It's a Family Affair

Yet little of Williams's newfound appreciation of heartbreak can be heard on Risin' Outlaw, at least as far as his own compositions. There aren't any Hank Williams, Sr., songs on the trad-heavy disc, but there aren't that many Hank Williams III songs, either. Of the 50 or so tracks he's written, only 4 found their way on to the record, and only two of those were solo efforts. That, more than anything else, has him fed up with the way Curb has handled the project. He insists he isn't ready to leave the label yet but he vows that if he does stay, the next album will be done his way, no compromises.

"I know exactly what I want to happen, and if they can't make that happen, then we're gonna have a problem," he says. "I'm not gonna budge, man. I mean, I'm not gonna go through it. I got over 50 songs written, and I could barely get 2 of my own songs on the fucking album?" He laughs. "What's up with that? That's just the way it is for now. I had to get that first step out there, either to get more respect or to lose it, one of the two.

"I don't know," he continues, musing aloud. "I should be on an independent label. I'm just too wild. They tame me. They hold me back. I can't be what I need to be. We'll see, because I've got some pretty wild stuff, like 'I'm Here to Put the Dick in Dixie and the Cunt in Country.' I could still sing that in front of 60-year-olds and get them to whoop and holler."

For now he's less worried about what songs should or should not be recorded and more concerned with his band's live show, which he promises "isn't what our album really sounds like." Lately he's been thinking about the music he listened to growing up: the Kiss and Black Sabbath albums that led to the Misfits and Dead Kennedys. Back then all he wanted to do was play drums, and country wasn't cutting it. He needed something that would match his energy, and punk met his standards. And just because he's a country singer now doesn't mean he's forgotten that period of his life. During our conversation he becomes excited while discussing a poster he just had made up, for a concert that may or may not happen, featuring his group and his new friends, the Melvins. He recently recorded some vocals for use on the Melvins' upcoming album, and that band's drummer, Dale Crover, appears on a handful of tracks on Risin' Outlaw. Williams believes that a bill with both bands on it would go over well, if only because he believes no other country band rocks as hard as his.

"If one night we're playing a show that's like a Branson crowd, well, we can be a respectable band," he says. "But if the next night it's a crowd that's like tattoos and piercings, an 18-to-32-year-old crowd, we can go out and rock them as hard as we need to. I just want to put out as much of the energy while I got it. I've got the rest of my life to chill out and sing slow songs and stuff."