Hardy Co-Hosts 4/15-16

This week, Lon’s co-host is Hardy, who has a Top 5 song with Lainey Wilson: “Wait In The Truck.” He just received seven nominations from the Academy of Country Music, including Song, Musical Event, and Video of the Year for Wait in The Truck.

Hardy told Lon that “Wait In The Truck” began in a fairly simple way: “I was in Atlanta, and my girlfriend was at a party, and said a guy made a pass at her.  So I was fired up about it, and thought if it had gotten any worse, I’d have found out where he lived, and told my girlfriend to wait in the truck.  We decided to make a really cool story about it. The song wrote itself.”

Lon asked, did it get heavier than you intended? “Yes definitely. In the second verse when we murder the guy, and say how we did it, I didn’t think we were gonna do that at the start.  By then I knew I was gonna cut the song. I said, if I’m doin’ it, we’re killin’ the guy.”

The performance on last fall’s CMA Awards has an even more amazing story: “I originally was going to miss the CMAs because I got married the week before, and we were going on our honeymoon.  Then I found out I won Songwriter of the Year, so we decided to stay.  The CMAs were the next day, so we were able to do the song on the show.”

When did you leave for your honeymoon? “We left the night of the CMAs, flew to LA, and then to Thailand. She had never been, we like Thai food, and there was nothing else, it was always Thailand.  There were just two seats left on the plane, but it all worked out.”

Most of Morgan Wallen’s hit songs were written with Hardy.  He told Lon they’ve known each other a long time: “We came up in the trenches together.  His first #1, ‘Up Down,’ was my first #1 as a songwriter. I first wrote with him in the spring of 2017.  Since then, we’ve just been like brothers ever since.”

Hardy sings Wait In The Truck with Lainey Wilson.  As it turns out, Lainey’s solo song, Heart Like a Truck, is the #1 song this week.  Hardy remembers how he picked Lainey for his duet partner: We met on Morgan’s first club tour.  She’s one of the most authentic artists in Nashville.  She is the same on and off the stage. When she sings, I believe everything she says.  I knew if she sang it with conviction, people would believe it.  I knew she was gonna crush it, and she did.”

Hardy also has great stories this week about Blake Shelton, Sam Hunt, Dierks Bentley, Jason Aldean, and Florida Georgia Line.

NEXT WEEK: Brett Young

Tags: featured

Category: CO-HOST