Before Hardy was known as the breakout artist who pushed country music into hard rock territory, he was a self-proclaimed redneck from Philadelphia, Mississippi who studied songwriting at Middle Tennessee State University. Since moving to Nashville in 2013, he's written 16 number ones for artists like Morgan Wallen, Blake Shelton, and Dierks Bentley.

In 2018, with the encouragement of producer Joey Moi and his label Big Loud, Hardy started writing songs for himself — and it paid off. He's now a five-time ACM Award winner and two-time CMA Award winner, joining the upper echelon of Big Loud artists that Moi has helped build, alongside Morgan Wallen and Florida Georgia Line.

On today's episode, Leah Rose talks to Hardy about the craft of writing a song that sticks — including what he's learned from studying artists like Eminem. They also get into how AI is showing up in Nashville's writer's rooms, and why Hardy thinks bro country isn't going anywhere.

You can hear a playlist of some of our favorite songs from Hardy HERE.