Hellbilly rocker Hank Williams III (ASSJACK, SUPERJOINT RITUAL, ARSON ANTHEM) will open for DOWN on the band's upcoming U.S. tour which is scheduled to kick off around January 23. The news was confirmed by Hank during an appearance yesterday (Tuesday, November 11) on "The No Name Show" on the KIRC Real Country 105.9 FM radio station in Seminole, Oklahoma.

"Long Hauls & Close Calls", the new video from Hank Williams III, can be viewed below. The track comes off his sixth album, "Damn Right Rebel Proud", which was released on October 21 via Sidewalk Records. According to a press release, the CD is "filled with a self-described 'Jekyll and Hyde' mix of disturbingly dark stuff and 'good ol' country.'"

III thinks of "Long Hauls & Close Calls" as the album's "crossover" track, explaining that "It's got a little bit of the scream for the kids in black and a little bit of the banjo and dobro for the country folks."

"Damn Right Rebel Proud" follows the fierce and edgy "Straight to Hell" (2006), which broke all the rules of country music while still managing to honor its traditions. "That was a big one for me, man," III says of "Straight to Hell". "Rock kids that don't listen to country understood it. That record really had an impact."

Recorded in Hank III's east Tennessee home with friends over a two-week period, the album's magnum opus is the 10-minute, shitkickin' symphony in three movements "P.F.F." (you can guess what it stands for), which he describes as "a high-energy, get-drunk singalong." He dedicates it to archetypal shock rocker G.G. Allin (certainly a first on a Nashville album), who III understandably views as a spiritual brother in chaos. "The hobo kids, the train-hopping kids, they all love Hank Williams and G.G. Allin," he points out. "And they've bled into our audience." III's crowd is a roiling mix of outsider subcultures, along with working folks and party-down college kids. "Most of the time everybody's gettin' along," he says. "Most of the trouble we've had has been with the security, not the kids. I'm still tryin' to keep one half happy and the other half satisfied by flip-floppin' the shows” between stone country, punk and metal sets. "We're just doin' what we're doin', and people see the realness in that."

"Damn Right Rebel Proud" has sold 32,000 copies in the United States in its first three weeks of release, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

For more information, visit www.hank3.com.