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Hank Williams Jr. is joining forces with Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys for a blues-inspired album. The announcement comes one day after news broke that Williams’ wife of more than three decades, Mary Jane Thomas, died after suffering complications from a medical procedure. Thomas died on Tuesday (March 22) in Jupiter, Florida.
Williams considered postponing the album announcement, but the family opted to move forward with support via music, a press release noted, per CMT and Billboard.
“The blues is where it all comes from,” Williams said in a statement. “It’s the start of everything musical in my family; everything starts with Tee-Tot and flows from there. I’ve always flirted with this stripped back blues – all the way back to the ‘80s. But I finally made an album that’s just that, and I like it.”
Auerbach, who produced the 12-track album, recalled the first time he saw Hank Jr. on TV: “I was a kid raised on Robert Johnson and Hank Williams, Sr. records, and those things came through so clearly watching him. So, I tried to assemble the right parts to just sit in that piece of who he is.”
The new album, Rich White Honky Blues, is set to release on June 17. Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound shared on Facebook:
Though Williams hasn’t spoken publicly about his wife’s death as of publication time on Thursday afternoon (March 24), the couple’s son Sam shared a heartfelt statement to remember her. He said, in part:
“My dear Mama Mary Jane was a beautiful soul who forever affected everyone who knew her. She had a smile and presence that lit up every room and she never met a stranger she didn't befriend. Her spirit was gentle and giving. …She is survived by my father, her two parents Ramona and Bill, her brother Andy, her sister Angela, myself and her three grandchildren: Beau Weston, Tennyson Hiram and Audrey Jane. Rest in peace Mama, I will always be the son of Mary Jane.”