Hank III still does it his way  

There must be something inexplicably potent about the Williams music gene that compels its owners to excel in a variety of areas in an astonishingly brief period of time. Although Hank Sr. concentrated primarily on country music, he had a range that was impressive within the genre, and he revolutionized the way people considered country from that point on. There can be very little debate over the speed with which he accomplished that goal.

Hank Jr. followed his daddy's legacy relatively quickly, and he diversified decisively into country rock, a direction that a good many artists would subsequently choose once Bocephus helped blaze the trail.

Hank Williams III has taken up the family business with a twanging, hard rocking vengeance and thrown in more than a couple of contemporary twists of his own. On his sophomore album, "Lovesick, Broke & Driftin'," Hank III continues to successfully explore the edges of honky tonk Americana with little or no regard for its acceptance by country radio. The biggest difference between "Lovesick" and Hank III's debut, "Risin' Outlaw," is that he was able to call most of the shots in the studio, which was most certainly not the case the first time around.

"I finally got to do it predominantly my way," says Hank III from the road he calls home 180 days a year. "I got to produce it and record it myself, and Curb kept their nose out of it. Back then, it took them two years to do the album, and they hired their big producer. We did my album $100,000 cheaper,and it only took two weeks. I'm pretty stoked about it. At least I'm more proud of it. It makes you feel more like you're doing what you're supposed to do and not like a puppet. I'm here to be kind of creative and not to be told what to do."

One of the reasons that Hank III may have been given a freer hand to do "Lovesick, Broke & Driftin'" his own way was the manner in which he handled the promotion for "Risin' Outlaw" two years ago.

"I think mainly that every interview I did, I spoke the truth," says Hank with characteristic frankness. "They knew that on the next album it was going to be all-out war if I didn't get to kind of do it my way. That helped me out a lot. I told them before the first one came out, 'Well, if the album's gonna be this way, I'm not gonna talk good about it.' And I'm sure they didn't want that to happen again."

After the relative debacle of "Risin' Outlaw," from Hank's perspective, he has much different expectations for the new disc.

"I think I'll get a little bit more respect as a writer, since I wrote all the songs," says Hank. "They might get a little bit more away from the comparison as much. They might just look at Hank III as Hank III. I just wish I could have both albums out there so people could see both sides. I think Americana will jump on a couple of songs. I don't see country radio doing anything with it. No song on the album was written for the radio. They were all written for ourselves. I just don't hope for much. I always just look at it like whatever happens happens."

One thing that hasn't changed at all since Hank III leapt into the musical fray is his idea of what it takes to be a success. In that respect, his success has already been achieved.

"I've already made it in my eyes," he says with confidence. "Just being able to work with all the rock bands and country artists I've worked with. I think we'll be like the Rev. Horton Heat, where you don't any tour support and no radio and no MTV or whatever, but you can still show up and get anywhere from 200 to 600 people a night. It's all about the street team and doing it that way. I still don't think we're a household name, we're more of a bar band. We're not turning out arenas. If that ever happened, that would be cool, but it would be a little weird. We're pretty plain and simple. We're not expecting to be the new big country sensation. We're just looking to play our songs and leave something behind."

With "Lovesick, Broke & Driftin'" safely out of the way, Hank III can now turn his attention to a couple of other pressing issues. First and foremost, he hopes to gather support for the blazing rock and roll album he has in the can and finally get it released as well.

"It's recorded and done," says Hank III with equal measures of pride and disgust. "Curb sunk too much money into it, and now they're saying they won't release it because of lyrical content. Now I'm trying to find some cool rock label who can deal with Curb's bullshit that we can work together on. I just talked to Jello Biafra the other day, and the first thing he said was, 'Are they still sitting on your record?' He's a guy who could have helped, if the rest of the Dead Kennedys hadn't sued him for $140,000 and won. Alternative Tentacles (Biafra's label) is locked up now. The album's done, it's been done, and I've already moved on. That's why I let people tape all of the shows. We're starting to get a lot more black T-shirts than cowboy hats at our shows."