Hardy vividly remembers his first encounter with nu-metal troublemakers Limp Bizkit.
“I came home from school and 'Nookie' was on 'TRL,'” she says of the band's hit single from the seven-times platinum album “Significant Other” in 1999.[Guitarist] Wes Borland had black eyes and was dressed like a monkey. When I was 9 years old, I was like, “I know I'm supposed to be scared of this, but this is fucking awesome.”
Twenty-five years later, Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst is among the guests featured on Hardy’s new LP, Quit! It’s a full-on dive into late-’90s/early 2000s post-grunge hard rock from one of Nashville’s most successful songwriters — a five-time Academy of Country Music Award winner whose many hits include Blake Shelton’s “God’s Country,” Florida Georgia Line’s “Simple,” Chris Lane’s “I Don’t Know About You,” and Morgan Wallen’s “More Than My Hometown” and “Sand in My Boots.” Just this week, Hardy (whose first name is Michael) helped propel Post Malone’s much-discussed country spinoff “F-1 Trillion” to a No. 1 debut on the Billboard 200.
Hardy’s friend Ernest, with whom he and Wallen wrote the chart-topping “More Than My Hometown,” says, “I’m the alpha in a lot of the environments I write in. When I’m around Hardy, I’m the beta. He’s just different.”
The follow-up to last year’s half-country, half-rock “The Mockingbird & the Crow,” “Quit!!” evokes Hardy’s teenage heroes from a small town in Mississippi, where MTV introduced him not only to Limp Bizkit but also Puddle of Mudd and Linkin Park. He was eventually drawn to country music by Brad Paisley and Eric Church, and moved to Nashville after college to try his hand at songwriting; the title track on the new album quotes a bar napkin someone stuffed into a tip jar during one of his early gigs.
Hardy began recording his own songs in 2018 — “One Beer” hit No. 1 at country radio in 2020 — but he never lost his taste for the aggressive sounds he deftly channels on “Quit!!.” Highlights from the album include the catchy “Psycho”; “Good Girl Phase,” which features Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Chad Smith on drums; and “Six Feet Under (Caleigh's Song),” a powerful acoustic ballad Hardy wrote for his wife after he was involved in a serious tour bus accident in October 2022. Wearing jean shorts and a red, white and blue NASCAR T-shirt, the musician, 33, discussed the record over breakfast at the Sunset Marquis during a recent trip to Los Angeles.
Are we to assume you made a rock record because you're bored of country music?
I'm working on a country record right now. I love writing amazing country songs more than rock songs. That's why I moved to Nashville. But I think writing rock songs is more fun.
What was your most recent #1 as a country writer?
Kenny Chesney, “Take Her Home,” in June. I don't have anything on the list right now, that's all, man.
Does that worry you?
Not yet. I see it all as a pattern. I've been so busy with my own stuff that I haven't written any songs in the last six or eight months, so it would make sense that I wouldn't have any songs on the charts. This fall and spring, I have like six months where I'm barely touring. I'll probably write 100 songs and have a few on the charts next year. Hopefully.
Where did “Psycho” come from? Nine times out of ten, a guy writes a song called “Psycho” and it’s about a crazy girl. In this one, you’re the psychopath.
I have a rule of respect for my mother and my wife: I will never get a tattoo above my neck. One day I made a joke to my wife: “If you ever leave me, the first thing I’ll do is get a tattoo on my face.” I thought, “Wow, that’s a good idea for a song.” Then, from there, we came up with the idea of psychedelia.
It's a fun song. But what was it like working in the field of country music, writing from the perspective of a narrator who's really not feeling well?
Oh, it's very liberating. There's a lot more to talk about than there is in country music. But there's a new wave of people who are becoming more open to talking about mental health or whatever you want to call it, which is a good thing. Jelly Roll has a song out right now, “I Am Not Okay.”
Could a country group have released “Psycho”?
I think a girl could do it, going back to the crazy girl thing. People would believe it more than if a boy sang it.
Were you surprised by how much the bus accident affected you? Last year you wrote on Instagram that you still suffered from panic attacks.
Yes. I had what I guess you would call a nervous breakdown in October 2023, like a year later. [after the crash] —And it was all because of the temperature of the air, the leaves, and the fact that they were showing football. That was what surprised me, was how much I had buried a lot of those emotions, but how natural triggers could bring them back up. I thought I was over it.
And now?
For the next 100 shows in a row, every night when I went to bed, that was my first thought. But now I don't think about it, I've just been doing a lot of trauma therapy and stuff like that.
What was your attitude towards therapy as a child?
When I was a kid, my parents didn't talk about the idea much. For a long time, I thought it was, let's say, unnecessary. People in my hometown either think, A) You shouldn't delve so deeply into your emotions if you're a guy, or B) It doesn't work. Then I started going out, and it helped, and that was it. Now I'm very open about it, and I'm not ashamed of it. I really owe it to my wife. She was the one who said, “You should probably go talk to someone.”
She's from California, right?
Yes, and that's why everything is completely different here.
Let's talk about “Soul4Sale,” which is one of the many songs where we deal with the anxiety of selling out. That's definitely something that worried musicians in the '90s, but it doesn't really seem to bother our generation.
You're right – people my age and younger don't see a lot of comments about it. I think it's more that I grew up a country boy and I never want to lose that – less selling out musically and more changing who I am as a person. Plus, that part of my life feeds into my songwriting, especially in the country world. Maybe that's why I talk about it so much. But I mean, we post pictures on airplanes and stuff like that because it's fun to do it. I don't want people to think I live in a cabin, you know?
Could you have imagined the situations you have found yourself in lately?
I constantly have to look around and think, “Shit.” Six and a half years ago, I was a successful songwriter with no intention of being an artist. Now it's like a different life.
What would be the best scenario for a writer?
Thirty number one hits, sell a couple of catalogues, make 10 million dollars and live off of that. That was my dream for a long time.
Did you have anyone in mind as a model?
Rodney Clawson. He still writes songs, but all that motherfucker does is fish for bass and hunt deer.
Last time we spoke, you said you had no interest in talking about politics, but this year at Stagecoach, your audience started chanting “USA” while you were singing “God's Country.”
I definitely encouraged that chant.
Does that contradict your desire not to speak?
When I think about politics, I ask myself: Who are you going to vote for? I've never made any statements about that. I don't care who you vote for, but you should be proud to live in the country you live in.
Do you think there is very little of that nowadays?
I do. I just think that value is disappearing with each new generation.
I spoke to The War and Treaty at Stagecoach about whether they feel welcome as black people in country music. Michael Trotter Jr. told me that “when there are artists on stage yelling about redneck culture, you know they’re not talking to you.” His latest album ends with “The Redneck Song.”
Those songs aren't for everyone. I don't think it has anything to do with the color of your skin. You can be a redneck and not be racist.
Is “redneck” a loaded word?
Stereotypes are stereotypes for a reason. So I'm sure it's a threatening concept for people who want to feel more welcome in a community. I don't blame him at all. I'd love to go to dinner with him and talk to him about it sometime.
Another thing Michael Trotter said is that he and his wife write love songs, but Nashville isn't really in a love song moment.
There aren't many songs that say “I love you,” that's true. I never write songs that say “I love you.” So maybe I had something to do with that.
Why don't you do it?
I'm not good at that. I'm a very emotional guy, but I'm not very affectionate.
“Six Feet Under” is a pretty melodramatic song.
That's my first attempt. I needed to write that song for myself and my wife. But I'm literally sitting here trying to think about the charts and yeah, everything's a breakup now. I think a lot of it reflects society in a weird way. There's a lot of negativity, myself included. I find myself all the time being negative about something.
You're just one of many country stars featured on Post Malone's album. Why has it been so well received by the Nashville community?
Because when he decided to make a country record, he basically moved to Nashville for six months. He immersed himself in the culture of the city. He would go out [the industry-favorite bar] Losers every night and they stay up until 3 a.m. And he wrote with Nashville songwriters, people who grew up in country and who literally know how to speak the language and can guide him through the process.
Hardy performs at April's Stagecoach festival in Indio.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
There's been a lot of talk about how country music received Post compared to how Beyoncé was received. I'll grant you that Beyoncé didn't move to Nashville.
No, he didn't. And I think you can tell the difference. You can do it wherever you want. I'm not the person to judge or set rules or anything like that. But you can tell that Post's record was written by people who live and work in Nashville, which is where country records are made. I'm not criticizing Beyoncé's record at all.
Do you like it “Cowboy Carter“?
That's fine. There are some songs that I like. I don't dislike them. But you can tell that it's someone else's interpretation of country rather than the authentic country that came out of Nashville. Again, I'm not saying that's the wrong way to do it. I'm just saying that there's a difference.
Let's finish with your fashion sense.
I don't know if I have any. I have like 10 T-shirts that I wear on rotation, and I wear shorts and hospital shoes. I guess you could say it's a signature style. But I'm married, I have a very beautiful wife. I don't really care.
Has your wife tried to discourage you from wearing shorts?
Sometimes you might say, “Maybe we'll wear jeans for this function,” but you know I just don't care.
Is the goal of success to say, “I just don’t care”?
Definitely. People always see other people as trendsetters, when I know for a fact that they just put on whatever they find in their closet. Jonah Hill tucking his basketball jersey into his pants… If someone else does that, you're like, “What a weirdo.” Jonah Hill does that and now he's a fashionista.
