Hardy
Broken Record with Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam and Justin Richmond
Pushkin Industries
4.5 • 4.3K Ratings
🗓️ 26 May 2026
⏱️ 46 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Before Hardy was known as the breakout artist who pushed country music into hard rock territory, he was a self-proclaimed redneck from Philadelphia, Mississippi who studied songwriting at Middle Tennessee State University. Since moving to Nashville in 2013, he's written 22 number ones for artists like Morgan Wallen, Blake Shelton, and Dierks Bentley.
In 2018, with the encouragement of producer Joey Moi and his label Big Loud, Hardy started writing songs for himself — and it paid off. He's now a five-time ACM Award winner and two-time CMA Award winner, joining the upper echelon of Big Loud artists that Moi has helped build, alongside Morgan Wallen and Florida Georgia Line.
On today's episode, Leah Rose talks to Hardy about the craft of writing a song that sticks — including what he's learned from studying artists like Eminem. They also get into how AI is showing up in Nashville's writer's rooms, and why Hardy thinks bro country isn't going anywhere.
You can hear a playlist of some of our favorite songs from Hardy HERE.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Pushkin. |
| 0:10.8 | Before Hardy was known as the breakout artist who pushed country music into hard rock territory, |
| 0:15.2 | he was a self-proclaimed redneck from Philadelphia, Mississippi, who studied songwriting |
| 0:19.8 | at Middle Tennessee State |
| 0:21.1 | University. Since moving to Nashville in 2013, he's written 16 number ones for artists like |
| 0:27.1 | Morgan Wallin, Blake Shelton, and Dirk's Bentley. In 2018, with the encouragement of producer |
| 0:32.6 | Joey Moy and his label Big Loud, Hardy started writing songs for himself, and it paid off. |
| 0:39.2 | He's now a five-time ACM award winner and a two-time CMA award winner, |
| 0:43.5 | joining the upper echelon of Big Loud artists that Moy has helped build alongside Morgan |
| 0:47.7 | Wallin and Florida Georgian line. On today's episode, Leah Rose talks to Hardy about the craft |
| 0:52.7 | of writing a song that sticks, including what he's learned from studying artists like Eminem. |
| 0:57.4 | They also get into how AI showing up in Nashville writers' rooms and why Hardy thinks BroCountry isn't going anywhere anytime soon. |
| 1:07.0 | This is Broken Record. Real musicians, real conversations. |
| 1:14.8 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 1:17.7 | Guaranteed human. |
| 1:20.4 | Here's Leah Rose with Hardy. |
| 1:22.3 | Head over to YouTube.com slash broken record podcast if you want to see the video. |
| 1:44.3 | Brad Paisley has the, well, I'm going to miss her. You know, the song about, she says if, you know, it's like if you, if you go fishing today, we're over. And then he just says, I'm going to miss her. I'm like, that's like some shit I would do. You know what I mean? Especially as a teenager. |
| 1:47.3 | And so I started, that's when I started getting into country. |
| 1:50.3 | It was just when it kind of started just, the lyrics got a little more clever, |
| 1:53.2 | and it just appealed to, like, people that grew up country. |
| 1:55.7 | So is the bro-country era like that's over? |
... |
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