10 Questions with ... HARDY

BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:

HARDY emerged as a songwriter in 2018 with two #1s, "Up Down" (Morgan Wallen feat. Florida Georgia Line) and "Simple" (Florida Georgia Line). His unique style and creativity have made him a go-to songwriter on Music Row with numerous hits to his credit. HARDY launched his own artist career with the release of two, four-song EPs that showcased his Country style: "This Ole Boy" (October 2018) and "Where To Find Me" (January 2019). Soon after, HARDY was named to CMT's 2019 "Listen Up" class and tapped as "One To Watch" by Rolling Stone Country, Amazon, Pandora and many more. HARDY wrapped a three-month run as direct support on Wallen's "If I Know Me Tour" earlier this year and is currently on the road with Florida Georgia Line for their "Can't Say I Ain't Country Tour" through the summer. His debut radio single, "Rednecker," is climbing the charts.

1. You were a songwriter first. Was being an artist always one of your goals, or did it just organically happen?

I made an attempt [at being an artist] right at the end of college. I put out one EP. You can't find it anywhere; I got it removed from the internet [laughs]. Clean slate, you know? I tried for, like, six months out of college, and then I signed a publishing deal and realized how fun just getting paid a salary to write songs was. So I was like, "Actually, I'm going to do this for a while." I just quickly abandoned my artist career.

It was always in the back of my mind, and people were always being like, "You have a thing, dude, you have to do it." I think it just took the right people saying it and being pushed in the right direction. The Florida Georgia Line guys, [Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley] and Joey Moi, their producer, really kind of laid it on me a couple of years ago and were like, "Dude, you're an idiot if you don't do this." I just started thinking about not wanting to be 30 years down the road and saying I had an opportunity to do something really cool and I didn't take it. So I said, "Let's do it," and the rest is history.

2. You've been dominating the charts recently with hits like Blake Shelton's "God's Country," Florida Georgia Line's "Talk You Out Of It," Chris Lane's "I Don't Know About You," LOCASH's "One Big Country Song" and your own "Rednecker." What's the highest number of songs you've ever had charting at once? And did you ever imagine you'd become Nashville's go-to songwriter?

I think it's six or seven. It's pretty ridiculous.

[As for being a top songwriter,] I was definitely going for it. It's something that I've wanted to be, but it is definitely surreal that it's actually happening. I did move to town to become a songwriter, and I definitely dreamed of that falling into place, but it is very, very surreal. It's like, "Holy crap, this is actually a thing now!"

3. Your current single, "Rednecker," shows your pride in coming from a small country town. What was the songwriting process like for this song? How was it born?

I wrote that song in Colorado with two of my buddies, Jordan Schmidt and Andy Albert. It started out when we were all sitting around laughing about something and somebody - I think Andy - said, "Well I'm rednecker than you." We all laughed, and then we all kind of looked at each other and were like, "Holy crap, we need to go write that. That sounds like a song."

We were all on a writing retreat, and the three of us went upstairs and wrote the song with no guitar, no music, no melody or anything. We just wrote the lyrics. That's never happened, like, ever, in writing songs. We went back to town after we wrote the lyrics. Jordan is a producer/writer, so he started producing this tough-sounding track, and he pretty much just gave me the mic and said, "Just sing a melody over this lyric," so I did. It just came to life. When we wrote it, we knew it had humor, but we didn't really know what it was going to sound like yet. So when we put the music and the melody to it, it just took on this cool, tough persona.

Blake Shelton's team actually wanted [the song] for him, but it was around the same time that I was signing my record deal. I wanted the song so bad, and I wanted that song to be my first single, so I had to tell him no, which was kind of tough. At the time, I had never had a Blake cut, so I was definitely down [upset]. It's crazy how full circle -- less than a year later he's got "God's Country." That's one of those "trust the process" kind of moments, because things will work out.

4. What kind of music were you raised on, and how has it shaped the sound of your own music?

Okay, so here's the weirdest thing about my whole thing: I did not grow up listening to Country music at all. I honestly couldn't stand it back in the day. I don't know why, but I just didn't like it. That being said, I grew up listening to Rock 'n' Roll, Classic Rock, and Grunge. From, like, 5 years old, that was my thing. But I grew up country and did all things country, and that is where I feel I've learned to speak that language. All of the country influence that I have came from life, not music.

5. What is your biggest inspiration as a songwriter and artist?

My biggest [inspiration] is staying connected with where I came from emotionally. I try to go home every now and then, and I call my buddies to see what's going on in the town. That's always been my "news," where I came from and how I grew up, so I just try to stay as connected to that as possible. I don't ever want to lose that, because I feel like if I lose that, then I would lose that language that I know how to speak.

6. You didn't go on a typical radio tour. Was that your choice, and how were you introduced to radio instead?

I put out music in the middle of October last year, and I started touring with Morgan [Wallen] around the beginning of November. By that time, we pretty much knew that "Rednecker" was going to be the single, so we did radio every city stop on Morgan's tour, which was, like, 40 shows. Every reporting market that we played at, I would go the station and hang and do the thing. We hit. like, legit, 25 or 30 stations all around the country just for that tour. I know there's a million more than that, but we did about 20-30 more over the course of two weeks at the end of that tour [as well]. I did two weeks of actual radio tour. I met a lot of people at the iHeart Summit that was happening at the same time as the Marathon Music [Works] show [in Nashville], and CRS [Country Radio Seminar], stuff like that. It was pretty organic; I didn't feel like I was being thrown to the wolves or anything. I've got a good relationship with a lot of people in radio now, and a lot of them are really, really cool.

7. From an outside perspective, there seems to be a strong camaraderie among the artists at Big Loud, with everyone finding ways to support each other. Does it feel that way from the inside too? And how did all of that start?

Absolutely. It's great! Me and Morgan [Wallen] are like brothers. It's like this unspoken brotherhood. We're on this new label, and everybody is just in it together because it's hard for new labels to really do the thing. It's just really cool. Jake Owen, we go fishing all the time and just goof around out at his place. Mason [Ramsey] is just like the little brother that everybody kind of picks on but everybody loves. There's very much camaraderie, and I like that the roster's not huge. It's like a little family. It's really cool.

8. Do you remember your first trip to Nashville? What was it like, what sticks out the most to you?

When I was 19 years old, in February 2010, I had written, like, two songs. My sister already lived in Nashville; she went to Belmont [University]. I was in junior college, and me and three buddies decided to drive up to Nashville and just hang out and party with my sister one weekend. We had such an awesome time, and I didn't realize how much music was literally everywhere up there, and I was so obsessed. I just love music so much. My first real trip to Nashville was the trip that I was like, "Okay, I'm going home, packing all my crap and I'm coming back up here," and that's exactly what I did. I just knew. I called my mom on the way home and said, "Hey, I want to move to Nashville." My parents are very supportive, and they were just like, "Go for it."

9. The guys of Florida Georgia Line seem to have had a big influence on shaping your career since the beginning. Talk about your relationship with Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley.

I met them a long time ago when they were still at Belmont [University], before "Cruise," and all that came out. My sister was actually friends with them at Belmont. She introduced me to them. I kind of hit it off with them back in the day, and then "Cruise" happened and they were gone. They were superstars, and I lost contact with them. Then I was writing songs in town and they reached back out to me and were like, "Hey, we remember you." Tyler especially was like, "Hey, I just want to reach out and let you know I've got my eye on you. It's cool that you got a publishing deal and you're doing the thing." After that, they had me out to write a couple songs with them on tour and we reconnected and re-hit it off. After that, they pretty much had me out for two full tours, "Dig your Roots" and "Smooth." I was out for almost the entire [time on] both of those tours, just writing. Tyler kind of pushed me in the direction of being an artist, which is cool. They had me sing on "Y'all Boys," which is really cool ... They've done a lot for me, and I wrote a lot of songs for their most recent record. "Simple" and "Up Down" were my first two #1s, so they've helped a lot.

10. Did you ever feel any pressure to look and dress like a typical Nashville star, or have you always just been totally yourself?

I think right at the very, very beginning I might have had a couple people tell me that my style was a little wack, but I just didn't listen to them, I guess. I have never felt any pressure. I have my style and it's weird, but it is what it is. I've always worn whatever the hell I wanted, and I'm not going to stop doing that now.

What made you decide to just go by one name instead of Michael Hardy?

I would say 75% of people call me HARDY, and 25% of people call me Michael. It's just one of those last names.

We've noticed a red wristband tattoo on your wrist. What's the meaning behind it?

I have this really cool county fair where I grew up called the Neshoba County Fair. There are 1,000 of these family-owned cabins. Basically, for a whole week the entire town shuts down and [families] move into their cabin for the entire week out there and everybody just parties. You don't leave for a week. It's amazing. Everything else is just like a county fair. They have entertainment. They have horse races. They have the rides, and the petting zoo, and the car show, and the flea market and yadda yadda yadda, but the fact that you stay out there is the coolest part. My tattoo is the wristband to get into the fair, but I don't get in for free now, unfortunately [laughs]. It's not always red, I just got red because, I don't know, redneck or somethin' [laughs]. That's probably the most personal [tattoo]. It's just kind of a "remember where you came from" thing. It's one of my favorite things ever, so I wanted it on me forever.

You're currently on tour with Florida Georgia Line. Any fun stories from the road?

[Laughs] So, I go out and do "Y'all Boys" with FGL every night. One night, I'm walking off stage and BK [Brian Kelley] was just like, "Hey HARDY, why don't you shotgun a beer?" They had a cooler full of beer on the stage, so there's one right there. This is in the middle of a show. So, I walk over there and grab a beer, and then they go into, "Confession." So I'm standing on the stage with a beer, like, my moment is over. My time to shine is over, and they're going into a different song. I'm just standing there with a beer in the middle of the stage, and then I realized I didn't have anything to open the bottom of the beer with except a lighter. So I pulled my lighter out of my pocket and just smashed it as hard as I could, and [the beer] busted and got all over me.

After the show I told BK, "Way to put me on the spot there, brother." So, the next night I walked out there with one [beer] in my back pocket and, at the end of "Y'all Boys," I pulled it out and I shotgunned it. I needed that for me [laughs].