![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Hank-williams-iii-kelsey-rae-copeland-1024x654.jpg\")
via Shelton Hank Williams III\u2019s Facebook page<\/p>\nvia Shelton Hank Williams III\u2019s Facebook page<\/p>\n
It\u2019s very very rare we hear anything about Hank Williams III these days, and even more rare to get a glimpse of the man himself. It\u2019s not that he\u2019s been completely incommunicado. On a fairly regular basis he\u2019s on social media touting \u201980s and \u201990s punk and metal bands in his feed. He also piped up briefly when David Allan Coe died recently to pay his respects. There have been a few recent photos swirling out there on the internet of the very elusive country music heir taken by others, but you never know if you\u2019re being too prying by reposting them. <\/p>\n
But recently, the 3rd generation performer showed his face and piped up to tout throwback country artist Kelsey Rae Copeland. \u201cThe Patsy Cline\/Loretta Lynn of the younger generation,\u201d Hank3 said in a post on social media. Anyone who is familiar with Kelsey Rae Copeland and her music will not quibble with that assessment at all. She recently released a new song called \u201cA Place In Time\u201d written and produced by Copeland herself that illustrates this perfectly. <\/p>\n
The photo of Williams and Copeland comes from Eastside Bowl in Nashville where metal band Pentagram recently played a show with The Obsessed. Similar to Hank3, Copeland is apparently a metal fan, which you can hear in the often dark hue of the lyricism of her otherwise Golden Era classic country sound. <\/p>\n
Hank3 has been mostly dormant since his last tour in 2014. After finally breaking free from his contract with Curb Records, he released a succession of independently released albums, including his last full country album, 2013\u2019s\u00a0Brothers of the 4X4, and toured behind it into the following year.<\/p>\n
Then after he was forced to move out of his home\/headquarters\/recording studio called The Haunted Ranch, and shortly thereafter his favorite dog Trooper died, he\u2019s been almost completely out of the public eye, not releasing any new music or performing publicly.<\/p>\n
In 2018, Hank3 did participate in a\u00a0DevilDriver tribute to Outlaw Country<\/a>. In 2022, he also released a\u00a0ton of demos, scratch tracks, alternative takes<\/a>, and other bits of audio on YouTube, including an entire experimental album called\u00a0Grandiose Delusions<\/a>.<\/p>\n Now would be as good of a time as any for Hank3 to return with the way throwback and traditional country is on the upswing. But anyone who knows Hank3 knows he marches to his own drum. Hopefully someday he will re-emerge permanently to help once again carry the legacy of the Hank Williams name and true country music forward.<\/p>\n \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013<\/p>\n