Hank III - The Hellbilly Onstage

He may look and talk like the spitting image of his namesake country legend grandfather, but Hank Williams III is as diverse a musician as you’ll come across. You can’t pigeonhole him to just one genre.

The career of Hank III has doubled as a sort of crusade in which he breaks all the rules of country music while somehow managing to honor its traditions at the same time. Not many artists capture the hillbilly rowdiness that the crazed country rebel himself can. As he put it back in ’06, “Everybody calls themselves outlaws and all that stuff, but that’s what’s missing in country music. Everything’s so clean and pretty and perfect, and you need a couple of people in there that aren’t perfect and that don’t sound the best. That’s the way some of the best guys were, man” (Lockwood). Celebrating his liberation from a record deal that he says has kept him relatively stifled over the past 14 years, Hank III now has his own record label and last year he released three albums (one of which was a left-over Curb disc called "Hillbilly Joker") that cover the gamut of styles from honky tonk to metal. Ghost to a Ghost/Guttertown is a sprawling two-disc set that features straight-forward country and brutal rock with an old-school, banjo heavy, country vibe in addition to collaborations with Tom Waits and Les Claypool. 3 Bar Ranch - Cattle Callin' features a barrage of thrash guitar mixed with cattle auction recordings in the background and Attention Deficit Disorder is a dark, doomy, sludge metal album. Attention Deficient Domination and Cattle Callin’ explore the two extremes of metal. Hank III plays practically everything on both. Attention Deficit Domination is Hank III’s first foray into sludge metal, making it a radical shift in mood and tempo from the speed metal he’s been grinding out in his Assjack mode. “That’s gonna be a little different for the live fans who have been used to seein’ Assjack for the last 10 years,” he says. “Assjack was almost fast hardcore, and ADD is slow, sleep-oriented doom rock. So it’s gonna be a lot different to see and feel compared to what most people are used to seein’ me do live. I been a fan of it for years; it’s just somethin’ else I needed to do" (Horowitz).

Attention Deficit Disorder Live

“The way I approach records nowadays is it could be my very last one. So that’s the big inspiration for it, and just gettin’ by each day and tryin’ to make it through another tour—that’s the deal. I’m not tryin’ to get no big payoff or anything. Will I ever be able to do this again in my career? Probably not. This’ll be the only time I’ll be able to pop out that much energy at once. But all in all, it’s just kinda bein’ like The Melvins or the Reverend Horton Heat. I’m a bar band, that’s what I am, so I’ll be beatin’ down the road as long as we can, doin’ the show and sayin’ hello, man” (Bonyata).

Though Hank III comes from a family tradition of American music royalty, “I had a very normal upbringing,” he says of growing up in the town of Franklin. Hank Jr. was on the road quite often, leaving Hank III to his own devices of primary influence and tastefulness  “No one ever pushed me into music; it was a very natural progression…I got a drum kit when I was 7 years old. By the time I was 10 I was up onstage playing ‘Family Tradition.’ Before too long I started touring with punk-rock bands. But no one ever pushed me into music like they pushed my dad,” he continues. “When he was young, Audrey [Hank Jr.’s mother] was telling him to ‘get onstage and sound like your daddy’” (Mosqueda).

But as strange as it may seem, there's nothing unusual about someone with his background playing an extreme form of rock in addition to having deep roots in country. "If I was just a country artist I don't think I'd have the fan base that I have. Plus, it's a natural progression if you really look in the blood line. Hank Williams Sr. was playing rock before rock was around and my dad plays country rock.” His point is factual and can be noted in Hank Senior songs such as "Move It On Over" which brought rock styling to country, as well as Hank III's father being one of the forefathers of country rock, stubbornly refusing to play Hank Sr. songs in concerts and blazing his own path. Similarly, Hank III chooses to walk the dirty gravel back roads rather than take the seat at the front of the bus. His idea of rebellion, however, is one of compassionate anarchy. Hank III is rebel cool, an image he claims he both nurtures and allows to come naturally. In a sense, Hank III is a rebel with a cause, so to speak, as its hard enough to step out Hank William’s shadow (Lockwood).

“Some of my heroes are loud and truly don't give a fuck and that's why they're rock stars and super hardcore. I'm like that to a point, but I draw the line because I do care about my music and my fans and, you know, be there for them as much as possible. But, with a lot of the hardcore stuff, they gotta have that fighter, or full on "fuck you" attitude because that's what it's about” (Bonyata).

Whether you’re talking about a slow bluegrass song or a lightning fast punk metal ditty, Hank III is known for doing it all. Hank III is probably most well-known for his honky tonking cowboy songs and you might think that being in the Williams lineage, the singer would lean towards country for his performance.  However this is actually just a tiny part of his live set which is one of the most diverse and breathtaking shows you’ll ever see, encompassing genres across the board in an extreme building up of; traditional country, spirited honky tonk, hillbilly, punk, jackhammer thrash metal, black metal, experimental and even industrial. His live show usually clocks in around three hours, often features three or four of the latter mentioned musical styles and is as rowdy a live act as you could find (Lockwood).

3rd Generation Outlaw - Commentary of Live Performances and Musical Lifestyle

“It’s a mix of everything,” Williams says. “I’ll make sure you get your money’s worth if you came to see a country part of the show but at the end of the night there’s gonna be a different element that you might not expect" (Flotat). Hank’s cross-pollination of styles could be recognized as a natural outgrowth of his creativity and desire to express himself in a variety of ways; “I love music. I love creating it, writing it, playing it, recording it,” he said. “I eat it, live it, breathe it. It’s a full-on, 24/7 lifestyle” (Horowitz).

The incarnation of his live band during a performance at the Whisky-A-Go-Go consists of an upright double bass player, fiddle, banjo, slide/steel guitar, and Hank himself. Barely taking a breath between songs, Hank ran through a well selected and impeccably delivered selection of classics such as; 'Straight To Hell', 'Pills I Took', 'Country Heroes', 'Dick In Dixie', 'The Legend of D. Ray White' and newer material such as 'Ghost to a Ghost'. Many of his country tracks were played when guitars were switched from acoustic to electric and the tempo was heightened slightly for the second stage of the night; the ‘Hellbilly’ set. Hellbilly is something almost completely synonymous with Hank III, it’s a hybrid of punk, metal and country and it is both raucous and infectious. The songs about drinking, fighting, fornicating and living the life of an outlaw went down exceptionally well with all present. The musical capability of the band is remarkable. At times the double bass player looked as if he was going to smash through his instrument as he accompanied the drummer on some incredible death metal double bass rolls, something which created the effect of a locomotive crashing through the building. Not something that you hear every day, especially when combined with a banjo solo.

Hank III Live @ The Whisky-A-Go-Go - Country & Hellbilly Set

The crowd at this point in the set is usually a mixture of Rockabillies, Punks, Southern Metal enthusiasts (sporting Down and Eyehategod t-shirts) and the mandatory bemused looking middle aged couples who had come under the assumption that tonight would be a strictly country and western affair. In general, Hank III’s shows are known to attract one of the most diverse cross section of audience members including; country boys, hillbillies, punkers, metal heads, goths, and 8 to 80 year olds. According to him his universal appeal lies in his decision “to give the consumer the longest show for the cheapest ticket price available. And you know off the bat I'm going to pay respect to my roots, so that's going to give me the older folks, the average everyday guys and then you have a lot of the hardcore kids that are starting to get into the old Johnny Cash and all that stuff. I put on a diverse show that gets the diverse audience. I mean it took me a long time to get accepted into the rock "club." I always say that 18 to 80 is our crowd. It's all over the place.” The unique and wonderful thing about Hank III, however, is that by the end of the night, he’ll have catered to the entirety of his eclectic audience (Mayo).

A Hank III show comes in three acts. The first one is the traditional sort of country you find on his records: lots of honky-tonk, mean picking, lightning fiddle and Hank's flat twang. The second is hellbilly — a cowpunk, rockabilly set that amps up the crowd for a hard-core finisher, the metal set. Yes, metal, as in breakneck power chords, thrashing vocals and devil horns. What's amazing is to hear Hank III unleash guttural, throat-growling wails just minutes after yodeling through a "tear-in-your-beer" ballad (Mayo).

At the 16 minute mark of this video from a Hank III performance in Cincinnati, Ohio, you can see the actual set shift from Country and Hellbilly to his heavy metal part of the show.

Hank III Live in Cincinnati - Hellbilly to Heavy Metal

Country purists sometimes leave when Hank's cowboy hat comes off. But most of Hank's fans aren't too pure, anyway. And it's easy to appreciate (with the aid of earplugs, if needed) the double nature of his music. Behind his country outlaw is an even bigger hellion, one that is uniquely his own.

“I pay respect to my country fans first and then as it goes along I do a little bit of everything. “With the country I just have to be a little more uptight because when I'm standing up there I really have to concentrate on singing in tune. When I play the harder stuff, the distortion allows me to let my hair down, so to speak," he said. “But some people just don’t understand that that’s part of our show. It’s pretty intense. It’s a very uncomfortable environment in most places” (Bonyata).

Hank III’s shows all usually start early and on time because the 39-year-old Hellbilly star plays until he can’t stand up anymore. "I wear any audience out," Hank III said in an interview. "If you have 65 songs, sometimes we lose half the crowd, and that’s punk-rock." The "hellbilly" said on this tour he is playing about 90 minutes of country at first, and then several hours of the genre-defying rock he is also known for. "I take pride in having the longest show for the cheapest price," he said. "I have the rest of my life to just play an hour on an acoustic guitar" (Mosqueda).

His shows are epic in length and Williams politely encouraged anyone who's coming to the show to be there on time or even a little early. "If it's a weeknight we always start a little early so it's not so hard on people when they have to get up and go to work," he said. "I've always played for a long time ever since day one. I've had sound guys say, 'You play too long.' I've always thought it was a time to give and I can play hour long shows when I get older," Williams said. "It's especially important when times have been so hard on everyone so I take pride in playing the longest show of any national touring act at the lowest ticket price for the working man and woman” (Bonyata).

Hank III has too much dirt and hard swagger to land him comfortably on commercial country radio. And that's what makes him a perfect candidate to wave the outlaw flag: He has fiercely loyal fans, but they are never going to see him at an arena concert, and you wouldn't want to anyway. The hell Hank so often sings about raising is in full throttle when he takes the stage. There aren't too many places where you can wear your cowboy hat and Slayer T-shirt, but a Hank III concert is the place to do it. The intimate venues and bars chooses to perform in is the perfect place for up-close mayhem.

Works Cited

Bonyata, Phil. "Hank 3 - Exclusive Interview." Concert Livewire. N.p., 16 Jan. 2012. Web. 26 Oct. 2012. <http://www.concertlivewire.com/hank3int.htm>.

Flotat, Raymond. "We Drive Some Folks Wild - Hank III & Assjack Live at the Roxy 3/26/10." Mxdwn. N.p., 11 Apr. 2011. Web. 27 Oct. 2012. <http://www.mxdwn.com/2010/04/11/features/we-drive-some-folks-wild-hank-iii-assjack-live-at-the-roxy-32610/>.

Horowitz, Joanna. "Country Meets Metal: Must Be Hank Williams III." Seattle Times. N.p., 3 Mar. 2009. Web. 27 Oct. 2012. <http://seattletimes.com/html/musicnightlife/2008803814_zmus03hank3.html>.

Lockwood, Rod. "Like Father and Grandfather, Hank Williams III Doesn't Toe Industry's Line." Toledo Blade. N.p., 9 May 2012. Web. 27 Oct. 2012. <http://www.toledoblade.com/Music-Theater-Dance/2012/05/10/Like-father-and-grandfather-Hank-Williams-III-doesn-t-toe-industry-s-line.html>.

Mayo, Bracken. "Hank III Hits Murfreesboro, Plays It All." The Murfreesboro Pulse. N.p., 6 June 2012. Web. 28 Oct. 2012. <http://boropulse.com/2012/06/hank-iii-hits-murfreesboro-plays-it-all/>.

Mosqueda, Ruben. "Q/A: Hank Williams III 'redux'" Oregon Music News. N.p., 1 Aug. 2012. Web. 28 

           Oct. 2012. <http://oregonmusicnews.com/2012/08/01/qa-hank-williams-iii-redux/>.