Why Does Hardy Often Tackle Death In His Songwriting? Because It’s The One Thing We All Have In Common

It’s sad, but true.

This week, Hardy stopped by Katie & Company to talk about his forthcoming album Country! Country! that’s dropping this Friday, September 26th. He has already released “Bro Country” with Ernest, and this past Friday, dropped a tear jerker called “Dog Years” that will have you in your feelings if you’ve ever lost a pet and know what that feels like.

But Katie pointed out that mortality, and in turn death, is a big theme on the album, and Hardy admitted that it’s always been a big topic in his music, because he feels like it’s the one thing in life that everyone will face and has to grapple with.

It’s obviously pretty dark subject matter in many ways, but as he explained, with how divided people are in this day and age, death is the one thing that we all have in common so it’s universally relatable. He joked that even taxes are not on everyone’s radar, and as Hardy put it “the sky is not blue to some people” but this topic seems to get to everyone:

“The very last song on the record is ‘Everybody Does,’ and it kind of addresses that. But I mean, if I’m being honest, I got a lot of comments from any angle that you could think of last year after ‘Six Feet Under’ came out.

And people were just like, ‘Man, you got a lot of songs about dying.’ And I always have, but I’ve just always thought like, in a world where everybody’s just always… nobody can agree on anything. The sky is not blue to some people. and, you know, it’s like people say death and taxes, but in reality, some people don’t even pay their taxes.

But the only thing we have in common is death, and if that’s if that’s a theme that I wanna write about just to bring people together and make sure everybody you know in the room relates to one thing, then so be it.”

It’s pretty sad to look at the world and think that’s the one thing we all have in common, but it’s true, and Hardy certainly isn’t shying away from tough subject like this and it sounds like we’re going to be hearing about it on this lengthy 20-song record.

The line that stood out to me in his explanation was when he pointed out how there truly are people who will argue that the sky isn’t blue, and I’m sure some of the songs will have political undertones as Hardy’s been pretty outspoken on his beliefs. He recently went viral with a video following the assassination of Charlie Kirk and how he feels like this country is heading in the wrong direction in terms of the volatility and divisiveness between so many people:

@haileyp0308 In Hardy’s words “it’s fucking bull shit” #hardy #charliekirk ♬ original sound – Hailey

Hardy is an incredibly talented writer, and I’m looking forward to hearing all the new music because it sounds like it’s going to be pretty heavy and introspective in many ways, and I always appreciate that from a mainstream artist like Hardy.

You can check out the full tracklist below. There is also a duet with Stephen Wilson, Jr., in addition to the Ernest collab.

COUNTRY! COUNTRY! Tracklist:

1. Country Country
2. Favorite Country Song
3. Bro Country (with ERNEST)
4. Luckiest Man Alive
5. Car That Drove You Away
6. Girl With A Gun
7. Buck On The Wall
8. I’d Go Crazy Too
9. Take The Country And Run
10. Goodbye
11. Bedroom In The Sky (with Stephen Wilson Jr.)
12. Bottomland
13. Who Don’t
14. Country In Me
15. Gun To My Head
16. Keep It Country
17. Y’all Need Jesus
18. Dog Years
19. We’re All Gonna Die
20. Everybody Does

“Dog Years”

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