Chapter 1: How did HARDY become a powerful songwriter in Nashville?
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Work hard and be nice. Is that basically your career philosophy?
Yeah. Have I said that exactly before? I feel like I have. I feel like that's the number one... Honestly, if I put them in order, it would be nice first and work hard second. Not like don't dismiss working hard, but man, being a good hanger, just being somebody that somebody wants in the room will take you so far, I feel like, in any job atmosphere at all.
Why? I would have assumed, especially in music, if you're some virtuoso guitarist... Nobody likes an asshole, dude.
It doesn't matter how good you are or something. I just... Nobody wants that person in the room, I feel like. And I just... How many times, I cannot tell you how many times I've done podcasts or we've gotten a VIP tour of something, or we had a driver, you know, in LA or in New York. And then we've been like, you ever had anybody that was just terrible to work with?
And people just remember that, man. And it's a lot of times it's people that are like really famous and really successful and very talented. And, and there's just, I know that people like drivers and, you know, people that give Disney world tours and stuff like that are not famous. people that are gonna, you know, help advance your career. But, but I think that transcends stuff like that.
And, um, just being nice to people and making sure, making sure everybody is appreciated and feels comfortable around you. And I just think it's important.
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Chapter 2: What is HARDY's career philosophy and how does it shape his work?
Yeah. 100%. Yeah. Would you call it a paradox?
A little bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, it's certainly... It's certainly surprising because it gives people this idea that, oh, ego is where the success has been cultivated from. Right. As opposed to the fact that the success gave them this buffer zone where people are, I can't be too mean to Hardy because look at all the songs he does and stuff. He's a bit of a dick. Whatever.
So, I mean, it's kind of surprising because I think a lot of people in jobs, they see it as being transactional. That if you are good at X, you will get Y. But there's the packaging that your talent comes in, which is like, well, you were good hang. How are you on the bus? What's your morale like when you've done three shows in three days and everybody's tired?
It's like, are you the one that brings everybody up? Or are you the one that's like, oh, dude, this is so tough. This is so hard. I'm missing the water. Everyone's doing that.
Yeah. Yeah, no, it's very true, man. And it's just, I've always just kind of thought that it's like, it takes way more effort to be, you know, like an asshole than just to be nice. And there's, I mean, I've, I've had my moments, I mean, for sure, where I just, I'm, I'm exhausted or mentally drained or my meter is at an all time zero.
And, and those are moments where I feel like I just get more quiet more than, more than anything. But, um, man, it's just so much easier to be just nice to people and, and, Just keep a smile on your face and keep it light and just do what you got to do. And even if it's something you don't want to do, you do it anyway and have fun with it.
And I don't know, it just seems way less effort to do that.
In your experience as being a good guy, a performance enhancer, rather than trying to be ruthless and screwing people over? What do you mean by that? If you're a nice person... are they the ones that end up winning in the end? Because there is a sense that ruthlessness and being cutthroat and, you know, sort of like going for it, aggressive, lean in. Oh, well, that's how you achieve success.
I don't think there's a real true answer to that because I think there's tons of people. I think I would like to think that more nice people win, certainly, but... I don't think it's true every time by any means.
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Chapter 3: What unique challenges do songwriters face in the Nashville music scene?
There's definitely been times where I have been like, okay, like I'll hit up my management or link my management and my publishing and be like, Hey guys, we need to find a balance. Like I need to write more songs. Cause it's just, it's a tank that I have that if it's, if it's empty, I, you know, I feel like,
a little bit less sense of purpose if I haven't been writing songs, no matter what they may be. And so, you know, there's times where I become a little more aware that I need to sort of redistribute my time. But I've never really felt the pressure to do one more than the other or, like, you know, one's falling behind. You know, I try to keep them even or anything like that. It's just...
I don't know. I try to take the pressure off myself, and I think it makes for more creativity and better creative moments and stuff when you don't feel pressure to write hits or pressure to write so many songs or anything like that.
What if you write a real slammer? There must be a sense in your mind where you go, is this me? Do I just keep this one in the Hardy folder?
Yeah, that happens a lot. It happens all the time.
Yeah.
they uh it's funny i uh there's a lot of songs though that i just it's a slammer but it's just not for me and and and uh there's a lot of time a lot of writers that i have even friends of mine that i'm that are like you sure or like i can tell i'm like man this would be good for this would be great for you know blake shelton and and they're like oh yeah cool you know maybe you was yeah yeah um
but even that is very, I usually know, but, but by the time we get like verse chorus, if I'm going to, if I'm going to cut the song or if I'm going to, you know, give it to someone else or, or hopefully give it to someone else.
I was talking to, uh, John Bellion, he was on the show a couple of weeks ago. And, um, obviously he took this big hiatus from being an artist to just do the songwriting thing. And he said he knew when, uh, he was ready to get back to producing music because he would have, you know, this list of demos or whatever, you'd have five,
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Chapter 4: How does HARDY balance being a songwriter and an artist?
I will always love you. I find it hard to understand in my mind what it means to love you after you are dead. But I still want to comfort and take care of you. And I want you to love me and care for me. I want to have problems to discuss with you. I want little projects with you. I never thought, until just now, that we can do that. What should we do? We started to learn to make clothes together.
Or learn Chinese. Or get a movie projector. Can't I do something now? No. I am alone without you. And you were the idea woman and general instigator of all our wild adventures. When you were sick, you worried that you could not give me something that you wanted to and thought I needed. You needn't have worried.
Just as I told you then, there was no real need because I loved you in so many ways, so much. And now it is clearly even more true. You can give me nothing now, yet I love you so that you stand in my way of loving anyone else. But I want you to stand there. You, dead, are so much better than anyone else alive.
I know you will assure me that I am foolish and that you want me to have full happiness and don't want to be in my way. I bet you are surprised that I don't even have a girlfriend, except you, sweetheart, after two years. But you can't help it, darling, nor can I. I don't understand it, for I have met many girls, and very nice ones. And I don't want to remain alone.
But in two or three meetings, they all seem ashes. You only are left to me. You are real. My darling wife, I do adore you. I love my wife. My wife is dead. P.S. Please excuse my not mailing this, but I don't know your new address.
Oh, my God. Jesus, man. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's insane. It's... Like, is that real? That's a real thing he did for his real wife? So like, there's still, there's so much poetry in that. I mean, there's so much, to me, part of the gag or the like, the trick is not revealing the thing until it's like the perfect time, right? Yeah. So that's the thing.
I don't understand. I struggle to know what it means to love you after you are dead.
Yeah. And the songwriting, from a songwriting, you would probably wait to the very end to do that. Mm-hmm. but even still like it's waiting on that is such a poetic, it's such a, I mean, it, it's, it's a simple, you know, we call it a trick, but, but, uh, yeah, that's, that's beautiful.
I mean, it's, I'm trying to think of a song that I have or that I know of that has like a twist at the very end of a song. Um, But you kind of have to like, oh, shit, I got to listen to that again. You know, like, I missed it. It's like an M. Night Shyamalan movie and you miss the sixth sense.
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Chapter 5: What impact did the bus crash have on HARDY's life and career?
Maybe that's just me. My wife kind of, she kind of gives me hell a lot and, or let's just say gives me encouragement. Cause, uh, I'll, you know, this last record I had spoke a lot about mortality, like a lot. And, uh, a lot of it was in a very positive way of like, appreciate your life now. Cause you know, one day you won't be here. But, um, she was like, you need to write happier songs.
Stop fucking whining. Yeah, dude. You're so emo. Yeah.
Yeah. Like write some happier stuff. So maybe I should, but it's just, it's, it's not as easy. It's...
Well, I guess Luke Combs, maybe the one before last, that was everything's great and life's going well. And, you know, dad's getting a bit older, but my son's growing up and he misses me when I'm away, but my wife's good. And you're like, okay, well, that's a pivot, right? From like, this is broken and that's not so great.
Yeah, true. Yeah. He kind of had the emo in his own way.
He had the emo phase early on. One number away. Cut the fringe off. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it is a really interesting blend to think about why people resonate. Here's one thing. I think people feel alone in their sadness in a way that
causes them to try and seek uh companionship or comfort so like fuck like somebody else feels that yeah as opposed to if everything's going great and if you're happy like yeah sure it's nice that someone else is also happy along with you it's just hard to like relate to somebody that's it's so weird i don't know why that is a thing but you're totally right
You're like, you're having a great, I'm having a great day. You know, like nobody ever says that. But if somebody's having a bad day, you're like, oh my God.
Come here, let me. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, every man knows God when he's at his lowest, right? You reflect so much more. There's this cool story from a coach of mine, Joe. He talks about his daughter. She was like nine at the time. And she was crying in the bathroom. And the way that she was crying, he said, you don't sound that sad to me. You say, I'm pissed off. And she's like, I am.
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Chapter 6: How can vulnerability be transformed into a strength in songwriting?
I was opening for Morgan, and then we decided to leave early so we could get back to town because Bristol, Tennessee is only like four hours away. Um, and you gain an hour, so it doesn't feel like you get in quite as late, you know? Um, so we were 20 miles from town, maybe less. We were like 15 miles back from town and my tour manager at the time was already sleeping in his bunk.
And my photographer and I were awake in the front lounge listening to something, listening to music. And our bus driver pulled over on the side of the road and he came and went to the bathroom. He stayed in there like five minutes, which was really weird, especially being this close to town. But we were drinking. We didn't really think anything about it. We were just like, it's kind of weird.
Yeah.
Um, came out of the bathroom and I was like, Ricky, you good? And he ignored me, which we were like, what is he? But he had his Bluetooth thing in. So we always wonder if he was on the phone. So I stepped up and I was like, Ricky, you good? And he's like, yep, all good. I was like, all right, man. You know, he'll be there in a minute or whatever, I guess.
And anyway, we started going back down the road and then we just, just the bus just went off in this like bottom. We flipped like three times over.
And you're still in the front lounge. Yeah. So you're not strapped in at all. Yeah.
Somebody said like shoes in a washer or shoes in a dryer.
So what just, because you must be sat and then feel the bus.
Well, we felt the rumble strips and then we felt us like going off the road. Like, you know, every now and then your driver will hit like rumble strips and everybody's like, oh. But we felt the left side hit the rumble strips and we knew we were going off the road. And it just, I don't know what it was, but when it flipped, it got airborne for a second.
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Chapter 7: What role does storytelling play in country music compared to other genres?
you know, when you think about it, like we weren't, we didn't deal with a drunk driver. We didn't hit a deer or just, you know what I mean? We didn't, there wasn't icy, there was no snow, no bad weather.
It wasn't because he was being negligent.
No, he just, he had a brain episode and, and it just happened to be then, you know, I mean, it's such a freak thing.
Do you think that his trips to the bathroom, uh, before were early or there's something going on? I don't feel too right.
I forgot. I spoke to that. That's exactly what was happening. So he was, Entering into, I think it was an aneurysm. But he had, whatever had happened had happened and it was slowly getting worse and worse or whatever. And it's so funny. I've heard my dad had a good friend that he used to work. My dad was a high school referee, football referee. And,
And his one of his best friends had an aneurysm as a referee on the field. And it was just very similar because he said his name was Lewis. And he said, Lewis, they looked over and he was laid out and they just thought he got knocked over by a player. And he got up and he's like, no, I'm fine. But every like minute that went by, he was acting crazier and weirder.
And and then sure enough, you know, he almost died. But it was a miracle, man. You should Google if you Google just like my name in the in the bus accident, the pictures will come up. There's one of the inside of the bus. Look it up. That's pretty gnarly.
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Chapter 8: How has HARDY's experience shaped his views on mental health and vulnerability?
And I hope that it gets better. Um, You know, I don't think that anybody that talks about that is considered soft by any means. And I know a lot of – I've talked to a lot of artists, very successful artists that deal with their – they're just like, man, my anxiety has been so bad recently.
And I just – I wish the more public you can make it and the more, like, people that can openly share that they deal with stuff, then, like, the next time you're going through something – you know, if you're in an award show or something, you can just go find your buddy and be like, Hey, I'm freaking out. You know what I mean? Like just the more acceptable it is.
I feel like a lot of a big part of depression and anxiety, um, that makes it worse or, or, um, yeah, that makes it worse is the shame that comes with it because it's, you're not, it's not supposed to be okay or, or you're considered weak or whatever, or an inconvenience or whatever that may be. And I just think the more open, uh, especially men, uh,
are about their mental health, the less, the more that the shame and the guilt and the burden and all that will just sort of go away. Especially with artists. I mean, we're not, we're not, human beings were not designed to be famous. We weren't designed to be,
just to travel and to, especially artists, we weren't designed to like experience insane levels of serotonin and adrenaline three nights in a row, four or five nights in a row. Sometimes, uh, there's, there's a lot that that's that, you know, people are going to roll their eyes. I know. And just be like, well, grasses must be nice, blah, blah, blah.
But man, it's just, it's a mental thing that you go through that like, you know, it's, It's just, it's different. It's just, I don't think that our brains are wired to experience some of the stuff that singers or anybody, anybody that's a public figure experiences and can take a toll on you. Male, female, whatever age, whatever.
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