(Reprinted from Rolling Stone)

I reprint this interview without additional editorial comment on my part. I think it speaks for itself. I will say only that my mouth hung open while reading it, and the taste of vomit still lingers…

Hank Williams Jr. received some of the biggest publicity of his career last  October, when he appeared on Fox & Friends criticizing a golf game  between President Obama and House Speaker John A. Boehner. “It’d be like Hitler  playing golf with Netanyahu,” he said. The clip went viral, and ESPN  permanently dropped Williams’ “Monday Night Football” theme from its  programming after 22 years. In a new interview with Rolling Stone,  Williams doubles down on the analogy. “I was right,” he says. “ESPN might have  done me the biggest favor in the world. It has snowballed since October.”

More than half the songs on Williams’ newly-released LP, Old School, New  Rules, are raging political commentaries, from the Obama-blasting “Keep the  Change” to “Takin’ Back Our Country,” which samples his father’s vocals while  railing against everything from ESPN to social media. 

“Old School“ is my favorite new  song of yours. What does being from the old school stand for in your  mind? Who else can say, “I remember a young Johnny Cash waiting in  the wings because he’d hand me his cigarette when he’d go out to sing?” How many  can say that, buddy? Not many.

And I’m playing like four or five instruments on here myself. I’m a pretty  much hands-on guy. Even the engineers said, “Nobody in this town does this! They  don’t come in here and play five instruments. Are you crazy?” I said, “Well, I’m  not them.” It’s really fun, getting rid of Curb [Records] and saving some of  those good songs and all the new stuff. I don’t know. Mickey Mouse and ESPN  might have done me the biggest favor in the world because it has snowballed  since October. Oh, it has. It has snowballed. [Laughs]

How so? Well, how about $200,000 in T-shirts in cities  like Evansville [Indiana] and Wichita, Kansas and Dayton, Ohio. That tell you  something?  That get your attention, Patrick? Two-hundred thousand  dollars in this economy? I said, “I don’t get this, why is this?” They said,  “Because you’re their mouthpiece, that’s why. Because they’ve had it. You’re  their mouthpiece, and you say what they want to say.” And they have made me feel  real special. I’ve never had so many e-mails and letters. That’s what makes  those songs easier to write.

A lot of these songs seem to have come out of that Fox &  Friends experience. About three of them, I  think.

On “Keep the Change,“ you say, “Fox & Friends want to put me down / Ask for my  opinion and twist it around.” Oh, absolutely. I tell it right on the  face. And what happens on that song? Uh, fastest downloaded song in country  history. Number one streaming, boom. Number one on Amazon.com, boom. A pretty  good beginning.

How do you think Fox twisted your words around? Uh,  number one, it’s 6:30 in the morning, and you’re sitting there to talk about  your daddy’s CD that’s out. You know, come on. There, again, I think they did a  great favor. If you can’t make an analogy of something like that … my daughter  said, “Daddy are you in trouble?’ and I told her, “Let me tell you something,  baby girl, if I’m in trouble, we’re all in trouble.” And guess what? I  was right. There have been a lot of articles about, “My God, this world today,  you can’t say anything.” Although, if you’re a pretty radical left-wing  democrat, you can say anything you want to – “Death to George Bush!” and start  stabbing a steak with a knife like Rahm Emmanuel – which is on record, by the  way. Oh yeah. It’s been a breath of fresh air. There is a word called  motivation. And believe me, they motivated this one.

Who motivated it? The American public. That 90-10 poll in  my favor? That one did it. All those emails, all those letters. It’s basically,  “He said exactly the truth, what we’re all thinking. These yo-yos are out there  playing golf and high-fiving each other?”

Well, what‘s wrong with going out, playing golf and  trying to have a conversation and trying to understand each  other? Well, I’ll tell you what’s wrong with it. The other side  forgot they won the election. Come on. This president? Give me a break. Give me  a break. I notice there hasn’t been not one of those [golf games] since that  day. They kind of forgot, “Oh boy, we’re all big buddies.” They kind of forgot  that after that game. That was a huge boo-boo. Huge boo-boo. That’s why I’m out.  I’m not going with anybody. That’s right. If you see me campaigning, it will be  for me, brother, cause I’m the only one with the balls that’s going to go  through with it. I had a lot to do with [Ohio Republican Governor John] Kasich  in Ohio, by the way. Do your homework. No more, I ain’t doing none of them.

What don‘t you like about Romney? Oh,  I’m just not going to do that. He’s the guy I’m behind. You know, he’s the guy  we need, but I’m not going to go out there and do his shows or anything. I mean,  we’ve got the worst in history. We’ve got to have something. We’ve got to have a  change, that’s for sure. They kind of turned me off. I’m not doing any of them.  And, you know, they better remember like [Richard] Mourdock, the Tea Party, the  guy that just won in Indiana. They better take note of that guy, too. And Marco  Rubio. I’m firmly behind Marco Rubio. I really like that guy.

On “Keep the Change,“ you sing, “I‘ll keep my freedom / I‘ll  keep my guns /  I‘ll keep my money / and my religion too … I will keep my Christian name and you all can keep the change.“  What did you mean by that? Exactly what I said, cousin.

Yeah, but when you talk about your Christian name … You  know, we’ve got a President that does a call to the Koran or Mecca or whatever.  That’s what I meant. That’s exactly what I meant. I won’t be changing my name to  whatever. That’s exactly what I meant.

How has your opinion of Obama changed from when he got elected until  now? Worse.

Why? I mean, it’s a zero. If I was at my office and I  could get to my Internet and list the things like where our economy is – you  don’t want to go there with me. I mean, the guy is the worst. Giveaway programs,  hates America in the first place, forget about the flag. [Imitates  Obama] “That’s one of those big rich fat cats that makes  $35,000 a year,” you know what I mean? Oh yeah.

Why do you think he hates America? We have borrowed  ourselves into our poor grandchildren. Now my opinion has gone down. It was  pretty low to start with. It’s really gone down since then. I mean, there’s a  whole lot of us out here, we flip the tube off when that guy comes on. We’re not  listening and we ain’t watching.

Yeah but, why do you think he hates America? Oh, you know  I don’t know. I don’t know about that but it’s kind of obvious. I guess when you  take a tour, a world tour, to apologize for America. He did that, you know?

Which tour was that? You know, “We’re  sorry.” Going on a world tour saying, “We’re going to  be be even with everyone else, we only have 6 percent of the population.”  Yeah. I wouldn’t be going to the duck blinds with any of those guys. It was some  of the greatest inspiration I ever had that because that song of mine, “We Don’t  Apologize for America,” there’s a guy named Marcus Luttrell that was a lone  survivor of the Navy Seals, and he said, “I want to thank you for writing that  because every military person in this country is going to buy that song.” That’s  the ones that I care about. Barack and his? I could care less. I’m writing for  the ones that mean something to me. Oh, we’re pulling in here. Adios,  cousin!