname The Haze.

Hasil Adkins loved to eat meat, specifically poultry, the subject of many of his songs.

Hasil Adkins was said to have manic depression and insomnia among other mental illnesses.

In 1961 Hasil Adkins headed to California in search of fame, auditioning with talent agencies in and around Los Angeles.

Back at home, Hasil Adkins began performing at local nightclubs, behind a store-bought sign that read One of the Greatest Shows on Earth, the One Man Band Haze Hasil Adkins and his Happy Guitar.

Hasil Adkins began to transition from his rockabilly roots to country music by the 1970s, producing several self-released records.

Adkins was the subject of the Julien Nitzberg documentary The Wild World of Hasil Adkins, distributed by Appalshop.

Hasil Adkins was inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame in 2018.

Hasil Adkins is often cited as an important precursor to the psychobilly genre.

The Cramps attribute many of their punk-psychobilly traits to Hasil Adkins; they covered "She Said" live, and released a studio version as the b-side of "Goo Goo Muck", which later appeared on their compilation album Bad Music for Bad People.

North Carolina psychobilly group Flat Duo Jets covered Hasil Adkins with "Let Me Come In" on the 1993 lo-fi compilation Safari, which was released on Norton Records.

Frenetic in progression and explicit in lyrical content, Hasil Adkins was known for having an unconventional take on traditional rockabilly.

Hasil Adkins's unpolished sound was a praised by-product of the makeshift studio equipment used for the majority of his career.

Hasil Adkins's lyrics explored topics such as eating peanut butter on the moon and the suggestive strut of a chicken.

Hasil Adkins performed as a one-man band, using foot pedals to play the drums, or simply stomped his feet on the floor to an often detuned guitar.

Hasil Adkins once vowed that he would play "twelve to twenty" instruments simultaneously, including playing the piano and organ with his elbows.

Hasil Adkins noted in interviews that his primary heroes and influences were Hank Williams, Jimmie Rodgers, Little Richard, and Col.

Hasil Adkins attributed his desire to perform as a one-man band to these artists, stating that when he was a child, he assumed the only credited musician in the band must have played all the instruments in the recordings.

Many of Hasil Adkins' songs were accompanied by a dance of the same name.

Hasil Adkins primarily recorded and performed his own songs, although Peanut Butter Rock and Roll included covers of Carl Perkins' "Blue Suede Shoes" and Harry Belafonte's "Day-O".