In 1981, Hank Williams Jr wrote “A Country Boy Can Survive,” a song about how when things in the world got tough, the country folks would be the ones toughing it out. He had to be picturing people like JJ Singleton.
JJ had all the signs of early age onset colorectal cancer and then some. When he was 27, he was having abdominal pain, found blood in his stool, was losing weight and had difficulty using the bathroom. Like any immortal guy in their late twenties, he put off going to the doctor for a while. By the time he went to the doctor, he could see a tumor pulsating through his skin.