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Nashville, Tennessee (AP) — It can be difficult to tell if Hank Williams Jr. is behind a really dark sunglasses and a beard covering a scar on his face.
The fact that Williams has multiple identities, whether it’s Bosefas or Thunderhead Hawkins, the centerpiece of his latest album, further complicates how much he is a persona or stage presence. increase. From time to time, he talks about himself among third parties, as if he were reviewing a movie of his life.
“I’m Gemini,” Williams said, referring to the constellations represented by the twins as a way to explain who he is.
Williams often went against simple characterization. He was Icon’s son, Elder Hank Williams, and his tragic death left him a legacy of both support and expansion at an early age. After surviving a nearly deadly fall from the mountains in 1975, Williams took his own violent blue-collar Southern rock sound to new heights and changed the sound of country music.
His first album since 2016, his new album “Rich White Honky Blues” Country Music Hall of Fame Museum The influence of the early days and ultimately making him the only artist.
The blues has always been part of his musical DNA. His father played the guitar in Alabama, Rufus “Teatot” PainHowever, his parents ran a boarding house and had few resources.
“They don’t have the money to give him, but they had food for guitar lessons,” said Williams of Payne.
After his father died at the age of 29, Williams Jr. was expected to follow in his footsteps at an early age. He was playing the song of his father, who died on stage by the age of eight, but when he got home in the car, he was a blues-based radio such as the Bobby Blue Brand and Nashville. I was listening to the late-night broadcast of the station WLAC. It played rhythm and blues. “I haven’t listened to the Grand Ole Opry,” Williams said. “I’ve never been a member of the Grand Ole Opry. I’ll never be. Limited. And I’m doing pretty well.”
Williams moved away from the traditional country where his father was known and began merging genres such as Delta Blues, Hard Rock, Country and Soul with bands such as Marshall Tucker Band and Lynyrd Skynyrd.
His number one hits include “Country Boys Can Survive,” “Family Tradition,” “All Rough Friends Come Tonight,” and later the opening theme song for “Monday Night Football.” became. He was repeatedly selected as an entertainer of the year by the Country Music Association and the Country Music Academy, and won a Grammy Award for his best country vocal collaboration.
But he also became a headline feed because of his noisyness and unfriendlyness, especially in his later years. He is not quiet about conservative political beliefs, he likes to sing about God, guns, and the South.His comment once I sacrificed him the intro spot of “Monday Night Football”.
His new record continues to mythize the macho boogie guy, even when he’s in his 70s. This album is a sexual song by Robert Johnson, Lightnin’Hopkins, RL Burnside, Muddy Waters’ adult blues material and Williams’ own original song. Session musicians recorded at Dan Auerbach’s Easy Eye Studios in Nashville include electric slide guitarist Kenny Brown, bassist Eric Deaton, drummer Kinney Kimbro, and guitar Auer. Bach is included.
“We quickly understood each other. I got there with Kenny and them and Dan. It was like pouring water from a cup. It went pretty smoothly and in two and a half days. I was knocked out. “
Williams’ longtime manager Ken Levitan is a Grammy-winning producer, and Auerbach, half of the rock duo The Black Keys, was drawn with Williams for his knowledge of the blues. He said it was perfect.
“There is a match that works very well, and this worked very well.”
Williams added his own off-the-cuff lyrical riff to the song. And when the band was snickering in the background, it could contain crude remarks about women.
“We say some dirty words. Some dirty words,” Williams said with a smile. “This is a juke joint in Thunderhead Hawkins, Mississippi, southern Alabama. And that’s exactly how it sounds and feels.”
But because of all the bravery that Williams shows, he cannot escape his own broken heart as his family continues to endure the tragedy.
Williams’ eldest daughter Kate died in a car accident At the age of 27 in 2020, he was appointed to the Country Music Hall of Fame Museum just months before it was announced. Later, his wife Mary Jane Thomas, who married in 1990, Died in March After a medical emergency at a spa in Florida.
The last track on the album “Jesus Want You Come By Here” was the only religious song written by Lightnin’Hopkins and was a song Williams loved for decades. After all sneaky blues, He sings Like a sinner on Sunday, “Jesus, why don’t you come here / kneel and pray?”
After his wife’s death, he can no longer take himself to sing live.
“I loved the song 40 years ago, and I still love it,” Williams said. “But I’m not going to do it live. I can’t do it. I’m pretty tough. I can do a lot. I can’t do it now. Now you answer I got it. “
“Hanks was a very rough year for a couple of years,” Levitan said. “At least in retrospect, (the song) has a big meaning at this point.”
Williams has little patience for interviews and doesn’t like record promotions in modern countries. He had a private jet waiting to bring him home for a few hours outside Nashville near Lake Kentucky, and he revealed that the story was over.
“I’m pretty positive about everything that happens, but the song is great,” he said. “Everything is in the spotlight. I think that’s why we’re sitting here. Everyone is in the spotlight. Bruceman. Goodbye.”
And Thunderhead Hawkins left the room.
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online: https://hankjr.com/
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Follow Kristin M. Hall on Twitter.com. https://Twitter.com/kmhall
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