Country pioneer Hank Williams was found dead in the back seat of a baby blue Cadillac 50 years ago. True to his word, he never got out of this world alive. But nobody expected the 29-year-old to fall victim to heart failure. Or was there more to the story? Following a 1973 performance on the Grand Ole Opry, the beloved country comedian David ""Stringbean"" Akeman and his wife Estelle were brutally murdered at their rural home, devastating the entire city of Nashville. By the end of the decade, a mountain climbing expedition scarred Hank Williams Jr. for life, and Tammy Wynette endured gossip and speculation about an alleged kidnapping at a Nashville mall. While country music icons like Johnny Cash, Barbara Mandrell and Reba McEntire narrowly escaped the clutches of death, Opry star Dottie West was not so fortunate. After struggling through turbulent marriages and bankruptcy, the original ""Lesson in Leavin'"" singer lost her life following a spectacular car crash on a Nashville freeway exi
Sometimes, grief finds its way into music. That's the case with ""Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue,"" a passionate song written by Toby Keith after his father was killed in a highway hit-and-run. For Loretta Lynn, the untimely death of her son Jack still leaves questions unanswered. Keith Whitley, known for modern classics like ""When You Say Nothing at All"" and ""I'm No Stranger to the Rain,"" was less fortunate. He succumbed to alcohol poisoning in 1989. Others, like Amie Comeaux -- a promising young singer who was killed in a 1997 car accident -- were taken before reaching their full potential. A drug-fueled lifestyle can take its toll as well, as it did with Steve Earle (who survived) and Gram Parsons (who didn't). Meanwhile, serious health scares threatened to end the careers of Naomi Judd and Chris LeDoux, and their recoveries have been called ""miraculous"" by some. Of course, contemporary artists have faced hard times too, including Tim McGraw and Kenny Chesney's horsenapping incid
They are modern-day gladiators, with only the strength of a single hand and superhuman agility standing between them and the terrifying chance of being fatally gored by a one ton Brahma bull. They are professional bull riders. CMT Most Shocking: 8 Seconds of Fury explores the world of the most extreme of all extreme sports, where eight seconds mean the difference between not only winning or losing but life and death itself. Illustrated in a dense montage of backbreaking, bucking action, today's legends of bull riding relive their infamous injuries and near-death experiences in the ring.
CMT Most Shocking: Stories Behind Southern Rock and Outlaw Country is a riveting look at the stories of wild days and personal tragedies behind country music and Southern rock pioneers. The one-hour special features a group of rebels who often chafed at a rigid recording industry to make music on their own terms and includes interviews with Merle Haggard, the late Waylon Jennings, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Charlie Daniels, Rodney Crowell, Montgomery Gentry and more. Actress Janine Turner hosts. Commenting on his own rebel background and prison days, Haggard says, ""My dad was dead, and my mother was working; and my brother was gone. It (jail) was sort of a place to go. Jail was more fun than home was."" Country's Most Shocking: Stories Behind Southern Rock and Outlaw Country includes first-hand accounts from the artists who lived the adventures, as well as musicians, witnesses, journalists and historians. Events include the deadly plane crash that killed Lynyrd Skynyrd's Southern rock cult hero an
Explore the world of extreme athletes in the most extreme sport – the world of the bullfighters of the Professional Bull Riding (PBR) circuit in CMT Most Shocking: Stomped and Gored. ""If they're not a little on the crazy side, then they're not gonna be a bullfighter very long,"" says Chris Shivers, 2003 PBR World Champion, of the bullfighters. Affectionately known as ""cowboy lifesavers,"" the job of a professional rodeo bullfighter is to get between a bucking bull and its ejected rider. Country's Most Shocking: Stomped & Gored is an hour of stories full of back-breaking, bucking action as today's fearless and legendary bullfighters relive their most infamous injuries and near death experiences. Gut-wrenching footage and profiles of three legendary bullfighters including 30-year veteran Rob Smets, towering Texan Greg Crabtree and soft-spoken Aussie Dennis Johnson round out this brutal and fascinating documentary.
Find out what all the fuss is about -- from a freezer full of frozen pets to a ruckus over a mullet -- as CMT revisits some of the most infamous feuds in country music. CMT Most Shocking: Feuds gives the scoop on the Travis Tritt - Billy Ray Cyrus mullet melee; the Hank Williams estate battle between Hank Willams Jr. and Jett Williams; the love triangle involving Glen Campbell and Mac Davis; and the bizarre twists, winding probate and frozen pet fracas surrounding the Jim Reeves Museum. The episode also visits Pikeville, Ky., for a look at the granddaddy of all feuds, the Hatfields and McCoys. Brad Paisley pushed the buttons of pop singer-songwriter Richard Marx when Paisley publicly stated that country music is about the song and pop music is about the production. ""Steam started to come off my scalp,"" Marx says. ""I was personally offended because I guess, especially at that time, I did consider myself a pop songwriter. And so, in a sense, even though I know he wasn't directing it pers
Enter the intriguing life of those who make their livings by looking like, and imitating, celebrities. CMT Most Shocking: Impostors – The Life of a Celebrity Impersonator visits the Las Vegas strip to capture the real-life wedding of two celebrity look-alikes who portray country superstar Shania Twain and California governor-film star Arnold Schwarzenegger. The episode also features a look into the surreal life of a male Reba impersonator. And, if imitation is the highest form of flattery, then Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, Dolly Parton, George Strait, Travis Tritt and Tanya Tucker, whose look-alikes are also featured, should be proud.
CMT Most Shocking: Fast & Furious - Street Racing documents the world of illegal street racing in the U.S. and beyond. These young men and women are rolling out their tricked-out, homemade, $100,000-worth-of-work-on-an-$8,000-body vehicles every week in intense competitions on city streets, back alleys and strips of desrt land. It will dig into every facet -- from illicit to legit, from gender politics to prison sentences, from the fastest to the most furious. This special takes you deep inside the real world of these steering wheel outlaws and the streets they ride roughshod over. Every finish-line crossed. Every cop outran. Every Victory Cup raised.
We usually link big scandals to big cities, but this documentary special investigates the secrets that have hit small-town America. A controversial drug sting polarizes the town of Tulia, Texas, suspicious murders rock Oregon City, Ore., and a border-town battle pits vigilantes against Quaker activists in Douglas, Ariz. This one-hour special reveals the underbelly of small-town America.
All those gun-totin', Sun-Tzu reading, NASCAR-watching, Oliver Stone-thinkin' types are out there. Best of all, most of them love to talk. And shoot. Everything's a conspiracy, everyone's suspect and maybe, just maybe, they might make half a bit of sense. CMT Most Shocking: Survivalists seeks out the backwoods patriots and front-office spokesmen for those who prepare, week in and week out, for the moment when destiny and circumstance call. We track the training and tactics of the Michigan Core Militia: Wolverines, an organization nearly 100,000 strong. We spend time with Alex Jones, the Drudge of the anti-New World Order echelon. We even search the hills and forests seeking those who range even farther off the beaten path, turning their backs on a society they feel has gone so far astray.
It's not the muscle-bound men in black, or the one-eyed jack with a sawed-off and a leather motorcycle jacket busting into a desert hideaway, finger on the trigger, toothpick in the corner of his mouth and a well-worn quip on his lips. This is the real world of the modern bounty hunter -- dudes in grubby T-shirts digging through empty sacks of Cheetos to find their secondhand Kevlar vest, because their suspect finally walked out of his grandmother's house to grab the paper after three days of a stakeout. It's not a glamorous job. CMT Most Shocking: Bounty Hunters follows the bail recovery process, from skip to take to seizure. Ride shotgun with the real men and women who risk their time and self-respect (and sometimes even life and limb) to get their percentage of the percentage and haul in the wayward criminal element.
CMT investigates the backwoods brewing of illegal substances, both past and present, in CMT Most Shocking: Moonshine Madness. Find out how running moonshine played a part in the birth of NASCAR, with drivers honing their skills running liquor from the stills to the distributors. Meet old-time moonshiner Popcorn Sutton. You may think this infamous liquor is a thing of the past, but we'll cover a present-day bust (one of the biggest ever) and look deeper into the claims that it still flows freely.
This special takes you beyond the grave for firsthand accounts of ghostly encounters, photos, spine-chilling spirit recordings, exorcisms, voodoo and more. CMT Most Shocking: Ghosts! travels to Adams, Tenn., for the infamous Bell Witch and the mysterious cave she's said to inhabit; Savannah, Ga., the ""country's most haunted city"" to seek out specters among the moss covered oaks and cemeteries; Charleston, S.C., for low country spirits; and finally to New Orleans, for the voodoo they do so well.
Sports-related scandals involving gambling, sex, murder, recruiting violations and drugs have made headlines throughout the years and brought dishonor to college athletics. Hosted by Trace Adkins, CMT Most Shocking: College Sports Headlines examines felonious activity and corruption on campuses where collegiate sports programs have been plagued with point shaving, murder, rape, recruiting violations and volatile actions by coaches such as Woody Hayes and Bobby Knight. This CMT original program includes an interview with U.S. Sen. John McCain about proposed legislation to ban gambling on college sports. He tells CMT, ""Look, I don't pretend to be the expert on this situation, but I don't know how we can ignore the college presidents and the coaches association who say this is their highest priority."" McCain adds, ""This is a terrible temptation for our players, and we don't want the temptation in their paths."" Topics include a sports-related murder and cover-up at Baylor University, as we
Some of America's most unusual occupations and uniquely creative ways to make a living are revealed in CMT Most Shocking: Ways to Make a Buck. They are the sort of occupations that will have you pondering, ""How does someone get that job?"" Intriguing and often eccentric vocations such as human cannonballs, crime-scene cleaners and American matadors are featured. The show also delivers the action of alligator wranglers, how professional mermaids eat and drink under water, the nail-biting heights of the steeplejack and the daily drama and suspense of the bounty hunter in a one-hour episode that reminds us there are a million ways to make a buck -- from professional pooper-scoopers to the crack-fillers at Mt. Rushmore.
If it's true that ""love is where you find it,"" then CMT has discovered some of America's most unusual places to become a target for Cupid's arrow. CMT Most Shocking: Ways to Fall in Love tells the real-life stories of eight unique couples who have fallen in love on motorcycles, strapped to parachutes, in a Wild West show, and even on a bucking bronco -- no bull. Some of the amazing stories include Tammy and Frank Kelly who met in a rodeo ring. Frank was the bull-riding instructor teaching Tammy how to hang on for eight seconds; now they're hanging on to each other for life. Michelle Moore and Dan Zack met while parachuting into a fire during a life-saving training session. Now married, they are both smoke jumpers. And it's not your usual pick-up line, but when Matthew Molotov asked Felecity if he could throw a knife at her, the sparks also flew. Now the two perform in a Wild West show where their act includes swallowing swords and eating fire.
CMT explores some of the most intriguingly eccentric inhabitants and strangely curious happenings in an expedition to the underbelly of small towns across America in CMT Most Shocking: Small Town Secrets 2. This episode includes the discoveries of a walled-in cult leader in Texas; feral chickens in Key West, Fla.; anti-government groups in Abbeville, S.C.; the off-season home of traveling carnies in Gibsonton, Fla.; and the story of disappearing Americans on the Texas border.