first met him, hank was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, so for the two years he lived after that, jameyhe road and pull his bus right up to the hospital, ran up to see hank, raise hank's spirits, and just--he was always--always around. up to the night hank died, he was here. >> ♪ now tell me ♪ would these arms ♪ be in your way >> it was shortly after hank died i got a text message, and it was from jamey, and he said, "would you mind if i did a hank cochran album?" so i couldn't believe it, you know. >> ♪ so lay ♪ all your doubts aside ♪ when you go to bed tonight >> he should be in the country music hall of fame. he was very influential in setting the bar for all the writers that we have coming down the line. >> well, he was pretty much the foundation as a songwriter for a long time. >> you know, he was really an artist who chose not to be an artist. all of the artists respected his ability to perform a song. the singers wanted to see if they could just sing that good. i know i did. >> if i had to dream up somebody like hank to influence songwriters, i couldn't have done a better job. h