Photo Credit: Nash Icon RecordsWhen Hank Williams, Jr. and Eric Church start performing in the new video for “Are You Ready for the Country,” it looks like they’re in a barn with their band and backup singers. But by the time they get about halfway through the song, the barnyard scene starts disappearing, revealing they’re actually in a downtown parking garage.
Hank says that’s not the only surprise associated with this song. Earlier this year when he started performing it on the road, he was shocked to find audiences don’t seem to remember it was a top ten hit for Waylon Jennings in 1977. Instead, perhaps because he spent so many seasons asking “Are You Ready for Some Football?” before Monday night games, fans already associate the song with Bocephus.
“The second song of the tour this year was ‘Are You Ready for the Country.’ And it got real obvious to everybody that, my God, they already think it’s a hit,” he says. “They already think that’s yours. They actually don’t– they’re not putting Waylon together with it. I said, ‘Are you kidding?’ They said, ‘Hank, you know that was a long time ago. So these twenty-somethings and all, they think that’s your song, because it fits so perfectly.’”
The second-generation country star says the song remains special to him, both because of his relationship with Waylon, and the reverence the legendary outlaw held for his iconic father.
“Man it means a lot to record the ones — not to mention the love factor of Waylon, because I’m out there opening shows for him and he starts the show with ‘Are You Ready for the Country’ back when and he closes the show with a little ditty called ‘Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way’,” Hank recalls.
Hank’s new video with Eric Church premiered on CMT this weekend.
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