Hubbard: Johnny Horton deserves to be inducted in Country Music Hall of Fame

The Tennessean

Johnny Horton - Honky Tonk Man Johnny Horton is another country star who died too young, but his music influenced artists like George Jones, Dwight Yoakam and BR549.

Johnny Horton was at the top of his game in 1960.

At 35, the rambling singer and adventurer, not long before scraping together pennies, had found success with his recording of the historical “The Battle of New Orleans,” which earned him a Grammy. That same year he recorded “North to Alaska” for the John Wayne movie of the same name.

Johnny Horton was dead before the end of the year.

I was disappointed the other day when I learned that, once again, the Country Music Hall of Fame had passed on inducting Horton into its ranks. This is not a case brought out of indignation — many others deserve induction, including Dottie West, who will now reside where she belongs.

But this column is a polite note and a reminder that, one of these days, perhaps before the 60th anniversary of Horton’s death, the hall should get around to inducting one of the most remarkable artists country music has known.

The legend of Hank Williams has loomed over country music since his untimely death on New Year’s Day 1953. In the middle of the night, more accurately, in the backseat of a Cadillac. The cause of death: hard living and addiction.

The legend of Hank has only grown over time. He was among the first class of inductees to the Hall of Fame. But Horton, who shared so many commonalities with Williams, really has only seen his legend shrink.

Horton and Williams had so many things in common that they even shared a wife. Billie Jean Jones, who married Williams and was with him in his final days, also married Horton and was with him in his final days.

She married Horton before 1953 was out, and it has been said that Williams even told her that she one day would marry Horton.

But while Williams was the stuff of books and film, just a simple Google search of Johnny Horton reveals the difference. Few reliable sources appear. What does appear is accompanied by much misinformation, falsities, myth and flat lies.

The Hortons in 1960. In this undated photo from 1960, showing from left, Jeri Horton, Billie Jean Horton, Johnny Horton and Melody Horton, and in front, Yanina Horton.

Horton is in death the way he largely was in life: an outsider and a mystery. Horton was a country music star and a mainstay on the Louisiana Hayride — probably the second best known country radio show next to the Grand Ole Opry — but he never took up with Nashville much.

Songs like “Honky Tonk Man” and “I’m a One Woman Man” helped put him on the radar, though in some irony that should endear Horton even more to the Hall’s overlords, Dwight Yoakam and George Jones would respectively make bigger hits of those tunes, based partly on their appreciation of Horton.

Horton’s hopped-up style, evidenced a little in “Honky Tonk Man,” brought admiration from the emerging rockabilly set, but there’s no mistaking that Horton was a country singer. Take a listen to the tragic, banjo-inflected “When It’s Springtime in Alaska” and report back.

Horton died in a car crash at Milano, Texas, on Nov. 5, 1960. He was hit head-on by a drunk driver after leaving a show in Austin.

In songs like “The Battle of New Orleans,” which Horton had picked up from an Arkansas teacher turned musician, Jimmy Driftwood, Horton had found something of a specialty in story songs rooted around historical events. I remember learning the lyrics to that song in elementary school when we studied the War of 1812. This was nearly 40 years after Horton’s death.

Can you think of another country song iconic enough to be taught to a bunch of school children decades later?

I can’t either. Not even Hank Williams can boast that one on his resume.

So what about the diverging paths of Williams and Horton? Maybe it was simply that, even considering the rocky relationship Williams had with the Opry, he was a creature of Nashville. Horton wasn’t.

But now, hopefully next year, it will be time to bring them together again.
In the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Alex Hubbard is a columnist, editor and reporter for the USA TODAY NETWORK Tennessee. Email him at dhubbard@tennessean.com.