Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is cost podcast. Mr Hardy, Mr Hardy, Michael Wilson Hardy?
Is this you? Yeah? This is this is he? I
am he? Why go by Hardy? Let's start there because
a lot of people need to understand that, not that
(00:22):
Michael Hardy wouldn't be great, but have you always been
called just Hardy? Yeah? It was kind of a mixed like, um,
most people that I worked with, Uh, it became a
thing after I moved to Nashville. But like most people
just called me Hardy. It just became a thing. It's
I guess it's one of those last names. Uh, in
(00:43):
a way that just is a thing. I don't know
what working for you, Yeah, I guess. So when it
when it came time to kind of make that decision,
somebody a big loud suggested like, hey, what if you
just went by Hardy? Everybody calls you that anyways, and
and I just you know, I thought about it, and
I was like, man, I of that idea. I think
it's cool. You are either in a car right now
(01:03):
or in a location with a really good air conditioning system.
I can hear both. Let me turn it off. It's
keep it on. It's too hot to turn off. The
a C today. I turned it down at least I am.
I'm in a car driving down the road. Can you
hear me? Okay? Though, yeah, what kind of car do
you have? What do you drive? Because you're a mega
songwriter as well, you're you're raking in the money right now,
(01:24):
so I gotta imagine you're I'm thinking Mercedes like a
g Wagon? Am I close? No? Come on, man, I'm
too red that truck. Yeah, I ball went up down
and like half of simple when that ship rolled in.
I've called my business manager and I said, dude, I've
(01:45):
never owned a brand new vehicle in my life, and
I go buy a truck and he said yeah, And
so I went and got a ranch, made a few
modifications to it. Nothing crazy. I'm like super flashy, but
it's it's sharp, as they say it's sharp. So what
(02:05):
was the crappiest vehicle you ever remember driving? Well? By
by the end of my uh truck before this one,
it was a two thousand and six or two thousand
four Silverado and none of the speakers worked. Uh. The
something about the a C didn't work, Like it would
blow air, but it wouldn't blow cold air. So I
(02:28):
think by the end of it. That was by far
the worst because it was in really bad shape by
the time I got I got a hand me down
as my first car. It was a Toyota Corolla and
it was when like rust was like a color that
was stylish in cars. It was like a brown, ugly,
brown rust Toyota. But you know, when you got that
(02:48):
first car, you don't even care what it is. I
was just happy to have wheels, you know what I mean.
Let's talk about one beer. Tell me where this song
came from, because it's a story about a baby, and
it's one that many people have lived. But if you
actually talk about so, I love sort of the honesty
of this song. How did you come up with it? Um?
You know I had the title. Excuse me, I had
(03:09):
the title one beer. Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. Um.
It's probably the air conditioning, the lack of the lack
of air conditioning, because I turned it down. That's my
get it get it pumping again. I like you better
when you're fully fully air conditioned. I like hardy. I
like my hearty to be cool. What I did is
I turned it to max low so that I get
(03:30):
the coolness. But I don't get enough of the blowing here.
It's work stevens Out. Um. So I had this title
one beer, uh in my phone for like ever, and
I think at one point it was one more beer,
and I like went in there and I changed it
to one beer. And I wanted to write a title
called one beer. And it's such a generic title that
(03:52):
I just kept looking at it every time I would write,
I can't looking at it. And I kept looking at it,
and I was just like, man, I just don't want
to write like the regular one beer, Like I just
it's so predictable. And and so I just kind of
started brainstorm and I'm like a story a little bit
like what could I do? You know that's different? And um,
I was listening to a John Prime song called six
(04:15):
o'clock News, and it's basically this long, elaborate story about
this guy, but the chorus is like it's really simple,
but the verses kind of this elaborate, like like chronological
story about this guy. And it really inspired me to
write like a story but make the chorus kind of
about a simple thing. And that's that's kind of where
(04:35):
it started from. So I just thought about something that
I hadn't really ever written about was like you know, um,
not underage, but like pre responsibility age people having a
making a baby. And and so that's just kind of
what I went with. That's kind of where it started. Yeah,
it's so real. So raw, Um, Laura Lynna Devin Dawson
(04:55):
sing with you on this one? And why did you
pick those two? Um? You know, they just fit? You know,
this was obviously one beer was on Hicks tapes, so
this was a while back. But they first they were
friends of mine, and like, I don't know, you know this,
like they just fit the thing for some reason, Like
the subject matter was like a serious thing. And that's
(05:16):
kind of Devin's thing, you know. Um of course with
like you know, everything is black and white and like
like you know, his his subject matters can be a
little serious, which I really like. And and so that
fit him and and um, I don't know, it's something
about like I'm from a small town and and and
and you know, the people getting like pregnant was like
(05:40):
for me, it was like a big deal, like small
town drama. And for some reason I knew that Lauren
was like a like a small town girl and just
a good old girl, and it just I don't know,
it's just that whole aesthetic. She was just the first
person that I thought of. I like, I knew that
she was also familiar with this subject matter, you know
what I mean? Were she and I are cut from
the same cloth, and and um, I just knew that
(06:02):
it would be something that she would be familiar with.
And she could really sing with emotion, you know. Yeah,
she whales on that on, which I love when she
comes in all things. Yeah, absolutely, When does she not
whale though? Such a great singer. I tell her all
the time, like you're one of our top five female vocalists.
I always think like she can just sing anything, make
it sound great. Um, the new project a rock coming soon.
(06:26):
So what's the title? Was it mean? And tell me
a little about the new music. The song itself, it's
an interesting life perspective song. Uh, it's crazy. It's a crazy,
little quirky thought that I had driving down the road
of Like an actual rock plays such a huge part
(06:47):
in like your life in random ways, like your your
you know, like engagement rings and like your tombstone, and
like the roads drive on and like there's so many
times where like an actual rock or rocks play a
huge part in your life. And it was just this
weird little thought that I had and and and I
wrote it down because I was like, that could be
(07:08):
a song if it's written the right way. And so
we basically wrote it where like it's the journey of
someone's life and you're using a rock as like a
device to uh to um as an example of like
starting milestones in someone's life. And I know that that's
crazy and you kind of just have to hear the
(07:29):
song to understand it. But but it talks about your
temb stone, it talks about you know, wedding rings and
when you're a kid, the only thing you're thinking about
just how far you can skip a rock, and like
there's just a lot of different examples of a rock.
And I made it the album title just because the
song itself is just a lot of life in one song,
and the whole record is is uh a lot of
(07:51):
life in the whole record, And it's a really good
synopsis of kind of what you just listened to. We
slapped it at the very end of the record because
it's a very reflective kind of sounding song. And yeah, yeah,
and why did it makes sense for the title of
the whole project to be called that. Um again, you know,
I think it just was a good synopsis of everything.
But also the record sounds kind of like a rock record.
I mean, it's kind of my style and and um,
(08:14):
you know, I think that the cheekiness of that it fits.
You know, there's a lot of stuff that really does
sound like a rock record. And and um, aside from
the fact that that it sums up the record, I
do think that that's definitely part of it. Was just
and it sounds like rock and roll. You mentioned to
Devin Dawson, We talked about him a second ago of
Song of the Year again. Um, you're up for God's
(08:35):
Country at the a c M Awards. So what even
about writing that one with Devon? And then tell me
about Blake recording it? Um, Well, the writing process was
like super easy, and it was it was we were
all really eager to write because it was me and
Devin and Jordan Schmidt. It was our first rite of
the year. Um, so we were all like ready to go,
(08:56):
you know what I mean, We we hadn't we we
everybody usually takes a breakup of Christmas and we had
all gone like two or three weeks without writing a song,
and so we had ideas and we had just melody,
We had everything kind of in the arsenal ready to go,
and um, so yeah, I mean it was just easy.
I throughout the idea and everybody was just throwing outlines
and it was just a really easy ride. It was.
(09:16):
And we wrote it in like an hour. And I
made the joke. I was like, all right, I'll cut
this song, but unless like somebody like Blake Shelton cuts
it within a week, right, And that's exactly what happened. So, um,
Blake got ahold of it. And then did you have
any say after that? For those of us fans listening
who men that know how the process works. Um, so
(09:38):
someone can hear a song like a big star like
Blake and say hey, I want to record that, and
then they get it and it's kind of theirs then right, Yeah,
I mean I had to say, and my stay was absolutely, Um,
I had never had a Blake cut, or I maybe
had had a few that he had cut that hadn't
been released yet, but um, but uh, I mean he
(10:00):
seen when we got worried back that he was like,
he loves it, he wants to single this right now.
We were like, well, yeah, hell yeah, please do that,
and um yeah, I mean there was no question at
all that I was so excited to hear that that
I wasn't even thinking about myself at all. And I
think that if if if I would have released it,
I don't think it would have had the same impact.
(10:21):
I think it was kind of something so different for
Blake and something really fresh for him that that shock
value and that like just the different kind of sound
that he was going for their helped make that song
be as big as it is. And I'm I'm I
really think I made the right decision for letting him
have it, uh, because I really think that that was
the difference, is that it was so different for him
(10:42):
that it were people really reacted to it. You're also
up for a Songwriter of the Year, and it's true
that you you have a degree in songwriting, right, that
is correct, which sounds crazy to me. How did that
happen and why do you pursue songwriting as a as
your college degree. When I decided to move up here,
um from Mississippi, that was like my parents were like,
(11:06):
you need to go to college at least try to
and I was like okay, And so I found out
that I didn't have good enough grades to get into
Belmont like my sister, but I found out that um
that Middle Tennessee State University had a songwriting major, and
so I just went for it. And um, you know, honestly,
(11:26):
there was only like two classes on like the craft,
and I've I've always been a firm believer and like,
you can't really teach somebody that if they have like
a poetic voice, it's just something that they have, you know. Um,
So I feel like that class. Sorry if anybody that
taught me as listening, but I felt like that was
a little bit kind of useless. But what I really
(11:49):
really because only because I feel like your craft is
something you you have to do on your own and
figure out on your own and really develop on your own.
And like, you know, everybody knows that you're supposed to
rhyde the end of the verse and that the chorus
comes after the verse and all that. But um, I
learned a lot about the industry, um, you know, and
how publishing works and even how record deals work and
stuff like that. So it really did help my knowledge
(12:11):
of um of how the industry worked, which was a
really good, like sort of crash course for um. When I, then,
you know, actually got involved in the industry, I could
somewhat speak the language, and I was already familiar with
that stuff, so it really helped in that in that way.
Have you ever had an unusual like song idea pop
in your head, Like what's been the most unusual way
that's happened, or maybe the strangest location where you've got
(12:33):
an idea and you're like it's just odd, anything like that. Um, yeah,
you know kind of Uh. I don't know if this
is really unusual. But Callie, my girlfriend, and I were
in um, we were in Clearwater Beach, Florida on vacation
one time, and we're we're all, you know, we're like
best friends, so we're always like picking out each other
and just saying funny stuff. And I just said, we'll fine.
Then I don't want to be your boyfriend anymore. And
(12:55):
she was like, well, that better mean because you want
to be my husband. And so that became the idea
for the song I just put out called boyfriend, and
it was like out of the blue, and instead of
maybeing like, oh, of course, babe, I looked at it
and I was like, oh my god, that's such a good,
solid idea. So that's a that's a good one that
comes to mind. For sure. We'll I hope get to
(13:17):
see it soon and next time. I think the last
time I saw you may have been California where we're
in like a golf cart handing out a lot more
than one one beer to a bunch of festival people.
Uh yeah, we were handing out the peanut butter shot.
That's oh yeah, the peanut butter shot. I forgot about
those and there was like there was like a yetti
or something we held over our heads for no apparent reason.
(13:38):
I don't think, yes, yes, that was I missed those times,
don't you. It's absolutely man, I really dare all right,
We'll hope to see you soon. Thanks for the time today.
Turn the A C back on full blast and we'll uh,
we'll catch you soon, dude. Take care all right, Thanks Carty,
good to talk. Thanks for listening to Cody cast. Follow
(13:58):
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at n A M eight Central on CMT bye for now.