Black Sheep
Hank Williams III tells it like it is to Guild …

III for the road: Williams onstage. Photo by Mike Boles

Shelton Hank Williams III—“Hank III” or even just “III” to his friends and fans—had just finished a grueling month-long tour and hadn’t even been home in East Nashville, Tenn., for two full days when we called to check in with him on Sept. 19. Tired and not really feeling too hot, he took our call anyway and generously spent the next 20 minutes or so doing one of the things he does best: telling it like it is.

As anyone who knows him well knows, the man does not mince words. A tireless and fiercely energetic performer, not to mention a notoriously outspoken critic of the Nashville music establishment, Hank III says what he means the way he means it.

That means several things, as you’ll see here. He likes Guild guitars. He likes touring and performing and many of the real people he meets on the road. He has, um, disdain for Nashville in general and his own label in particular. He doesn’t mind addressing his famous family name as long as you’re not an idiot about it. He believes Superjoint Ritual, the New Orleans-based metal band he played bass in with Pantera’s Phil Anselmo, to be extinct, but related side projects are always in the works.

And then there’s the Hank show, at which you will get your money’s worth. It typically features a couple sets of rip-snortin’ country hellbilly from Hank III and the Damn Band, followed by a set from Hank and his other band, an energetic punk-metal ensemble charmingly called Assjack.

Further, he’s happy to talk about his most recent recording, a two-disc self-produced DIY album called Straight to Hell, which features 13 doses of pure hellbilly delivered in an eerily familiar voice, plus a two-track 45-minute opus of twang, ambient sound and the kitchen sink called “Louisiana Stripes.” It took a while to get out, but, true to form, Hank III did it his way, as he does all things. Including this interview …


GN: How are you?
H3: Oh, I’m getting used to the shock of being home.


GN: It’s a shock?
H3: Yeah, pretty much. You know, it’s not like nine to five. At all. I made it back to East Nashville; got nine days to shake it off and then go out and do 24 shows in 27 days. They’re working me, they’re saying a big “F--- you” to me; tryin’ to kill me. Whatever.


GN: They won’t succeed.
H3: No, never! One day, maybe I’ll only play an hour and be able to party like a rock star, but we do a two-and-a-half-hour show, and it’s a lot of energy we’re giving off every day, man. We’re trying to give it all back, and the Guilds are fighting the fight all the way with us. Have been for years.

Williams and his Guild raise the roof. Photo by Mike Boles

GN: You’re happy with them, then?
H3: Oh, it’s basically what’s been there since day one. Ahhh, shoot, I always play a Guild Nightbird—I think there were only, like, 670-something of ’em made. I’ve got a light one; one’s light and one’s heavy, on the electrical side.

On the acoustic side, you know, they’ve always been a good $500 acoustic guitar that’s pretty road-durable and gets a pretty damn good sound through the front of the house and all that stuff.


GN: You tour a lot.
H3: Mm-hmmm. Well, when you are the black sheep of the Bible Belt and no one will cut you, the only thing you can do is tour—that’s the only way to get our word out there. We’re like Rodney Dangerfield—we never get any respect. We do from the f-----’ people on the road and the kids in black, man, so that’s where it’s at. On the touring side of things, we’re just doing as much as we can. One day I’ll chill out on that, but we definitely have something to prove right now.


GN: Well, you’re definitely out there proving it …
H3: Yes. Yeah, there have been a lot of good runs.


GN: How long a break do you get now?
H3: Weeeeeellllllll, if they’re working me correctly, like you’re supposed to, you would go out and work four to six weeks and then have a month off, no questions. If they’re not working me correctly—like, I just got off a four-week tour not even 48 hours ago, and I’ve got nine days to shake it off and do 24 shows in 27 days—then that goes back to who I have working for me, which is nobody, basically.

And when I call people out, that’s their way of saying “F--- you” back, you know. I route the tours and all that stuff, but they stacked ’em up a little high this time and somebody OK’d it without me seeing it. But we will show up, and it all boils down to the country folks—they’re the people I don’t want to let down.


GN: That’s got to be rough on your voice.
H3: I always have to fight hard for that nasal voice—the “twang.” And that’s the only part of the show that really gets jeopardized when the body is saying “Guess what—f--- you! You don’t have nothin’ today,” but you still gotta go out there and give it, and it sounds like, maybe, Tom Waits trying to sing country on a bad day, or something like that.

The cover of Straight to Hell.

GN: (laughing) Well said.
H3: But that’s just a payoff; one of those things. You know, they said “You’ll never be able to do that” a long, long time ago, but that’s part of dealing with rock ‘n’ roll, or whatever—screaming.


GN: You pretty much say what you mean, don’t you?
H3: Yeah, pretty much. I’ve usually been pretty to the point. And just even getting a parental advisory (label) on that record (Straight to Hell)—it’s not like every other word is “g------,” “f---” or “s---” or nothing like that; it’s just that I’m trying to be me, you know. I’m just trying to be myself, and if I write a song and talk about partying, I just want to be able to not be censored. It was a long, hard fight to get that record like that. It was a very hands-on record.


GN: It must have been quite a struggle …
H3: Well, I’m just trying to show bands that you don’t have to spend that much money to record your own album. Don’t let the people take advantage of you, and then you’d be indebted to your record label for the next five years.

I was showing people that, yes, this album was recorded on a $500 machine, and we got a couple of people together and just turned some knobs every day for a month and a half, and you can do this yourself. You can get a decent sound out there. So that was the main objective—just DIY. That’s kind of what this organization is about. Aside from the family name, this organization is basically self-made—you know, ’cause we do tour 180, 200 days a year, never ending the fight, never giving up.


GN: Do you get tired of being asked about your name?
H3: You know, it depends on how many times they’re gonna refer to it. Like, for instance, the last interview I can recall getting pissed off about was “Uh, you’ve got an interview with the BBC; they’re coming to your house.” OK. Well, every f------ question was about Hank Williams (Sr.).

Here and there it might take a little bit of a toll, but not much. I’m proud of where I came from. Hank Jr. and Hank Sr., they both did their thing, and I’ll tell ’em straight up if I know it or not. I’m pretty good with patience, man.

Williams: "I'm proud of where I came from." Photo by Bridget Watson

GN: You must be.
H3: S---, I talk to my fans after every show that I do. Drunk, sober, whatever. I kneel down, and half of it’s good, half of it’s bad and half of it don’t make sense ’cause they’re all so f----- up. But you know, that’s what makes us real, man. Some people think it’s gay, but some people think it’s cool as f--- that you can still be down to earth with your fans.


GN: Where did the idea for “Louisiana Stripes” come from?
H3: Mainly, I always like to have fun at the end of a record, since it’s such a process. A lot of those songs—some of them are just me and the tape recorder, back when I was 20, living in a trailer and going through some f----- -up s---, all the sounds and all that stuff is for people that … there’s a batch of people out there that are into ambient sounds and noise. You know, it’s like the kind of CD you listen to if you’re stuck in traffic or about to kill somebody or trying to come down at night or whatever.

It’s something different, and I wanted to be able to a) have some fun and b) also say there is no other CD coming off of Music Row that is anywhere like this. And I can full-on say that 100 percent; no ifs, and or buts about that record.

And it also goes back to stripping it down, with just me and the tape recorder. Like, the first CD is done the right way—you’ve got all the super-pickers and all that s--- in there; the second CD is just straight-up, “Well, in the end it’s usually just a dude with his guitar, coming up with a riff or whatever.”


GN: Is your live set still a two-part deal, with the Damn Band and then Assjack?
H3: Yeah. the Damn Band is the country, and now we have our middle ground—it’s like the Rev. Horton Heat on steroids—people call it the “hellbilly” sound. It’s hard rock, but we’ve still got the stand-up, the steel and the fiddle. We do about 25 minutes of that; then we break down and take five minutes and then do the Assjack part of the show.

So we’ve officially got three elements of the show going on now. You know, it’s got a good group of guys; I’ve finally got a good crew that’s been together more than a year or so. We’re definitely starting to get a little bit of a team.


GN: Is Superjoint Ritual over and done with?
H3: As for now, I always say that Superjoint is in the grave. It might come back; I don’t know. But as far as what’s going on with Philip (SR founder Phil Anselmo), the new Down record is in the process of being made; us and Down are gonna tour next year—it could be two weeks, it could be two months; I don’t know.

Williams and the Damn Band onstage. Photo by Mike Boles

I’m playing drums with the man in a band, also, called Arson Anthem. We just played our first show in New Orleans, like, a week and a half ago, during the Hank show, or whatever. They came out right after the hellbilly part, and I’m playing drums, Phil is doing nothing but playing guitar, and Mike Williams from Eyehategod is screaming, and it was interesting. You know, it’s on tape; just another side project. Philip’s getting ready to launch Housecore Records, and once he gets that going—he’s got probably 15 to 20 side bands nobody even knows about, and some of ’em are pretty f-----’ lethal. That’s what’s coming up on the plate for the New Orleans crew.


GN: You’ve got a lot going on ...
H3: S---! I’ve got to do it myself, man! No one else is.

Hey man, but I can say that g------ Guild and Ampeg® are about the only two that have stood behind me for more than six months, or whatever. Y’all have been there for years, and we take that seriously, as far as not playing other instruments onstage or any of that stuff. Just the whole Guild family—even the guys in the shop or whatever. Compared to the attitude I get if I walk in the shop at Gibson®, you know, it’s just a totally different thing, man.

And it goes way back; you know, Hank Jr., he had quite a long run with Guild, also. It’s just passed down a little bit. I know that’s how I got one of mine—I just kind of picked it up and walked off with it (laughs) …



Visit Hank Williams III online at www.hank3.com.