16 Facts About Ted Hawkins

Ted Hawkins was an American singer-songwriter born in Biloxi, Mississippi.

Ted Hawkins split his time between his adopted hometown of Venice Beach, California, where he was a mostly anonymous street performer, and Europe and Australia, where he and his songs were better known and well received in clubs and small concert halls.

Ted Hawkins's mother was a prostitute and he never knew the identity of his father.

Ted Hawkins was sent to a reform school when he was 12 years old.

Ted Hawkins recorded several tunes without commercial success, worked at odd jobs, and took up busking along the piers and storefronts of Venice Beach as a way to supplement his income.

Ted Hawkins made ends meet by developing a small following of locals and tourists who would come to hear this Southern black man, sitting on an overturned milk crate, play blues and folk standards and a few original songs in his signature open guitar tuning and raspy vocal style.

Ted Hawkins claimed the rasp in his voice came from the damage done by years of singing in the sand and spray of the boardwalk.

In December 1984, Ted Hawkins was released from the California State Medical Facility at Vacaville, after serving 18 months of a three-year sentence on a child molestation charge.

English radio DJ Andy Kershaw encouraged Hawkins to come to the United Kingdom, and he moved to the resort town of Bridlington in 1986 and enjoyed his first taste of commercial musical success, touring Europe and Asia.

Ted Hawkins's style was informed by but did not resemble traditional blues music.

In 1987, the documentary filmmaker Nick Shaw approached Ted Hawkins about producing a profile of his life and times, for which he followed Ted Hawkins closely for the next two years.

Ted Hawkins began to tour on the basis of this success, commenting that he had finally reached an age where he was glad to be able to sing indoors, out of the weather, and for an appreciative crowd.

Ted Hawkins died of a stroke at the age of 58, just a few months after the release of his breakthrough recording.

Ted Hawkins is the subject of Mick Thomas's song "57 Years".

Cold and Bitter Tears: The Songs of Ted Hawkins was released in late 2015 by Eight 30 Records, based in Austin, Texas.

Ted Hawkins appears on the Geffen Records 1996 compilation Just Say Noel.