Hank III's grandfather Hank Williams was a total legend. "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry," THAT man and THAT legend. Yep. Hank senior exerted the same weight of influence in Country music as Elvis did over Rock 'n' Roll.
Hank III and Steve in the Studio. http://www.indie1031.fm/shows/jonesy.php
You can read more info here also here (Hank III's website).
Now this here Hank is work in progress which means to you basically that Tina will be putting more transcript up as and when it's ready. So until then, you will just have to be patient, won't you. Keep checking back!!! Keep reloading the page.
The Sire is wearing new myspace Pontifical vestments at the moment and possibly new Pontifical pantsments too. Who knows...
To summarise. I won't be here for a week ok. So be good boys and girls. I am leaving you in the more than capable hands of Tina. You can have a party if you wish :-) Cheers!
Enjoy yourselves, Enjoy the box! CwA
Tina IS at the Controls!
Steve: You’re listening to Jonesy’s Jukebox on Indie 1031 on a lovely Thursday, it’s about eighty degrees. It’s getting a little bit of smog, though, I’ve noticed today, but still delicious. Yesterday after the show, I went and laid out, put some sun on my arse. I’m getting such an even tan, Mr. Shovel. No tan lines.
Mr. Shovel: Oh. Okay.
Steve: Do I look tan to you?
Mr. Shovel: Yeah, very tan.
Steve: It’s coming along, innit?
Mr. Shovel: I don’t want to see your tan line.
Steve: No?
Mr. Shovel: No.
Steve: You don’t want to have a look at my arse?
Mr. Shovel: No.
Steve: You could fry an egg on my arse. But um, today we got Hank the Third coming in hopefully, around, I dunno, 12:15, 12:30. Somewhere in that ballpark. I’m excited about that.
~~~ ~~~ ~~~
(after the first set of songs, Hank III is here)
Steve: Jonesy’s Jukebox, you’re listening to, with Hank the Third in here. Hello, mate.
Hank III: Helllooo.
Steve: Did I introduce you the right way?
Hank III: Yes, Hank III. Hank the Third, Hank III, we get all kinds of nicknames. Tricephus, all kinds of junk out there man, but that’s what I always say, Hank III.
Steve: And you’ve got your band with you.
Hank III: I got a couple members. Got Mr. Joe Buck in the studio and the front man of Assjack, Gary Lindsey is up and running with us today.
Steve: How did, when did you have the transition…did you start with country?
Hank III: No. I actually started, I was a drummer. I got my first set of drums when I was ten. Black Sabbath, Ted Nugent, Kiss and from there I just really got into harder stuff, or about the beat. So I was in bands until I was about 20, being a drummer and around, I think around 22, I was doing a show, screamin’, playing guitar, opening up for a band called Buzzoven and these police walk up to me and said, “Are you Shelton Hank Williams III?” and I said “Yes” and they said, “Well, here’s some papers.” So I got served papers onstage and it was a chick that waited three years to tell me I had a kid and hit me with $48,000 back pay and the judge said, “Well playing music ain’t no real job”.
So that’s when I went down to music row, (general laughter in the room) got a manager, started taking care of this situation, got on the road to get back into the rock. So I did a couple of years on the road, just doing the straight-up you know, getting used to stop screaming and trying to sing. Cos I was raised in really hard, hard music so, it took a little while, but for the last eight years the Jekyll and Hyde part of the show has been rocking pretty good.
Steve: So you’ve been doing that for like, the last eight years…you start with the traditional stuff, then you go into the speed metal
Hank III: Uh yeah. Pretty much. We have a very wide fan base from eighteen to eighty to metalheads to punk rockers to cowboys to grandmas and granddads and the average-lookin’ people, man. But you know, we’ve been fightin’ hard to get all those people coming together and get along. You’d be surprised. There’s some fights here and there but everybody gets along pretty good, man.
Steve: You had a bit of trouble last night?
Hank III: Good trouble. (laughter in b.g.) It was just a couple big security guards that ain’t ever seen nothin’ like that in their life and when it’s that intimate, and the crowd is right there, it’s just, it’s “on”. So, it was our first time in Riverside and had a…it was pretty deadly, definitely.
Steve: You’re a bad man. (laughter in b.g.)
Hank III: Oh well, y’ know, we are the rebels of Nashville. The black sheep. We’re almost blackballed in that town.
Steve: You guys there, Nashville?
Hank III: My band lives all over the place. Gary’s here in California. Jim’s in Kentucky and I was born and raised in Nashville. But it’s cheap living…hey, you can’t beat it. I like having my space since everything’s on top of us all the time, I need a little land to walk on at the end of the day when I’m home.
Steve: Do you have a ranch?
Hank III: Not a ranch. I call it the Haunted Ranch, but we rent it, but it’s sixty acres, five bedroom house. Thousand bucks a month, ten minutes from downtown and I can play twenty-four hours a day and y’know, have my own concert there and nobody’d know.
Steve: Do you have horses?
Hank III: No. One day, when I retire, I’m gonna take a break from the road. If I make it to fifty, man, that’s when I’m gonna buy a few goats, let ‘em walk around and enjoy cuttin’ grass for the rest of my life.
Steve: They like to eat don’t they, goats?
Hank III: They’ll eat anything and you know, they’re pretty weird to look at. So, gonna get some animals, I’ll sit back and get the rocker out and enjoy.
Steve: I was in Hawaii a couple of years ago, my mate was out there and I was out there visiting him and he had this big house that was rented for him and they had a goat on the land. They would tie him up and give him spaces, when they wanted to empty an area, they’d tie him and he’d just eat that whole area. So I used to go down there. I used to like looking at him and he had these nuts – this big. (laughter in b.g.) And every time I went down there, his thing came out. (more laughter) He was rampant.
Hank III: (laughs) I hear that, I hear that.
Steve: He was funny. He was so funny. What happened to the…lost child?
Hank III: My kid?
Steve: Yeah.
Hank III: Right now he’s…it was a very greedy, hateful way of going about the whole situation.
Steve: Did you know the girl, though?
Hank III: I knew the girl, her dad was a cop. She never even called me to tell me. I mean, it was pretty like, not cool. A stepfather…you know, he has a stepfather goin’ on and um, he’s got the family there, man.
Steve: Do you visit him?
Hank III: I don’t get to because of my reputation and what I do. You know, a judge looks at me and looks at stuff like that. It’s a, it’s a bad setup. But…he’s going to be tracking me down and I’m looking forward to the day to, to sayin’, “What’s up?”.
Steve: How old is he now?
Hank III: He’s about twelve.
Steve: I’m sure he’ll be glad to meet you one day.
Hank III: He’s gettin’ up there, man. He’s gettin’ up there.
Steve: I’m sure you’re more exciting than his stepdad.
Hank III: Oh, yeah. It’s just weird. You know, it’ll come around, man. So I’m thinking of him and taking care of him. You know, I beat this road down to pay that stuff.
~~~ ~~~ ~~~
(back to interview after playing a couple of records)
Steve: You’re listening to Jonesy’s Jukebox on Indie 1031 with Hank III.
Hank III: We’re up early-early for us.
Steve: Is that, are you like, late, late bloomers?
Hank III: Well, we’re used to going on at ten to two at night, so we usually get up – I do – from four to five cos it keeps me on my mentality. But we woke up all pretty perky this morning, we were excited to get down, man.
Steve: I’m glad you came down.
Hank III: Yeah, got a good, good day ahead of us.
Steve: You don’t do a lot of interviews?
Hank III: More like underground, do-it-yourself kind of deals, but you know…a few, but getting us to the radio show, the day of the show, uh…it never really happens.
Steve: I’m flattered, then.
Hank III: Aw, heck man, thanks.
Steve: Thanks a lot. That was a band called Chequered Past, doing a song called, “Are You Sure Hank Did It This Way” written by Waylon Jennings. (Note: Steve was a member of Chequered Past)
Hank III: Yeah, the ol' Waltaljian (?) Waylon.
Steve: You must have met…did you meet all them guys when you were younger? Or do you still meet ‘em?
Hank III: Oh, yeah…here and there I do, but I’ve been around old like, David Allen Coe, Willie Nelson, Johnny Paycheck, George Jones, I’ve gotten to have relationships with all them guys. Waylon used to call me when I was in rehab, just being like, “Well, this ain’t what I’d be doin’ to ya. You know, I’d be rehabbin’ ya in a totally different way”. So I got good, good stories like that. He was almost like a father figure. A lot. You know, he was a very intense and awesome guy, man.
Steve: (to his friend, Richard Stark) Who’s the bloke you like, Richard?
Richard: Merle.
Steve: Merle. (to III) Do you like Merle Haggard?
Hank III: Merle Haggard? He scared me to death the first time I met him cos we were all sittin’ a table and a friend of mine like leaned, leaned down to say, “Hey, this is Hank Williams III”, and he kicked up his chair and was like, “I know who he is!” and stood up and shook my hand and then…”Aiiight.” (Richard laughs) Yeah, so I could tell he was, he was wound up and he was kind of in a bad mood. Good to see ya Merle, love ya man. But he had the fire in his eye you know. I could tell he still, he could, he could get ya in some trouble.
Steve: Yeah, yeah. I went and saw him with Richard. Where did we go? Where was that place we went a few years ago? He was in a bad mood that night, wasn’t he?
Richard: Yeah, he was.
Steve: Maybe always in a bad mood…a grumpy old man.
Hank III: He did some jail time, man. So, I don’t know. Maybe something happened in there. (all laugh) I’m just kidding.
Steve: You never know.
Hank III: I hear ya.
Steve: It’s happened to the best of ‘em.
Hank III: No doubt.
Steve: (laughing) "Yaaaaahhhh!" Did you…meet your granddad?
Hank III: Well, my granddad died when my dad was three years old.
Steve: Twenty-nine, right?
Hank III: Yes. He died of a supposed heart attack in the back of a car, going to a gig and most people think Hank Williams was like, forty-something years old. They don’t realize he was twenty-nine and got all that done in that short a time. So…the weird thing is, my dad fell off of a mountain when I was three years old and he almost died. He had his whole face ripped off, his eye came out, they told him he would never sing again. He was in the hospital for over a year and a half, and look what he’s done, you know. He’s got eighty-four plus records and just, you know, he’s been on the road since he was eight years old and still going, you know. So uh, that was kind of the weird death thing that haunts the Williams name a little bit, but he made it through.
Steve: Your granddad…he was a hellraiser, right?
Hank III: Yes, he was…but not all the time. To get…look at the work that he did.
Steve: Exactly.
Hank III: He wasn’t wasted all the time. He would sometimes go a couple of weeks and not even really have a drink and then he’d get stuff done. But when it would let, let it roll, it might turn into two to five days and that’s where a lot of those stories come from at the end of the binge you know, when he’s getting hard to be around and um, so the alcohol played a big part. He still had a grip on it for a while when the back operation - he had a slipped disc in his back and the riding around in those cars – they didn’t know what they were doing back then. So, once they got him opened up and sewn back up, he developed a pretty bad morphine habit and that’s what really took it to the next level. I mean, his leg used to just shake cos the nerves weren’t in place right. But once that came into play, it really started just, he knew he was going. I know he knew he wasn’t going to be around that long. You know, he was tuned in with his God and he knew it.
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