People around me like me the best when I'm depressed because I'm a bit more passive.

If I go out there and am myself, and I do what makes me comfortable and what I think is true to my artistry, and they don't like it, then that's fine. I walk off stage, and I know there's nothing there's nothing I could have done differently.

My mom has every issue of 'Billboard' I've ever been in.

Everything that I hate about myself goes away when I was onstage.

I was a fan of One Direction when I was 16, but I was also a fan of Bring Me The Horizon and hardcore bands.

To be fair, I did come out of nowhere. 'Ghost' was the first song I ever did in a studio, my first time ever cutting a professional vocal.

I like writing about places, about people and environments. When I create a world, it lets me go in and define the details of that world.

I made up 'Badlands'; anything I say, goes. I came to realize I was materializing a metaphor for my mental state.

I'm here to be lovesick, broke and drifting, writing heartache songs and singing about pain and misery and depression, with a few good times here and there.

I'm involved with Satanists and activities.

Hank Williams was playing rock-n-roll before rock-n-roll was.

We're kind of like the Kurt Cobain of country music in a way.

It's right there on my birth certificate, 'Shelton Hank Williams III.' It's not fake.

I was always a Pink Floyd fan, and I was always into movie soundtracks.

Politics and music should only mix to a point. Me, I think my job as a musician is to make people try to forget about all that.

There's a lot of different moods that come across in my shows. Even when I'm playing a slow waltz song, sometimes there's crowd-surfing. Most of the time there's a mosh pit.

The only person out there worthy of mixing political views and music is Jello Biafra.

I'm a musician... not a politician.

I don't like being told what to do, and I don't need to be told what my record should sound like.

You can't say I don't work hard and give all I got.

It seems that pop country has stuck around a long time.

I still believe in hope and that a good song will push itself.

It's really tough - if you're on a major label and they want you to have a number one song, you need to do what they say.

Each Hank Williams has always had an independent streak.

I've always known the kind of songs I wanted to sing and play.

For someone like me, if I ever had huge success or whatever that is, I would just play smaller venues two to three nights in a row just to keep the intimacy level there and that's my take on it, but it just depends what you're going for.

To me, country music is emotions, certain harmonies. But it's all in the emotions - a lot of good times, a lot of hard times.

I've got no respect for anyone who tries to take the easy way out.

Unless you can't take care of yourself or stuff like that, I'm always standin' for you to hold onto life as much as you can.

I don't want to have to talk to a lawyer if I want to jam with someone or if I want to sing on someone's album.

The best music out there isn't on the radio.

It was fun trying to use a few different voices for the vocal track on 'Country Heroes.'

My grandfather always sang about the light, and for some reason, I don't know why, it even goes back to when I was seven, eight years old, I've always been attracted to the dark.

I mean, out of every five shows we do, there's somebody saying Hank Sr.'s rolling around in his grave.

I always think Hank Williams knew that he was going to die young, and that's why he did that much work.

The biggest production show I went to with my step-dad and my mom was Adam Ant when I was probably eleven.

Hank Williams, Hank Jr. and myself, if you check your history, you'll see that they've always played in rowdy environments. Part of that is a lot of people are coming to forget their problems and not being told what to do for a couple of hours and not try to have anything sold to them or pushed on them.

I got my first drum kit when I was six years old.

My first vinyl was a Kiss record and a Walt Disney record. I liked the energy of rock and roll.

I was a massive Sid Vicious fanatic.

I told all my punk friends, 'If I'm gonna do country music, I'm gonna milk it.'

I was like, 'I'm never gonna do country, I'm never gonna give in, you'll never see me wear a cowboy hat.'

In reality, I never even got to have a Hank Williams instrument. I got a tie, a fishing lure and a check.

When I'm feeling awful, music is the only thing that releases the pressure. It's been the best psychiatrist I've ever had.

Well, I've always felt connected to the outsider.

Over the years, Cajun music has always calmed me down, or if I'm feeling real sick or feeling real unsettled, I can put that music on and try to get focused again.

I always saw myself as a sideman. I figured I'd end up a drummer.

My country stuff, it might sound like Hank Williams - that's just the way it is. But I'd rather sound like Hank Williams than Trace Atkins.

All through the 'Guttertown' record, there's happy, there's sad, there's strange - and I'm painting that picture.

Everything is not perfect in our world.