are you ready for a fool with a microphone?

Maybe it’s the lull before the party conventions or just slow news dog days, but it seems like the stew pot of music and politics has been pulled to the front burner and turned up a notch. The regime in Russia has sentenced punk band Pussy Riot to two years in prison for a disruptive protest performance and further tarnished its own reputation at home and abroad with its authoritarian over-reaction. On our shores, Tom Morello raged against GOP Vice Presidential hopeful Paul Ryan’s reported affection for Rage Against The Machine, in what seems to be the latest in a long line of conservatives flagrantly missing the points made by their favorite pop and rock songwriters.

Then, to kick off the weekend, Hank Williams Jr. launched this verbal hand grenade out over an audience of more than 8,000 people at the Iowa State Fair on Friday night:

“We’ve got a Muslim president who hates farming, hates the military, hates the U.S., and we hate him!”

Let’s unpack this a little to fully appreciate its awfulness.

First, pay attention to the setting: a state fair. This is supposed to be a place where all kinds of people come together for camaraderie and celebration of American life at its best. I can’t imagine that a Hank Jr. show in Iowa would draw an especially diverse crowd, but no doubt there were SOME African Americans, Muslims and immigrants within earshot, not to mention children, whom I think we can agree shoudl be sheltered from sentences that include both "president" and "hate." There were certainly some who support Obama. How delightful that they were made to end their day of corn-dogs and pie contests by being assaulted with this distilled message of slander.

Hank Jr. of course was in the news for this kind of thing last fall when his clumsy words likening Obama to Hitler got him pulled from the opening of Monday Night Football. But that was really only a confused and weird analogy from a man whose political wisdom could be measured by his support for Herman Cain. Then in a recent Rolling Stone interview, we learned the depths of Hank Jr.’s deluded picture of the president, as someone who “does a call to the Quran or Mecca.” And now it seems he’s got his story down pat. The Iowa statement is by far his most concise and coherent so far, as well as his most repellant. 

I think it’s understandable and socially healthy that country music has outspoken conservatives in its midst, and I support their right to speak up on stage, in print or on blogs. They often embarrass themselves intellectually, but whatever. The world’s not going to remember John Rich anyway. But here we have a prominent figure in country music history - son of the most influential and revered country singer/songwriter of all time - making a statement that is by any reckoning untrue, cruel, gratuitous and chillingly seditious. It was, in a nutshell, the wingnut brief against Obama. Williams may buy into the darkest of right-wing talk radio garbage, but it’s his job as an entertainer, a temporary trustee of the Iowa State Fair and an emissary of country music to choose his words more carefully and to spend all of an hour and a half being professional. Letting your audience know how you feel about the president on stage is boring, but who cares?Cheering for America is swell, especially if you can manage to do it thoughtfully and inclusively. Telling four crowd-agitating lies in the space of 20 words crosses every bright line of respect, civility and dignity.

The obvious analog to this case of president abuse from a country music stage is the Dixie Chicks, nearly ten years ago now. Some will accuse me of hypocrisy for defending them while excoriating Hank Jr. Two points. There’s a world of difference between Natalie Maines’s snarky disclaimer (“we’re ashamed President Bush is from Texas”) and Hank’s direct call to “hate.” Maines didn’t accuse the president of anything at all and didn’t perpetuate any paranoid conspiracy theories about him. But more to the point, the country music business HAMMERED the Dixie Chicks for the remark in an unprecedented excommunication. No point in going over it again, but after a few days of hysteria, their career at country radio – the most successful for a band during that period of time  – was over. Hank Jr. hasn’t enjoyed significant airplay at country radio for many years, so there’s no down to go there. But will any Hank Jr. constituents and professional team act in the public interest and let him know that spreading offensive lies from the stage is intolerable?

(I sent request for clarification of the incident and comment to his publicist Webster & Associates. Its receipt was acknowledged but there’s been no reply so far.)

More important context for these remarks is that the Country Music Hall of Fame recently wound down a huge, beautifully done, three-year special exhibit dedicated to the Williams family legacy, focused largely on the career of Hank Jr. They lent his southern rock meets lovesick blues shtick more credit than it deserved, but as a panoramic view from a flesh and blood Hank Williams Sr. (a great, imperfect man) to Hank Jr.’s musical children, it was vital and remarkable history. My point is that many good people worked really hard to put that together. With this escalating series of tirades against Obama, based not on facts and opinion but on birther-caliber paranoia, Williams disgraces that effort, even as he disgraces himself.

I do not believe in arbitrary separation of music and politics. I believe music should be a place where creative people debate ideas and make art that provokes. But social protest takes some artfulness and cleverness to justify the shock, not to mention information and a desire to clarify reality rather than distort it. And to his credit, Hank Jr. has written songs about what a drag he thinks Obama is; he's sung one just before this inicident. But his "Muslim" remarks should not be laughed off or dismissed as just the new normal of political discourse. They were vile and McCarthy-esque. And while he’ll remember the cheers he got for them, I can only think of the individuals in the crowd who felt shocked, offended and scared by the wave of alcohol-enabled aggression awakened around them.

Hank’s father was fired from the Grand Ole Opry when his drinking made him too unpredictable and obnoxious to book. There’s not much left to fire Hank Jr. from, but whatever there is, I hope they do so. 

Comments

[Jordan Laney]

"I do not believe in arbitrary separation of music and politics. I believe music should be a place where creative people debate ideas and make art that provokes. But social protest takes some artfulness and cleverness to justify the shock, not to mention information and a desire to clarify reality rather than distort it. "

Wow. Beautiful words. I will be passing this on to others interested. Thank you.

[Barry Walsh]

Thank you Craig, for this piece. The comparison with Natalie Maines' remarks about President Bush, and the subsequent banning of the Dixie Chicks music from Country Music, is so appropriate. The fact that Hank Jr. was featured on the CMA telecast last Fall soon after his first outburst about Obama and Hitler, was simply shocking. Enough with the enabling of this kind of ignorance. It isn't funny. It's sick.

[Slim]

Excellent post, Craig. You certainly expressed your outrage in an intellectual and honest manner, and I agree wholeheratedly with what you say. I would probably go to jail in Russia if I wrote what I think of Bofeces these days.

[Larry Nager]

Craig,
Well said! Anyone with a memory of the massive over-reaction to Natalie Maines' gentle swipe at W has to be disturbed at Nashville's blind eye at the increasingly erratic Hank Jr. His outbursts are starting to make Ted Nugent sound like George Will. Hopefully, unlike the CMTS, the CMAs AND ACMS will just say 'No' to this drugged-out, washed-up wingnut, no matter who his daddy was.

[Marsha Nager]

Craig,
I love this blog. So eloquently said! You are my second favorite music journalist:-)
Thank you for putting my thoughts into words!!

[Southern Beale]

Beautifully said.

I'm still shocked that we're dealing with an industry who took down one of it's largest-selling acts to promote an unjust war, though. I vividly remember the take-down of the Dixie Chicks. "Traveling Soldier" was #1 on the Billboard charts, for like the 4th or 5th week. And then ... BOOM! Gone. The attack by the industry on the Chicks was vicious, and swift. Radio stations hosted CD crushing parties, for crying out loud. It was coordinated and it was vengeful.

I always have thought there was more to it than just Natalie Maines saying "Just so y'all know, we're ashamed the President is from Texas." I mean, seriously. WTF? That is so tepid and pale compared to Ted Nugent telling Hillary Clinton to suck on his machine gun, and everything else which has been said since.

I think this story would make a fascinating movie or book. I really don't think we know the whole story. Would love someone behind this to come forward, even if it's anonymously.

One thing you could always count on Nashville for doing is standing behind its own. The Dixie Chicks had huge platinum-selling singles and albums, won awards, you name it. That the industry turned on them in that way was just baffling to me then, and it astonishes me now.

[Carolyn Martin]

Well done, Craig. Thank you.