Joe Nichols is no stranger to playing shows with Hank Williams Jr. Nichols toured with Williams back in 2025, and he’s back on the road with him again in 2026.
Nichols was a guest on Taste of Country Nights, where I asked him outright for some Hank Jr. stories, and Nichols did not disappoint me… but it turns out, he did disappoint Williams.
Joe Nichols Ticked Off Hank Williams Jr.: ‘It Felt Like I Disappointed My Dad’
Nichols gets right into the story of how he let the county icon down.
“I didn’t know he was going to do ‘Family Tradition’ at the end of the show, and last year he had me come up and do ‘Family Tradition’ with him at the end of the show,” he states.
Nichols admits that at that point, he thought to himself how amazing the opportunity was to sing with one of his idols on stage.
After he did that in 2025, he figured that was the one and only time Williams was going to ask him to join him for that song at the end of his set.
Nichols explains that the next time he played with Williams, he didn’t think he was supposed to come back out and sing it again.
“Five minutes before he was playing that song his stage guy found me… and I had already changed for the evening. I’m out of my show clothes and they go, ‘You ready to go on? You go on in four minutes!'”
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Nichols did not want to go back out on stage in sweats, so he quickly got dressed back into his sweaty show clothes from earlier and ran as fast as he could to the stage.
“I walked out there last minute, and I didn’t hear the first part of the song, so I had no idea where we’re at in the song,” he says.
“I asked the guy on the side of the stage what verse we were on. He said, ‘Ahh, I think it’s I’ve loved some ladies.'”
The “Sunny and 75” hitmaker had to take the stagehand’s word for it and went out to sing that verse, not realizing that Williams had already sung that verse a second ago.
“We get done playing and he’s got his band playing real loud and he comes off the side of the stage, and I give him a big hug and he says, ‘I tell you what… all these people…'” Nichols says.
He explains that he couldn’t really hear Williams talking, but he heard him at the end scream to him, “‘but not you,’ and I can’t really hear what he’s saying. He looks like he’s giving me a compliment, but I’m not sure.”
What Did Hank Williams Jr. Yell At Joe Nichols For?
Nichols says, “Fast forward to the next time we do that, and I’m ready this time, and I anticipate that happening. Right before the show goes on, I realize in that moment, ‘Oh no, I had sang the wrong verse.'”
Nichols admits he knew at that point, “Oh, that’s what he was yelling at me before. He’s like, ‘Everybody I’ve had out here before messes that up from time to time, but not you. I didn’t expect you to come out there and mess it up.'”
It was in that moment that Nichols said to himself, “‘Oh damn, did I disappoint him? I felt like I disappointed my dad…Oh no.'”
Nichols adds, “I did that song and I came off the side of the stage, and he walks over to me and goes, ‘Perfect!'”
All jokes aside, Nichols says having Williams scold him a little really messed him up for a few days.
“It felt like I really disappointed someone that I cared greatly about,” he admits. “It ate at me. I couldn’t bear it.”
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