Hank Williams the Third Shows the Fans a Little Extra Love

Hear a Hank III podcast (with music from the 2006 Fall tour) on APR

Hear Hank Williams III MP3s from his winter 2004 tour

See the Hank 3/Assjack slideshow

... also see Hank III at the Nick in Birmingham AL

Tuscaloosa is rarely taken on a musical ride like the one provided September 9th, 2002 by Hank III, the Damn Band and Assjack. The first set from the Damn Band blew away a packed house at the Chukker with a full dose of his hellbilly style mixed with a handful of expertly delivered country music standards. The second set from Assjack couldn’t have been much further down the other end of the spectrum … providing an eardrum rattling, head thrashing explosion of rock-and-roll. At the center of it all was the son of a long-time Southern favorite and grandson of a legend. After the show, an exhausted Hank Williams the Third took a little time to share his thoughts about life on the road and the pursuit of happiness.
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“My name is Shelton Hank Williams the Third. I’m from Nashville, Tennessee and I make my money by playing music on the road.

Druid City Online - What do your friends call you?

“Shelton, pretty much. You know they’re people I’ve known my whole life. From a business point of view, if people saw Shelton Williams was playing, they might not be as curious. But if Hank Williams the Third comes to town, it makes the promoters a little more happy, and maybe we can get those extra fifty people in the door.”

DCO – Tell me about your previous five days, and your next five days ahead. What’s been happening and what’s going to happen?

“I just had five days off and the whole time we spent in the studio making the new bootleg, the new heavy metal bootleg that I can’t get my record company to release. I got to do it myself, and this is the third bootleg I’ve put out. It’s the first time I’ve been able to put out a bootleg recorded in the studio. All the rest of them were live DAT tapes. Every day we spent recording and mixing. I did 11 rock songs, and then went back and did 9 country songs. Then we got on the bus last night and came straight here. Now we’re on our way to Florida for about five or six shows, and then to Texas and on and on and on. I’ve been on the road almost nine years.”

DCO – What was it like when you started on the road? I’m sure it wasn’t like this.

“No, at first I was a drummer in a lot of bands. I’ve been a drummer in a band. I’ve been a bass player in a band. I’ve been a guitar player in a band … just doing whatever I could to be in a band touring with some guys.”

DCO – What do you like about it so much?

“Well, I just wasn’t a 9 to 5 sort of guy. It’s kind of like riding a Harley. There’s a certain kind of freedom about being a musician. It’s like you’re living day to day. You don’t know how your pay is when you’re first starting out and out there all the time. Every day is a little bit different, but kind of the same. Then I got into the country after I did the rock stuff for a long time.”

DCO - Yeah I saw you talking to some of your relatives. Was that lady your aunt? She was very impressed.

“Yeah, she was Hank Sr.’s half-sister.”

DCO – She was very impressed with the first set. She said the second set was very good too, but not quite her taste. She did stick around for the whole thing though.

“(laughs) Yeah, they’ve seen me do it before. It’s just family. I don’t have much family. She’s just coming out to say hi … being nice.”

DCO – It seems like you embrace people pretty easily. A lot of people obviously want to come up and shake your hand and get a little piece of Hank 3.

“Sometimes it’s both good and bad. Just as many people like us. Just as many people hate us. But I listen to either side, whether they like us or hate us. I’m pretty down to earth. I’m not too hot tempered or whatever. If it’s one of the people that are all pissed off at us, then I say “That’s cool man. That’s your opinion.”

DCO – Talk about that a little. Playing two very different sets like that … you’re showing some range.

“It’s just that I’ve always been into really heavy music, man. Being a drummer … that’s what messed me up. It’s just a different world. It’s not like we’re going Southern Rock. It’s like on past that. You know, more of the hard-core metal type stuff. But now people are starting to realize that we do both sides in the sets. Some towns we play, there are people that just don’t understand it, and sometimes we just don’t do it.”

DCO – But tonight, do you think people got it?

“Yeah! But I mean we’ve been in places with 500 cowboys and 20 rock kids. We’ve done that.”

DCO – How does that kind of crowd mix together?

“It’s been pretty … well … sometimes all our gear has been thrown out the door and we’ve been surrounded by cowboys and kicked out of their club. It’s wild how music can make people so pissed off. They think it’s disrespectful or something like that. But that’s me. Even if I was the best damn songwriter in the world, the best country singer there was out there, I’d still get shit for being the son of Hank Jr. and the grandson of Hank Williams. Doing this is my way of being me. I like the country side, but I also like the freaky side. And it’s not really commercial kind of music so I do it for satisfaction for myself more than anything. When I’m 60 some kid can say “Yeah, I saw him when he used to freak out and do that heavy stuff, but he don’t do it no more” I’ll do it as long as I can though.

DCO – Why play Hank Senior’s songs?

“Why? Mainly because there’s a lot of people there that are just coming to hear a Hank Williams song. I mean we play to a lot of old people sometimes, and it’s just kind of a paying respect kind of thing.”

DCO – You had a lot of older people there tonight. They came up and stood for you. And then you warned them about the rock-n-roll set and they went their own way. You had two different kinds of crowd there it seemed.

“Right. You know it's just paying respect to the heritage. My dad’s always done it in his set, and I just do it in mine. Just one of granddaddy’s and one of daddy’s. It’s just paying respect. There are others we played like David Allen Coe, and Johnny Cash.

DCO - If you could set up a dream tour .. pick three or four up and coming bands that you’d like to play with.

“Well, if we’re doing the rock stuff … if Assjack was going out …it’d be like High on Fire, and maybe Lamb of God, and American Head Charge, and then some freaky band like Melt Banana. If it was the country side, it’d be me, Wayne “the Train” Hancock, the Weary Boys, and Dale Watson. That’d be my country tour.

DCO – For a young band … you've obviously been from there to here … what advice would you give them?

“Just work real hard. But since electronics are playing such a role in music it’s getting hard for bands out there. But just stick with it, do what’s in your heart and don’t give up your day job too quick. Just concentrate on writing as much as you can and get that little 4-track or digital recorder and knock it out as much as you can. Do it for the sake of the art, not for the sake of making a million bucks. If you love it, then you’ll always be there for it.

DCO – How are you and your bandmates holding up with bus life?

“Pretty good. I’ve got a predominantly new band. The fiddle player hasn’t been with us a month. My bass player is an old-time friend of mine. He’s just helping my ass out cause he knows I was in a situation. His band “The Shack Shakers”, I forgot to mention them, they are the most kick-ass band. They’re everything I want to be! It just makes me jealous as hell that they can kick so much ass. But bus life is pretty easy. It’s been rough at times, but we’re all getting along pretty good. This damn bus takes about all our money. We go home for about a week and then we’re all damn broke. When you’ve got 10 guys on the road and you’re traveling for three weeks with one week off and then three weeks again, it’s just like you’re fighting it all the damn time. But maybe if I ever get back to a smaller crew then I’ll get a van and be hard-core again. I’ve been able to keep this bus on the road for eight years. So that says something as far as working or just doing something at least halfway right.

DCO – Thanks for being so generous with your time. Is there anything that you’d like to add? Any messages you’d like to pass along?

“Just that I play in this other band called Superjoint Ritual with Phil Anselmo from Pantera. We’re going to be touring October 7th through the 21st. The new CD is called “Use Once and Destroy”. We’ve also got a DVD coming out September 23rd. It’s full on heavy metal. Hank 3 and Assjack might have another CD out. And if not that, then we’re going to have another country CD out in 6-8 months. Also, come visit us and www.hankthree.com or www.superjointritual.com