Hank Kept a Sweet Side Socked Away in Boots

Hugh Cherry got to see Hank Williams’ lighter side as well as his demons. Once, after a visit to California, Williams showed up newly garbed by Nudie, the Western clothier.

“He had on a pair of boots that were the ugliest I ever saw,” Cherry says. “All I could say about them boots was, ‘They’re fantastic, Hank.’ ”

Not long afterward, Williams sent Cherry a gift: a pair of the same multicolored calfskin boots. Cherry tossed them in a drawer at his radio station. “I never did wear ‘em. Hank got progressively cooler to me, and I could never understand why. It was those boots.”

Cherry says he found that out when a snowstorm hit Nashville, and he put on the boots so he wouldn’t ruin his dress shoes.

“Halfway up the street, I met Hank Williams. He’d come out of a hotel holding a guitar, and he was half loaded. He looked down and saw those boots and said, ‘Cherry, you’re an ungrateful so and so. The first time I see you wearing those boots, you’re wearing ‘em in six inches of snow.’

“He said, ‘Gimme those boots.’ He took the boots, and I walked the remainder of the distance to the hotel in my sock feet.”

A couple of weeks later, Cherry said, a package came from Williams. It was the boots, with a bottle of Scotch inserted in each one, and a note that said, “Don’t wear the boots in the snow. Use the whiskey to keep your feet warm.”