HARDY was once solely well-regarded as the songwriter behind Blake Shelton’s 2019-released ACM and CMA Single of the Year “God’s Country” and Florida Georgia Line’s 2018 hit “Simple.” However, as the calendar turns to 2021, he’s a CMA New Male Artist of the Year and Music Event of the Year-nominated artist. Most notably, his 2020 single “One Beer” (featuring Lauren Alaina and Devin Dawson) reached the top of Billboard’s Hot Country Singles chart. As the developing star noted in Forbes recently, “I’m just really thankful that I feel accepted [by the country] community, and hopefully that it’s the start to a long relationship.”
Big Loud partner and producer Joey Moi offered to produce his debut album, after signing him as an artist in October 2018. Regarding this next step in his career, the successful songwriter notes that he “would have been a fool” to not take the opportunity.
“I would lay in bed when I was a little kid, and I would imagine myself being a singer and singing songs that I had written,” HARDY recalls. Since he was a teenager, he’s been writing songs and signed a publishing deal with BMI at 24.
However, it wasn’t until he was a full decade into working in the industry that his efforts yielded success. In the summer of 2019, after two years as a touring opener for Florida Georgia Line, he notes, “everything just started happening, and I started getting cuts left and right.” Comfort in his career choice arrived soon thereafter. “I think that’s when I knew that I was going to be all right,” he says.