HARDY has been straddling the rock and country worlds in his career, with hits in both genres. He sat in on the "Power Hour" podcast recently with host Matt Pinfield to talk about having a foot in both worlds.
While straddling the fence between rock and pop has been a fairly common occurrence over the decades, living in both the rock and country worlds is a relatively new phenomenon, with the Zac Brown Band, Jelly Roll, and now Hardy pulling it off effectively. On the podcast, the country/rock singer explained that he grew up a rock fan, until he heard Eric Church when he was a teenager.
"As far as starting to learn about country music and love country music, it probably started when I was 17 or 18 years old and Eric Church put a record out called 'Chief,' which was obviously one of his biggest records. And he had a song on that record called 'Homeboy,' and I was driving to class one day and I heard that song on the radio for the first time and it just sent kind of a chill up my spine, because it was a very good marriage between rock and roll and country and I had never heard it been represented like that. I said, 'Ok, if that is country music right now today, then I love country music and I can do that. I want to do that.' So that was like this really big cornerstone moment for me."