Hank Jr. Walks Offstage During CMT Artist Of The Year Event

Hank Williams Jr. stole the spotlight Tuesday night at a taping of CMT’s annual Artist Of The Year event honoring Taylor Swift, Jason Aldean, Kenny Chesney, Brad Paisley and Lady Antebellum. But it wasn’t for his stellar performance. Williams walked offstage in the middle of his duet with Aldean. Williams’ publicist said the reason for his abrupt departure was due to quality control. “He didn’t feel like he was giving an adequate performance while joining Jason on his song, ‘Tattoos on This Town.’” Aldean praised Williams before the show, calling him “awesome” and “the real deal.” Williams’ rep added that Williams wanted only to honor Aldean and that “turning in a poor performance would only ruin that effort.” Williams issued a statement explaining, “I’ve heard people mess up my songs and screw up [Hank Williams Sr.] songs. I was here to honor Jason, a kid I really like. When I walked out there, it didn’t feel right, it didn’t sound right. I didn’t want to disrespect him.” Aldean ended up performing a do-over of the song by himself without incident. That is the version viewers will see when the show airs on December 13th.