His genres include rock and roll, country, blues and more commonly rockabilly, and because of his unusual playing and singing style, he is often cited as an example of outsider music.

His songs, which he began recording and distributing locally in the mid-1950s, explored an affinity for chicken, sexual intercourse, and decapitation, and were obscure outside of West Virginia until the 1980s.

The newfound popularity secured him a cult following, spawned the Norton Records label, and helped usher in the genre known as psychobilly.

[8][16][17] In October the same year, another relationship ended with jail time, when a shootout occurred between Adkins and a jealous husband.

[4][6] Nicknamed "The Haze", Adkins career began in the mid-1950s in an improvised studio in his home near Madison, West Virginia.

[2] There he put his vibrant Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis influences to work by recording scores of songs, beginning with the track "I'm Happy".

[2] With little to go on, he returned to West Virginia, though claimed he missed a callback from an agency a single day after departing for his home.

[23] "She Said" revealed his imaginative tone in writing, in which he compared the woman of a one-night stand he had to "a dying can of that commodity meat.

In 1984 UK label Big Beat Records included Hasil's original on the psychobilly compilation Rockabilly Psychosis and the Garage Disease.

[2][28] Frustrated, Adkins soon gained back rights to some of his songs after a deal with Mississippi blues label Fat Possum,[28] who recorded and released 1999's What The Hell Was I Thinking?

He played himself as a street musician in 2004's The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things,[30][31] partially narrated The Red's Breakfast Experience[32] and starred in a comedic horror film entitled Die You Zombie Bastards!.

This helped usher Adkins into cult status as an underground musician,[23] and inspired Cramps' drummer Miriam Linna and her husband Billy Miller to found the Norton Records label.

[23] North Carolina psychobilly group Flat Duo Jets also covered Adkins with "Let Me Come In" on the 1993 lo-fi compilation Safari, which was released on Norton Records.

[39] Recurring themes in Adkins' catalogue included sex, heartbreak, decapitation, aliens, hot dogs and poultry.

[13] Adkins performed as a one-man band, using foot pedals to play the drums,[2] or simply stomped his feet on the floor to an often detuned guitar.

[1][9] He noted in interviews that his primary heroes and influences were Hank Williams, Jimmie Rodgers, Little Richard, and Col. Harland Sanders, the inventor of Kentucky Fried Chicken.

[30] "The Slop" was a song and dance Adkins pioneered for "the drunks", which he made so "you could just go left or right or fall down or anything you ran into".

[27] Adkins primarily recorded and performed his own songs, although Peanut Butter Rock and Roll included covers of Carl Perkins' "Blue Suede Shoes" and Harry Belafonte's "Day-O".