Who is he?

Born in 1939 to a deprived family in West Virginia, Hasil Adkins wasn't like other boys in the lazy hayseed town of Madison. Blessed with irrepressible energy that would make an ADHD sufferer dizzy, Hasil's (pronounced Hassil) mother had to pin him to the ground using heavy rocks when he was a child so she could gather vegetables for the evening meal. When Hasil heard Hank Williams on the radio he became obsessed with country and rockabilly music, but as no-one else had been credited on the record he assumed Williams played all the instruments simultaneously, and began teaching himself to play as a one-man band. But while most rockabilly artists were happy to sing about love and heartbreak, Hasil took
a very different path, including songs about a nonexistent dance called The Hunch, eating peanut butter on the Moon and cutting off
his lover's head so she couldn't eat hotdogs. Fascinated by chickens, Hasil also recorded an LP dedicated to farmyard fowl - Poultry In Motion.

Why should we care?

Hasil's raw, untamed music was a major influence on Billy Miller and Miriam Linna
- members of The Zantees and The A-Bones, and founders of outsider music specialists Norton Records - and The Cramps recorded 'She Said' as a single B-side, Lux Interior singing with a polystyrene cup in his mouth to ape Hasil's unique vocal style. Miller and Linna brought Hasil to New York to play his first live shows in 1987, but as he didn't sleep for weeks at a time, regularly ate pounds of raw meat and drank almost five litres of vodka a day, Hasil never quite cut it on the live scene.

Where is he now?

Hasil was found dead at his Madison home
in April 2005, and many believe the untamed spirit of rockabilly died with him. But with dozens of unreleased tracks being primed
for release, and having been inaugurated
into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame, Hasil's
name is sure to live on.