Hank III’s Upcoming Album: The Rebel Within

On Oct. 20th, Hank III granted a rare interview with Outlaw Radio Chicago and let slide quite a few tidbits of interesting information, including that he wants to tour Canada and Japan again soon, and he talked at length about his upcoming album, which we now know is going to be entitled The Rebel Within, after a song that he’s been playing recently at live shows (see below for video.)

To listen to the entirety of the interview you can click here and scroll down to Episode 66, but since I have has a lot of questions about the upcoming album and some are not wired for podcasts, here’s the info from the Head Hellbilly himself.

As for the status of it:

“We got one more country record before I get to get “independent” of Curb. By Nov. 1st it should be turned in with all the artwork and be coming out sooner than later. I’ve heard through the grapevine that once I turn it in that there’s a clock that’s gonna start ticking and they have to let me go after 10 or 11 months or something like that. Hopefully they’ll see that I gave them a good record. I could have gave them nothing but static and noise and been like “Ah, here ya go, it’s been nice knowing you.” But I gave them a good record man.”

The Songs, and Compared to Straight to Hell:

“I honestly don’t think it tops Straight to Hell. It’s got a couple of moments. It’s got a strait up country song called “Drinking Ain’t Hard to Do.” Then of course you have “The Rebel Within” that has a little bit of the screamin’. And then you got a little more of the hellbilliy, psychobilly track on “Let’s Party.” Both of those songs are already on YouTube and you can check them out. It goes through some different kind of moods, like there’s some slow ones like “#5” it’s the big gut wrencher. It’s written for one of my friends whose gone through the hard times with the heroin man, and made it through the other side. It’s got the slow ones its got the fast ones and a little attitude. But I still don’t think it tops . . . I still got another 4 years before I come close to knocking that one (Straight to Hell) down.

What Will He Do Next?:

“It’s hard to say right now. I probably just go with a good distribution company and see how that works. That’s advise from Henry Rollins and people like that. And if it’s an artist, let’s say Buzz from The Melvins starts a record company or if I go with Jello Biafra at Alternative Tentacles or something. I would definitely do it with someone that I respect and who’s a fellow musician. I just want to have the freedom to have fun with my friends and make music out there, and we’ll see if I can go DIY. With our foundation and the internet, it should be interesting.

Another interesting tidbit from the interview was Hank III said his two favoirte female signers were Janis Joplin and Gillian Welch.

There’s a lot more info from that interview so you should check it out when you get a chance, and here’s the title track of The Rebel Within: