This Ain’t Your Granddaddy’s Country Music…

There are a lot of country-music families whose members have enjoyed varying degrees of success in the country music scene to date. There is of course the legendary Carter family and the more contemporary Cyrus clan. And then there are the “Hanks,” Hank Williams and Hank Williams Jr. A third generation Hank, Hank III, has also been an official part of the country music scene for the past decade, but unless you are into the type of country music which puts slices of country, punk, and metal in a mixer and pushes “pulverize,” then you probably haven’t heard of him or his new band Assjack.

A claim to infamy of this so-called country music outlaw is the distinction of having the first major-label country album (2006’s uncensored version of Straight to Hell) to come with a parental advisory sticker.

The spitting image of his granddaddy, Hank Williams, the direction of Hank William III’s musical destiny might have been easy to assume. Although he channels a loud and rebellious persona on stage, Hank III is uncharacteristically soft-spoken off the stage. He ruffled some feathers and defied expectations when he developed a schizophrenic style that truly isn’t anything we have ever heard before—as opposed to hillbilly, it’s been dubbed “hellbilly” for the hell-raising that he has done through his songs.

Although he has a devoted following, Hank III’s music has never been embraced by old-school Nashville. Perhaps, it is because he has been very vocal—through interviews and in his lyrics—about the shortcomings of recognized institutions in country music. In his 2008 album, “Damn Right, Rebel Proud,” he has a song with the title “The Grand Ole Opry (Ain’t So Grand)” where he censures the radio program for snubbing country heroes like Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, and Hank Williams Sr. His grandfather was, according to him, unfairly dismissed in 1952 as a member of the Grand Ole Opry (speculations abound that it because of his alcoholism). However, the Opry “continues to put out records saying, ‘This is Hank Williams live from the Grand Ole Opry’ and using his image and likeness,” the grandson asserts.

A sample verse of the Grand Ole Opry tune goes, “To most people listening to this sit might seem like we’re talking shit; But if you look behind the scenes to see who is pulling strings, ****** it will make you sick…”

In an interview he did last year with LA Weekly, he shares something about the reasons for writing the song. “It’s just payin’ respects where respects are due. If you’re going to have a Hank Williams impersonator, if you’re going to have a Hank Williams play, if you’re going to have Hank Williams records and pictures all over your place, and he is the first man inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, he’s inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame… but the little secret society in Nashville is a little too good to pat Hank Williams on the back nowadays. That’s just not right. It’s as simple as that.”