I don't think there's a country soul on this planet who thinks Hank Williams Jr. is actually underrated. Frankly, his work speaks for itself. Listen to "O.D.'d in Denver" one time and it tells you everything you could ever need to know. But Justin Moore argues that we still don't fully get what makes him so great.
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Recently, Justin sat down for an interview with his label, captured by Country Now. There, he lays his case out for why Hank Williams Jr. still doesn't quite get the recognition he deserves.
"[It] sounds ridiculous when you think of all the things that he's done and won and all the huge hits he's had. But I don't think people realize how talented he is," Moore says of Hank. "There's not a guy in country music history who's had a better vocal range, low to high, period, there's not been an artist who's been a better musician overall than him, ever, in the history of country music. There's not been a better songwriter ever in the history of country music, in my opinion. And he deserves all the credit that he can get for his artistry."
Justin Moore Thinks People Still Sleep on How Great Hank Williams Jr. Really Was
Additionally, Justin says that Hank Williams Jr. remains incredibly informative to who he is as an artist. "He was kinda like the Elvis Presley of the music that I wanted to make," Moore states. "And he was huge at the time that I was growin' up learnin' to love country music. He played every instrument, he wrote his songs, and he sang about how I was growin' up and all that stuff."
It's a miracle that we still got Hank Williams Jr. considering the addiction that he battled in his life. In an old interview, he recalls a doctor telling him he was on a highway to dying before his father did. "[The Doctor] said, 'Let me just lay it out there for you. You've been taught from the time you can possibly remember to look like, act like, be like, everything exactly like your legendary father,' Hank retells. "He said, 'And you're going to beat him because he died at 29. You're going to die at 26.'"
