Born in Georgia, but raised in Houston since the age of 7, this self-described "Prince of Darkness" was compelled to use the comedy stage as his philosophic soapbox. At 13, he would sneak out of his suburban house to hustle his way onto open-mike night rosters. In two brief decades, Hicks worked his way up the sweat-stained comedy ladder to national exposure on The Tonight Show, Late Show with David Letterman and an HBO cable special. Rolling Stone named him the "hot stand-up" of 1993. He was the hit of the 1990 and 1991 Just for Laughs comedy festivals in Montreal. Dead at 32, the enigmatic Hicks was admired, reviled and misunderstood. - The Montreal Gazette, March 28, 1994


Among Hicks's biggest fans were the members of the band Tool. Tool's 1996 album "Aenema" includes many Hicks references, including a picture in the liner notes, a sound clip of a Hicks routine before the final track "Third Eye", and references to Hicks's "Arizona Bay" routine in the title track. Welsh band Super Furry Animals dedicated their album Fuzzy Logic to him. He appeared 11 times on David Letterman, but always in a very "neutered" way. His final appearance (which he had hoped would be his final message to America before he died, his cancer diagnosis was known only to friends and family) was recorded but cut out of the final broadcast at the last minute. Ironically, afterwards he was called back and asked to do another performance; his response was: "I don't think I could learn to juggle in that short a time." Bill strongly criticized the show for its "ludicrous" censorship policies (not being able to say the word "Jesus" being one of them). David Letterman later appeared in a documentary about Bill (the UK produced "Totally Bill Hicks") in which he expressed his regret about how the situation had ended. The only known video footage was a VHS tape given to Hicks' parents which remained unseen until January 31, 2009 when Letterman had Mary Hicks, Bill's mother, as a guest to introduce it. Prior to airing the footage, Letterman took full responsibility for its being edited out, apologized and said "It says more about me as a guy than it says about Bill because there was absolutely nothing wrong with it.". To make ends meet, Bill would drive the son of the owners of the night club he was working at in California to school after working all night. The club was the Comedy Store owned by Sammy and Mitzi Shore. Their son was Pauly Shore. Though he generally disliked television, he was a huge fan of "The Simpsons," once remarking to a friend that he would like to live in Springfield, and Krusty The Klown's persona as a counter-cultural stand-up comedian in the ninth season episode "Last Temptation of Krust" is a tribute to him. Was raised a Southern Baptist. He rejected his families beliefs at a young age and adopted his own philosophy. He often joked about The Bible Belt in his acts. Less than a week after his burial he lost the American Comedy Award for Favorite Male Comedian to Carrot Top, whom he ridiculed during his final performances.