Steel Guitarist Don Helms

Celebrities, Celebrity Q&A, People
on March 18, 2001
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Don Helms, steel guitar player for Hank Williams Sr., was a favorite of mine, because I'm also a steel player. Does he still perform?
—Vic D., Georgia

"I still do what I did 50 years ago: playing music and traveling all over the country," says Helms, 73, of Hendersonville, Tenn., (pop. 37,261). After Williams' death, he played with Ray Price, Ferlin Husky, Loretta Lynn, Ernest Tubb, and Hank Williams Jr. Helms is the only member of Hank Sr.'s Drifting Cowboys Band still playing music. Since 1989, he's played with Jett Williams, Hank Sr.'s daughter, touring Europe and Asia. "That's all I've ever done, play the music I played for Hank," Helms says. "Surprisingly, there's a lot of people who love to hear that same old Hank music." Helms and his wife of 56 years, Hazel, have two children.