BEVERLY HILLS—Just three days after the uproar began when iconic Country western music star Hank Williams, Jr. compared President Obama to Adolph Hitler on Fox News Channel’s morning show “Fox and Friends,” ESPN has announced that they will no longer use the singer’s theme song for their Monday night football show, which has been a staple for close to two decades on the ABC network.

Hank WIlliams Jr.

Both ESPN and Hank Williams Jr. announced today that they are splitting their ties for good. “Maybe they could croon ‘turn out the lights, the party’s over,’ for old times’ sake,” stated Williams in a statement to the media. While ESPN also claims that the decision was their own. “We have decided to part ways with Hank Williams, Jr. We appreciate his contributions over the past years. The success of ‘Monday Night Football’ has always been about the games and that will continue,” said an ESPN spokesman.

While Williams told the Associated Press, “After reading hundreds of e-mails, I have made MY decision. By pulling my opening Oct 3rd, You (ESPN) stepped on the Toes of The First Amendment Freedom of Speech, so therefore Me, My Song, and All My Rowdy Friends are OUT OF HERE. It’s been a great run.”

“All MY Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight” has been the theme for the past twenty years for the “Monday Night Football” show. Williams owns the publishing rights, master recording (which lyrics changed each week to fit the opponents) of the game. On Wednesday, the famed singer apologized for his analogy describing the golf summit this past summer between President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner in a way that created a lot of heated rhetoric between Americans over the comparison to meeting with Adolph Hitler during World War II.

The lesson seems to be that free speech in America is condoned as long as the public doesn’t mind what is being said. However, another point people are making is the fact that celebrities need to be mindful of their words, since they may offend fans who disagree with their descriptions of politicians. A fan of Williams said today, “I love Hank’s music, but free speech does have consequences.” This is not new in the nation since The Dixie Chicks, Rosie O’Donnell, Whoopi Goldberg and Kanye West have also been chastised for comments that they made regarding former president George Walker Bush. Goldberg lost her weight watchers endorsement, O’Donnell became a pariah with “The View” audience and The Dixie Chicks had concerts canceled over their words describing fellow Texan, Bush as a warmonger.

However, the parting between Williams and ESPN may not be as a direct result of his Fox interview days ago. An ESPN insider tells Canyon News, “ABC/ESPN was actually wanting to dump that song for three years now. They [ABC/ESPN] have been using it for 20 years and thought it was growing stale, not with it and long in the tooth. I know that from hearing people in the office discuss it. (That) Hank Jr. said something stupid gave them the perfect jumping-off point to do and they look like heroes to some folks. So it was a public relations coupe for something they wanted to do anyway.”

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