He’s also more emotionally complex when writing for himself, as in “Wait in the Truck,” a stark acoustic ballad about a man who kills a woman’s abuser. “I’ve already seen comments on Instagram asking me to release the real version,” Hardy says, shaking his head. “Songwriters know when they’re writing a douchey song that’s gonna be a hit,” he says, citing a couple of his own in Chris Lane’s “ I Don’t Know About You” and Cole Swindell’s “ Single Saturday Night.” And though he was well aware of its creative limitations, Hardy quickly mastered the form. “That was done.”ĭefined by Hardy and Wallen’s producer Joey Moi as “active rock with a banjo on it,” bro-country dominated Nashville for much of the 2010s through the likes of FGL, Luke Bryan and Jason Aldean. “This was right as the whole bro-country thing was blowing up, and so there was just no room anymore for a soulful white girl,” he says. His big break came at the expense of hers, he says now. I was going to church on Sunday and going to Little League baseball practice, then getting home and putting my headphones on and listening to ‘Break your f- face tonight!’” he says, quoting Limp Bizkit’s era-defining “ Break Stuff.” “I just liked it because it made me feel good.”Ī naturally gifted writer who excelled in English class, Hardy began to change his mind about country music thanks to the deeply crafty tunesmithing of Brad Paisley - “You see Post Malone do ‘ I’m Gonna Miss Her’ on YouTube?” he asks excitedly - and Eric Church, who was “the first country artist I heard that appealed to good ol’ boys who grew up like I did, deer hunting and fishing and all that stuff.”Īfter high school he studied songwriting at Middle Tennessee State University then moved to Nashville, where his older sister was trying to start a career as a singer and where he fell in socially with the crew around Florida Georgia Line. I didn’t even understand half the lyrics. Before that, Nashville-based Hardy will return to Southern California to headline Anaheim’s House of Blues on March 10. (Wallen didn’t know when they met that Hardy was a metalhead, he says, though “I kind of had that feeling just off his vibe.”) Hardy co-wrote several tracks on Wallen’s upcoming “One Thing at a Time” album, and he’ll tour this summer as one of Wallen’s opening acts, including at a July 22 stop at SoFi Stadium. 1 on Billboard’s country albums chart - the only LP other than Wallen’s blockbuster “Dangerous” to reach the peak since July - while “ Jack,” a moody single narrated from the perspective of a bottle of whiskey, is currently in the Top 10 at active rock radio behind tracks by Metallica and Five Finger Death Punch.įor Hardy, the bruising guitars and screamy-growly vocals are a way to differentiate his stuff from Wallen’s slicker, hip-hop-inflected country music even as he maintains the momentum their long bromance has provided. “The Mockingbird & the Crow” debuted at No. So far, Hardy’s foray into rock is paying off. Released last month, the 17-track LP is split into halves: eight polished country tunes and eight jock-jammy aggro-rock tunes, the two sides connected by a title cut that gradually shifts from plaintive strums to fuzzed-out riffs. Yet with his new album, “The Mockingbird & the Crow,” Hardy is leaning into - way into - the rock music he says he loved before he ever thought about writing for Nashville. I don’t know anyone touching him when it comes to those lyrical qualities.” “Hardy has a way of taking something that sounds familiar but adding a flavor that only he can bring,” Wallen tells The Times. 1 as an artist with “ One Beer,” a slyly touching account of a couple’s quick trip from shared Bud Lights to a shared baby. His success has come on the country charts with songs he wrote for other acts like Blake Shelton’s “ God’s Country,” Florida Georgia Line’s “ Simple” and a string of tunes by his good buddy Morgan Wallen that includes “ More Than My Hometown” and “ Sand in My Boots.” In 2020 he scored his first No. Hardy, who performs under his last name, didn’t ascend through the Sunset Strip’s storied hard-rock scene. 1 hits under his belt will take the same West Hollywood stage that once hosted GNR, then zip up Doheny Drive to play a second sold-out show at the Roxy. In a few hours, this 32-year-old singer with a dozen No.
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