This week on the Superstar Power Hour, Audacy’s Katie Neal got a chance to talk with HARDY, catching up with the singer and songwriter amid a break from touring in support of his new album, the mockingbird and THE CROW.
LISTEN NOW: Superstar Power Hour with HARDY
Congratulations are in order for HARDY not just for his new album, recent CMT Awards win and upcoming ACM Awards nominations, but he also got married back in October. "I've been in a really good head space in general," he tells Katie, “and really having a lot of revelations about life and all good things and just how grateful I am and how grateful I should be. Everything is just really good right now."
“I've struggled a lot with being an artist,” he adds, “and I've been really vocal about it, but I think in the past like six months just kind of having the realization that this is very special and that I should take it all in stride, as opposed to maybe fight losing my anonymity or like having fans and feeling pressure and stuff like that.”
“I've really dialed in how cool it is and how special it is,” HARDY says, “and I'm really kind of owning that now… it’s changed my perspective.”
A serious tour bus accident in 2022 that left him and everyone aboard with significant injuries, he acknowledges also “had a lot to do with that,” allowing him to “look on the positive because, you know, it could all be gone like that, and it's just all sort of happened in the last six months, but it's been great. It's been an uphill battle, but it's been awesome recently.”
Having another hit on the charts with his new single “Wait in the Truck” featuring Lainey Wilson is exciting enough, but HARDY has also written songs for plenty of other artists. “Probably ‘Up Down,’” he says would be his favorite, speaking of the track he wrote for his buddy Morgan Wallen. “’God's Country’ is up there,” he adds, of the single he wrote for Blake Shelton, “but ‘Up Down’ is a really big one for a lot of reasons.”
“One, it was my first number one and it was Morgan's first number one," he explains. “So that kind of kickstarted both of our careers in a big way. I'm just glad that was my first hit because it kind of got people's attention and that's the thing that I do really well… it established me as a writer, true to how I write.”
Another fan-favorite, and one close to HARDY, is Wallen’s single “More Than My Hometown,” which he wrote along with ERNEST and others. “I think it's really cool too,” he says, “to be one of those moments where people are rooting and keeping up with a friendship because we are. I mean, I talk to both, especially Morgan and Earn almost every day about something, never music...”
“Me and Morgan had a conversation the other day about how it's gonna be a really sad day, but a cool day at the same time, where we hopefully, one day, that we can't tour with each other because we'll be at the same level -- and ERNEST too.”
“That's kind of Nashville in a nutshell though,” he adds. “It's a competitive town, but people really are rooting for each other's success. I love that about this town.”
Telling the story of how he and Morgan actually met, Morgan’s “The Way I Talk” was peaking at radio and, a huge fan of the song, HARDY had asked his publisher to call Wallen’s team to see if he could “write with this Morgan Wallen kid,” over at his house.
Two weeks later, “he just showed up to my house and we wrote. It was me and him and Jamison Rogers actually because Jamison -- I used to live in an apartment and Jamison lived right below me -- he and I are really good friends. He just came over and wrote and then we went to Martin's Barbecue after. I think we really hit it off that day. We could tell we were going to be friends.”
Related
HARDY leads the 2023 ACM nominations with a total of seven nods, including Song of the Year and Artist-Songwriter of the Year. Plus, the Country-Rocker has set a second leg of dates for his the mockingbird & THE CROW Tour kicking off at the end of August. Tickets are on sale now.
Listen to Katie Neal's full interview with HARDY above, and stay tuned for more conversations with your favorite Country artists on the Superstar Power Hour, weekdays with Katie & Company.
Browse and follow more of our all-new Country stations like Audacy New Country, Tailgate Crashers, Jake Owen's Tiki Tonk, Country Edge, and Katie Neal's Leading Ladies for more of the best from the female side of Country music.
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