Hank Williams Jr defends Obama-Hitler analogy in song

NASHVILLE, Tennessee (AP) - A U.S. country singer who lost his highest profile television assignment after making an analogy involving President Barack Obama and Adolf Hitler is lashing out at the media in a new song...

TheGrio Staff

Oct 10, 2011

NASHVILLE, Tennessee (AP) — A U.S. country singer who lost his highest profile television assignment after making an analogy involving President Barack Obama and Adolf Hitler is lashing out at the media in a new song.

In an interview last week on Fox News, singer Hank Williams Jr. compared President Barack Obama playing golf with the leader of the Republican opposition in Congress to the long-dead Nazi leader playing a time-warped round with Israel’s current prime minister.

Following the interview, sports network ESPN pulled the theme song Williams has sung before Monday Night Football broadcasts for 22 years.

In retaliation Williams, the son of legendary country singer Hank Williams Sr., has cut a song called “I’ll Keep My …,” that says the Fox News broadcasters twisted his words.

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“So Fox ‘n Friends wanna put me down/ Ask for my opinion/ Twist it all around.” He finishes the verse: “Well two can play that gotcha game you’ll see.”

Williams says he wrote the verse when he woke up Friday morning and recorded it in a Nashville studio that same afternoon. It could be on iTunes late Monday or early Tuesday.

Early in the song, he says the U.S. is “going down the drain” and says it’s becoming “The United Socialist States of America.” He then encourages viewers not to watch “Fox & Friends” or ESPN.

Williams’ comments last Monday drew unlikely reactions with many commentators and comedians coming to his defense, claiming ESPN was infringing on his right to free speech. His defenders included the left-leaning Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar of “The View” and Jon Stewart of “The Daily Show” and on the other side of the political landscape Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh.

The brouhaha prompted Williams also to start selling “Hank Jr. for President” T-shirts on his website.

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Associated Press writer Chris Talbot contributed to this story