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Despite its billing as the “Cradle of Country Music,” East Tennessee hasn’t always been kind to the Williams family.

It’s a matter of debate whether Hank Williams Sr. died in Knoxville; regardless of exact moment of his death, it’s well-established that Williams spent his last hours in East Tennessee.

His son, Hank Jr., penned a song called “Knoxville Courthouse Blues.” And the last time Hank III played here, the cops got called, his tour manager was arrested and as an act of defiance, the self-described “hellbilly” artist played for five hours.

It wasn’t exactly the best experience he’s ever had around these parts, Hank III told The Daily Times this week.

“The main thing is that people come to see live music to try to forget about their problems and let it all disappear for a couple of hours, and when those problems come into the live show, it just makes it a whole lot worse. It was a bad way to be welcomed back to Tennessee after our tour overseas, but I think I was a pro about it.”

Of course, Shelton Hank Williams III is a maverick who can be called "country" artist only in the loosest sense of the word. He loves metal and punk, and he spent much of his teenage years playing in those styles.

In 1996, he signed with Curb Records in Nashville, and the first release, "Three Hanks: Men With Broken Hearts," was a recording of spliced-together material from his grandfather, his father and himself that made it sound as if they'd recorded together. His first solo album, "Risin' Outlaw," was released in 1999, and while critics and peers alike fawned over both the physical and audible likeness of Williams to his grandfather, the man himself quickly soured on the state of country music in Nashville.

"When I first started out, for five or six years I would get a lot of folks expecting me to do nothing but Hank songs, but then they'd come to the show and realize, 'This kid's doing his own thing,'" Williams said.

Hank III released "Lovesick, Broke and Driftin'" in 2002, and around the same time, Williams and Curb began to clash. Reportedly, Williams wanted to put out a rock record titled "This Ain't Country." Curb wouldn't release it, nor would they allow him to put it out on another label. Williams began demanding to record edgier, harder material, and when he toured, he'd break the night up into several parts -- a country set and a "hellbilly" set of country-punk and metal with his backing band, Assjack.

The disagreements with Curb grew more bitter as time went on. In 2004, Williams was prepared to release "Thrown Out of the Bar," but Curb declined to issue. Williams filed suit, and in 2005, a judge ruled in favor of Williams. The label was forced to release the album. Last year, he put out "Damn Right, Rebel Proud," and in August, a self-titled "Assjack" album was released.

More importantly, he's putting the finishing touches on his final record under the Curb contract, tentatively titled "The Rebel Within."

"You've got the attitude songs, the straight-up Cajun-sounding songs, a little bit of Skynyrd and the Allman Brothers," Williams said. "The process for making this one was a lot more fun. I could have given Curb a really (lousy) country record as my last one because of the problems we've had over the years, but I didn't. I'm going to turn it in by Nov. 15, and after that, it goes back to the lawyers and the record company, and the clock starts ticking."

Nine months after that, Williams is a free man.

Despite his rowdy ways, hedonistic lifestyle and Bacchanalian lyrics, Williams is a man of principles -- of standards. He holds fast to them, and doing so, along with all of the work and effort he puts into them, makes his shows a celebration of misfits, outsiders, miscreants and hell-raisers.

"It's the country way of doing shows -- you do your show and say hello, as they say. "That's what got us up there, and that's what keeps it real. That's what made such an impact and such a difference for me, and I firmly believe that. We're going to keep doing our show and blowing off the dust.

"This show in Knoxville (Monday, Nov. 2 at Southbound Bar and Grill in Knoxville's Old City) will be our first show back in the U.S., so hopefully we'll have a little bit better time this time around -- with no drama."