Hank Williams Jr. on Hanks one-two-three

September 6, 1996 By JIM PATTERSON --

PARIS, Tenn -- A pair of wooden Indian statues stoically stand watch behind Hank Williams Jr., seated at his desk in his office, packed with guns, gold records and other slices of Hank history,

The statues once kept vigil at the Williams home in nearby Nashville, and inspired Hank Williams Sr. to write the classic country hit Kaw-Liga.

Hank Jr., 47, likes his history close by -- that of his musical family and that of the South, especially the Civil War. Among the hundreds of artifacts: a cannon used in the war between the states, a rifle fired at the battle of the Little Big Horn and an tall fearsome stuffed bear.

Like a historian, he looks to the past to find the future.

Before the surviving Beatles used technology to reunite with long-dead John Lennon, Williams did it 1989 with the single and video duet with his legendary dad singing There's a Tear in My Beer.

He takes it a step further with Three Hanks (Men With Broken Hearts), a new CD which sports 12 Hank Sr. songs sung by three generations.

"He's one of the first American true superstars," says Williams says of his dad. "A lot of people in Southern rock or whatever, they say, 'Hank, he's the one real king, not Elvis Presley. Hank's the real king."'

Every country artist worth their salt records from the Hank Williams Sr. songlist which includes Cold, Cold Heart, Jambalaya (on the Bayou), Why Don't You Love Me, Hey, Good Lookin', Your Cheatin' Heart.

And following in his family's boot steps Shelton Hank Williams, 23, professionally known as Hank Williams III, makes his debut on the new CD. It's being released this month to coincide with what would have been Hank Sr.'s 73rd birthday.

Two Williams women also make cameos on the CD: the late Audrey Williams, wife of Hank Sr. and mother of Jr., and Jr.'s youngest child, Katie Williams, 3 1/2.

Williams was just over three years old, same as his youngest child today, when his father succumbed to alcoholism, pills, and general despondency and hard living on New Year's Day 1953 at the age of 29.

"I remember him laying right on a couch, and his bald head shining," Williams said.

Pushed by his mother, Williams spent his early years as a Hank Sr. impersonator but he hated singing his father's songs. And he acquired some of his father's drug and alcohol habits, as well.

"It just kept on and on and on," Williams said. "There were some dark days there."

But everything was put on hold for two years when he scraped his face off in a 200-metre fall down a mountain on the Idaho-Montana border in 1975.

"I said, 'You know Lord, I told you many times I never wanted to sing another note. And this looks like we got a square deal here.

"No teeth, no jaw, no cheek, no forehead," Williams said of his condition after the fall. "There were a lot of things to put back together."

To this day, an ever-present beard, dark glasses and hat hide what damage couldn't be fixed.

Surviving the tragedy seemed to make Williams more confident. His voice turned deeper and he brought more rock and blues influences to his records.

By 1979, he was comfortable mixing such autobiographical fare as All My Rowdy Friends (Have Settled Down) and putting his own stamp on his father's classics like Honky Tonkin. Both were No. 1 hits.

He reached an artistic peak with the moody ballad A Country Boy Can Survive and he stirred controversy in 1988 with If the South Woulda Won.

The hits got harder to come by in the 1990s, as radio programmers identified him with the old guard when there was a new generation of singers such as Garth Brooks and Alan Jackson to get excited about.

Today, he gets massive exposure by way of increasingly elaborate opening montages on ABC's Monday Night Football, and his concert grosses are the envy of youngsters with No. 1 hits.

"It would be great if you could get played (on the radio). You see where I live up here. I'm not going to beat my head on a wall."