ESPN axed him. Country Music Hall of Fame inducted him. Ready for a summer concert, Boise?

Michael Deeds

If you’re a fan of outlaw country, mark your calendar for the second Friday in July.

Country-rocker Hank Williams Jr. will headline a 7 p.m. concert July 14 at the Ford Idaho Center Amphitheater, with opening act Old Crow Medicine Show. Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday, Jan. 13, through fordidahocenter.com for $45 (general-admission lawn) to $275 (reserved front row). A presale launched Thursday, Jan. 12. (Code: HWJ2023.)

Williams Jr., 73, is a rabble-rousing legend. Despite a proclivity for controversial songs and statements, he carved out a mainstream career that finally saw him inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2020. The son of late country icon Hank Williams, he’s a gifted songwriter and multi-instrumentalist.

Williams Jr. has enjoyed memorable hits over the years, such as “All My Rowdy Friends (Have Settled Down),” “A Country Boy Can Survive,” and “Born to Boogie.”

But he’s often remembered for comments he made on “Fox & Friends” on Fox News Channel in 2011. Williams Jr. likened then-President Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler. The ruckus caused ESPN to drop his song, “All My Rowdy Friends Are Here on Monday Night,” as the theme to ESPN’s “Monday Night Football.” It had been a part of “MNF” since 1989. A defiant Williams Jr. went on to call Obama a Muslim during a concert the following year.

Still, time heals many wounds. Williams Jr.’s song — and his familiar gridiron battle cry, “Are you ready for some football?” — returned to “MNF” six years later. Eventually, ESPN dropped it again in 2020 for a version of Little Richard’s “Rip It Up” by the band Butcher Brown.

Recent Williams Jr. setlists have been fueled by plenty of high-energy Southern rock and country, so Boise concertgoers should be in for a redneck summer party. Songs have ranged from “All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight” and “Just Call Me Hank” to a medley of covers from Lynyrd Skynyrd and ZZ Top.

Hank Williams Jr., one of country music’s greatest stars — who managed to find his own niche while holding onto the memory of his late father Hank Williams — is shown here performing in 2009. He will play at the Ford Idaho Center Amphitheater in July.
Hank Williams Jr., one of country music’s greatest stars — who managed to find his own niche while holding onto the memory of his late father Hank Williams — is shown here performing in 2009. He will play at the Ford Idaho Center Amphitheater in July.

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