Hank Williams Jr. on 2016 Election: ‘I Don’t Give a S–t’
Leave it to Hank Williams Jr. to tell it like it is. In a new interview, the politically outspoken country legend weighs in on the already highly-contentious 2016 presidential election with an attitude that may be surprising to some longtime followers.
"'What about the election?' they say. I say, 'I don't give a s--t about the election, I've got a smash CD coming out!'" Williams tells Rolling Stone Country bluntly.
While several of his contemporaries have weighed in on the primaries that are going on, Williams says his primary focus these days is in promoting his new album, It's About Time, which debuted at No. 2 on Billboard's Country Albums chart when it was released in January. That marks the highest chart entry of his entire career, and along with his hobbies of hunting and using a metal detector to scout for Civil War artifacts, Williams says he doesn't have the time or inclination to follow the 2016 election cycle.
That's perhaps the safest position he could take, since Williams saw significant career fallout over some politically charged remarks he made during an interview with Fox & Friends in 2011, in reference to a bi-partisan golf summit between President Obama and Speaker of the House John Boehner.
“It’d be like Hitler playing golf with [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu," he said, adding, “They’re the enemy ... Obama! Biden! Are you kidding? The Three Stooges!”
Those remarks caused ESPN to pull Williams' theme song from Monday Night Football, where it had opened the show for years.
The country legend is apparently staying out of this round of political debates, but other stars have weighed in, with Loretta Lynn and Kid Rock expressing public support for Republican candidate Donald Trump, while Merle Haggard recently expressed his reservations about the maverick, saying, "I think he's playing from a strange deck."
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