I point out that three songs on the record, including one about the devil, were written by someone named Shelton Williams. Who's he?

"Me," Hank III replies. "All the Hanks have first names. Hiram Hank Williams Sr. Randall Hank Williams. And then Shelton Hank Williams III." He pauses. "Why the hell they put me as 'Shelton Williams' is another thing I don't understand. Friends call me Shelton. People in the business call me Hank."

If Nashville is so evil, there must be an alternative-country Emmylou Harris/Jimmie Dale Gilmore empire somewhere in America?

"Well, there is," Williams answers. "Austin. Everything is happening in that town. You have a million studios and a million producers. One of my biggest quotes is 'I'd rather have the respect of Texas than Tennessee any day.' That's why I'm so insecure about this album because I know I'm not going to get the respect from the guys I know in Texas."

Is he sure? "I'm positive," Hank III answers with a dry laugh. "I'm talking about true purists. True country guys. Pickers. Players. Like Wayne "The Train" Hancock. Dale Watson. I've been tryin' and tryin' to get out of this town because this town is dragging me down. I just can't afford to move to Austin." Why not? "Child support," he confesses. "A one-night-stand waited three years to tell me I had a kid. Her dad's a cop. The judge slaps me with $26,000 in debt. I was 20 years old. Scary shit, you know."

At least Hank III gets out of Nashville to tour as well as visit important sites haunted by his grandfather's ghost. Last year, they stopped at the West Virginia country gas station where Hank Sr. was found slumped dead in the back of his car by his chauffeur.

"The gas station is on a two-lane road. I started hearin' the stories about the service manger who'd been workin' the pumps. While Hank's driver was callin' the police that Hank was dead, the service guy went in the backseat and took Hank's hat and pistol out of the car. The guy later said every time he wore my granddaddy's hat bad things would happen. His hair would fall out. The guy ended up blowing his head off with my granddaddy's gun."

Hank III pauses, then speculates, "If Hank Williams had lived he might have been the most hated man in the world, because of being as cocky as he was about his songwriting and singing. Hell, he was 29 and he was as mature as a 45-year-old. I think he knew that he was going to die. He wrote 'I'll Never Get out of This World Alive.'"

The same can be said about his grandson. Hank III is notorious for worshipping pills, booze and reefer. "I did a rehab thing not too long ago," he reveals. "And they were trying to get Steve Earle down there to talk to me. But I kept puttin' him off. He probably has opinions about me or whatever. No matter what I'm into I'll never be as hardcore as he got with all those needles and shit. He took it out to the bottom. I have a 1,000 percent respect for that guy, but I just don't know if he respects me. But he did it and he's kicking ass and still putting out great music and still in the scene. Good thing."

At the call's end, Hank III is given a good-natured warning: "Watch out for that lost highway now."

"All right, man," Hank III says. "I'm just young right now. I'm not going to kill myself. I promise." Then he adds wistfully, "The Lord is going to make me suffer too much. He's going to keep me here a long time."

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