Was the low point of Joe Nichols‘ hunting trip with Hank Williams Jr. when he tried to blow on the slate call striker?
Or, was it when he told his country music hero that the Williams family grouper recipe was way better than Long John Silver’s?
Believe it or not, the hunt was successful, and Nichols felt pretty good about it until he called his mom, who spoiled everything.
- Joe Nichols released his Honky Tonks & Country Songs album on Oct. 25.
- He covers Hank Williams Jr.’s “Country Boy Can Survive” on the record.
- This hunting trip was filmed for a CMT special that (thankfully for Joe) doesn’t appear to be online.
The “Better Than You” singer told Taste of Country Nights host Evan Paul all about it:
“It was my first hunting experience,” Nichols begins, explaining that his was a fishing family. So, he had to go buy a shotgun and even had to look up how to hunt for turkeys. Remember, this is the early ’00s, so he couldn’t just YouTube it.
“And I went out there with him and I was such an idiot,” he continues. “And I brought a guitar. Like, I’m thinking we’re gonna hammered and we’re gonna sing Hank Jr. songs all night long, and then maybe tomorrow we’ll get to some hunting … and he’s like, “No, no, you’re here to hunt, cousin.’ He called me cousin.”
Strike one.
The excursion began with a fish fry using fish Williams caught with Kid Rock a week prior. Nichols didn’t eat fish other than Long John Silver’s, and he felt good about reporting that Hank’s complex family recipe was much better. The country icon was not impressed.
Strike two.
“So then he’s going to show me how to call these turkeys. Because — all right, I have seen duck callers which you kind of (gestures to mouth), you know, whatever that is,” Nichols says.
Joe Nichols new album cover
“Well, he hands me this striker … and he hands me the little drum and he’s like, hey, hang on to these and get that working if you can. I thought, which part of this you kind of blow in or how does this work? And he looked at me like, ‘Oh my God, I’m really sitting with an idiot.'”
The general idea with a slate call is you scratch the striker across the pot to replicate a turkey sound. Watch this video at about 3:45 if you’re confused.
“CMT’s looking at me, figuring out I don’t know what I’m doing. How do you hold a gun again? I don’t know. I’m just here for the song, man. I thought I was going to get hammered with Hank!”
Strike three.
In the end, Nichols did get a bird, and it was a good size. It was all worth calling home to brag about, but that went poorly as well.
“The first thing I did was I called my mom, and I said, ‘Mother … that was a great experience. I now know a little bit about hunting. I spent a little time with Hank. He was great. He’s freaking phenomenal. Just every bit the legend you think he is. And I killed my first turkey.'”
“The first thing she did was, ‘Oh my God, that turkey probably had a family.'”
Strike … four?
Years later, Nichols is a bit more experienced with guns and hunting, but he doesn’t sound optimistic about getting another shot to shoot with Hank.
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