Asian wind water & blossoms tattoo by Jim Sylvia

Tattoo by Jim Sylvia

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Hank Williams III spent much of his early career playing drums in punk rock bands during the late 1980s and early to mid 1990s.

Three years after a one night stand in 1995, Hank Williams III was served papers on stage while opening up for the legendary underground band Buzzov•en. The judge told Hank 3 that playing music was no real job and to come up with $60,000 in overdue child support. To avoid being branded as a dead beat dad, Hank 3 signed a contract with Nashville, Tennessee, music industry giant Curb Records to pay off the debt. Three Hanks: Men With Broken Hearts was issued shortly thereafter, which spliced together recordings to make it seem that three generations of Williams men were singing alongside one another. In the late 1980s, upon first meeting Hank III, Minnie Pearl, a friend of the late Hank Williams Sr., reportedly said “Lord, honey, you’re a ghost,” as she was astonished by his striking resemblance to his grandfather.^[1]

Hank Williams III first solo album, Risin’ Outlaw, was released in September 1999 to respectable sales and strong reviews. While his name (and his uncanny vocal and physical resemblances to his grandfather) could have guaranteed Williams a thriving country audience, he had little patience for the often predictable Nashville sound, nor for even the minimal constraints on behavior his promoters required. His opinions on this subject are well summed up in his songs “Trashville” and “Dick in Dixie.”

Williams’ live shows typically follow a Jekyll and Hyde format: a country music set featuring fiddle player Adam McOwen and slide guitar player Andy Gibson, followed by a hellbilly set, and then an Assjack set. He plays both the country and the psychobilly with his “Damn Band.” Assjack produces a very different sound than either, mixing heavy doses of metalcore, psychobilly, and hardcore punk.

The lineup for Assjack includes the addition of supplemental vocalist Gary Lindsey, bassist Zach Shedd switching from upright to electric bass, and the departure of his fiddle and slide guitar players. McOwen’s predecessor was fellow-fiddle-player Michael “Fiddleboy” McCanless, who would play all three sets, adding traditional violin for the country set of the concert before plugging his instrument into an amplifier and distortion unit for later sets. Another former band member was guitarist Duane Denison, previously with The Jesus Lizard, who left The Damn Band and Assjack in January 2001 and later that year formedTomahawk.

Williams has had a significant contractual conflicts with Curb Records. He expressed dissatisfaction with his debut, and reportedly the label was unwilling to release his appropriately named This Ain’t CountryLP, nor to allow him to issue it on another record label. In response, Williams began making t-shirts stating “Fuck Curb.” Also during this era, Williams played bass guitar in heavy metal band Superjoint Ritual, a now-defunct band led by former Pantera vocalist Phil Anselmo. Joe Fazzio, former drummer for Superjoint Ritual, has toured with Hank III as well as contributing to his album Lovesick, Broke and Driftin’ (2002).

In late 2004, Thrown Out of the Bar was slated for release, but Curb opted not to issue it. Williams and label executive Mike Curb would be in and out of court for the next year before a judge ruled in favor of Williams in the spring of 2005, demanding that Curb release the album. Shortly thereafter Williams and Curb came to terms, and Williams dropped his “Fuck Curb” campaign. Bar was reworked into Straight to Hell, released on Curb’s rock imprint, Bruc. Battles with Wal-Mart delayed the appearance of this album, which was released on February 28, 2006 as a two-disc set in two formats: a censored version (for Wal-Mart), and an uncensored version that was the first major-label country album ever to bear a parental advisory warning. One of the songs, “Pills I Took”, was written by a little-known Wisconsin group called Those Poor Bastards, who originally released the song on their 2004 CD Country Bullshit^[2].

Hank III has recently played drums for Arson Anthem, formed with Phil Anselmo and Mike Williams of the sludge band Eyehategod.^[3]

Also, Hank III released his long awaited punk-metal album AssJack on August 4, 2009, and subsequently began a first-time tour of Europe on August 20, 2009 in Brussels. He began to perform several songs from his upcoming album on his latest tour, including the single “The Rebel Within.”

His next album, The Rebel Within, was released in May 2010.

Roses by Jim Sylvia

Owl by Jim Sylvia