Hasil Adkins: The Last Elvis

Elvis Hasil Adkins (pronounced “Hassil,” not “Haysil”) (April 29, 1937 – April 26, 2005), was an Appalachian country, rock and roll and blues musician, though he was frequently considered rockabilly and sometimes primitive jazz. He generally performed as a one-man band, playing guitar and drums at the same time and singing. Hasil was equally skilled on the harmonica and on keyboard.

Nicknamed “The Haze”, Adkins claimed a repertoire of over 9,000 songs including over 7,000 original compositions, recorded scores of small, micro-label 45s, and is responsible for the birth of Norton Records, Psychobilly, and a dance called “The Hunch”.

Adkins recorded an entire album devoted to chickens entitled Poultry in Motion also including such songs as “Chicken Run”, “Chicken Hop”, “Chicken Flop”, “Chicken Wobble”, and “Chicken On The Bone”. Recurring themes in Adkins’ work include love, heartbreak, “hunchin'”, police, death, decapitation, commodity meat, aliens, and chickens. Adkins often noted in interviews that his primary heroes and influences were Hank Williams Sr., Jimmie Rodgers, Little Richard, and Colonel Harlan Sanders, the famed inventor of Kentucky Fried Chicken.

On April 16, 2005, Adkins was deliberately run over in his front yard by a teenager on an ATV. The perpetrator was apprehended by police (after running over another person a short distance down the road from Adkins’ house), and Adkins identified him in a picture the police showed him. Ten days later, on April 26, Adkins was found dead in his home. Adkins’s cult status is kept alive to the present day by the growing appreciation of, and demand for, the work of mavericks and misfits. He retains a fan base, particularly amongst followers of outsider music. Rock on Hasil!