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Secret Lives

On the Road Again

From Nashville to Brooklyn, touring with Hank Williams III, his devoted entourage, and all that country music baggage.

Tara Israel
May 23, 2013
∙ Paid
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Photos by Tara Israel

I arrived in Nashville on a Sunday night in November. As the sun set, I watched giant men load boxes onto a trailer, scrambling to finish before they lost the light—they moved cases of speakers and instruments and sonic miscellany, all spray-painted "Hank 3." When the trailer was full, we made our way onto the tour bus, where country music wild-man Shelton "Hank" Williams III organized his guitars. At 5'2", I barely came up to his chest. As he reached around me to sort his instruments, I had a pressing thought:

"Where am I sleeping?"

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