Hank Williams Courtesy of the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Nashville, Tenn., — Legendary honky-tonker and mega-balladeer Ray Price will visit the Country Music Hall of Fame^® and Museum on Saturday, March 7, to share memories of his close friend and mentor, Hank Williams. The intimate interview, which is presented in conjunction with the Museum’s exhibition Family Tradition: The Williams Family Legacy, Co-Presented by SunTrust and Ford Motor Company, will begin at 1:30 p.m. in the Museum’s Ford Theater.

Hosted by WSM-AM radio personality Eddie Stubbs, the program will include audiovisuals from the Museum’s Frist Library and Archive and from the Williams family. The interview is included with Museum admission and is free to Museum members.

Ray Price, a Country Music Hall of Fame member whose “Ray Price beat” invigorated and forever changed country music, was a fledgling artist when Hank Williams took him under his wing and, in the autumn of 195l, asked Price to accompany him on tour. Soon after, the pair co-wrote a song, “Weary Blues (from Waiting),” which Hank Williams gave to his new pal to record. The song did well enough to garner Price an invitation to join the Grand Ole Opry in January 1952. When Texas-born Price moved to Nashville the same year, he and Williams roomed together. Williams even let Price use his band, the Drifting Cowboys, one of the reasons Price’s early recordings sounded so much like Williams.

After Hank Williams’ death in 1953, Ray Price eventually formed his own band, the Cherokee Cowboys, and developed his signature sound. By the late 1950s, Price had become one of country music’s biggest stars and over the next two decades was himself a mentor to numerous country protégés, including Roger Miller, Willie Nelson and Johnny Paycheck. However, Price never forgot what Williams did for him, and to this day he includes a Hank Williams song in every performance by way of tribute.

During the March 7 program, Ray Price, who was featured in the Museum’s 2006-07 exhibit For the Good Times: The Ray Price Story, will offer personal recollections of his time with Hank Williams, and discuss Williams’ influence on his music and career.

These programs are made possible, in part, by grants from the Metropolitan Nashville Arts Commission and by an agreement between the Tennessee Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Additional promotional support is being provided by the Museum’s official Family Tradition media partners: Great American Country Television Network, Cumulus Broadcasting and The Tennessean.

About the Country Music Hall of Fame^® and Museum

Accredited by the American Association of Museums, the Country Music Hall of Fame^® and Museum is operated by the Country Music Foundation, a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) educational organization chartered by the state of Tennessee in 1964. The Museum’s mission is the preservation of the history of country and related vernacular music rooted in southern culture. With the same educational mission, the Foundation also operates CMF Records, the Museum’s Frist Library and Archive, CMF Press, Historic RCA Studio B, and Hatch Show Print.

More information about the Country Music Hall of Fame^® and Museum is available at www.countrymusichalloffame.com