Released September 5, 1981 Genre Country Label Elektra/Curb | Format 7" single Length 3:57 | |
B-side "Everytime I Hear That Song" | ||
"All My Rowdy Friends (Have Settled Down)" is a song written and recorded by American country music artist Hank Williams Jr.. It was released in September 1981 as the first single from the album The Pressure Is On. "All My Rowdy Friends (Have Settled Down)" was Hank Williams Jr.'s fifth number one on the country chart. The single stayed at number one for one week and spent a total of ten weeks on the country chart.
The phrase "all my rowdy friends" would later become a catch phrase of sorts for Williams, who would use the line in 1984 for "All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight," in 1987 for "Born to Boogie" and "All My Rowdy Friends Are Here on Monday Night," and in 2011 for "Keep the Change."
The song itself is told from the point of view of a disillusioned singer who, along with his friends, had lived a wild lifestyle. Although admitting he himself has mellowed with age, the singer is depressed that his one-time "rowdy" friends have settled down and, in abandoning their high-living ways, want no part of their old lifestyle. References are made to Williams' contemporaries, such as George Jones, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson.