“Hank III” is the third generation of the extremely musically-gifted Williams family (the grandson of Hank Williams and son of Hank Williams, Jr. (are you ready for some football?) and although he’s Country in lineage, his repertoire includes music in the Country, Punk and Metal genres, where he works as a bassist and drummer in a wide variety of bands, including his own, called Assjack.

His outlaw (”hellbilly”) status – both musically and in his on-stage antics - has been on display since his first solo album in 1999 and he had a highly-publicized battle with his record label (Curb) when they were at loggerheads about the release of his This Ain’t Country record and subsequent titles (he even resorted to selling T-shirts that read “F*ck Curb” until things were smoothed over in 2005). Later battles with Wal-Mart regarding the title and packaging of his Straight To Hell 2-disc set forced him to release 2 versions – one “clean” for Wal-Mart and the other with a “parental advisory” label, which was the first recording in the Country category ever to be required to wear such a label.  

At the time of the concert publicized in this Mark Arminski poster, III was doing double-duty with his own band and with the Phil Anselmo (Pantera)-led metal band Superjoint Ritual, who he played with from 2001 until their demise in 2005.

As one fan who saw the 11/22/02 concert in Grand Rapids – “Hank W III is incredible…The Intersection was packed with one of the most-diverse crowds I have ever seen. The first set was straight-forward “twangy country” and then, after a ten-minute break, his band hit the stage with a great metal set…All I can say was that I witnessed a show that has to be in the top ten of shows that I have seen in a long time..”