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“Craziest Ride Of My Life” – The Wild Story Behind How Hardy Wrote One Of Blake Shelton’s Biggest Hits
An unprecedented climb to the top of the charts.
Regardless of your thoughts on the quality and style of his output, there’s absolutely no denying that Hardy has quickly become one of the most prolific songwriters in all of Nashville over the past decade. Of course, you have all of his Morgan Wallen hits, such as “Up Down,” “Sand in My Boots,” “More Than My Hometown,” “7 Summers” and “I’m A Little Crazy.”
However, he’s also written a plethora of other smash hits for pop country artists, ranging from Florida Georgia Line’s “Simple,” Chris Lane’s infamous “I Don’t Know About You” and Cole Swindell’s “Single Saturday Night” to Blake Shelton and Trace Adkins’ “Hell Right,” Cody Johnson’s “How Do You Sleep At Night?” and Post Malone and Luke Combs’ “Missin’ You Like This.”
Though Wallen’s “More Than My Hometown” is by far his most successful song to date, currently sitting at an 8x platinum status along with a staggering 701 million streams on Spotify alone, the track that truly put the Mississippi native on the map was none other than Blake Shelton’s 2019 smash hit, “God’s Country.”
Obviously, “God’s Country” was written by Hardy along with Devin Dawson and Jordan Schmidt back in January of 2019. Just two months later, it would be released by Shelton to an incredible amount of success. Going #1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart on May 25th, the track would go on to win Single of the Year at both the 2019 CMA Awards and the 2020 ACM Awards. Additionally, it would net the “Austin” singer a Grammy nomination for Best Country Solo Performance along with a 4x platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
Last month, Hardy made an appearance at the Country Music Hall of Fame during a Songwriter Session where he discussed multiple different tracks he’s written for both himself and other artists. In between performances of “Signed Sober You,” “Sand In My Boots” and “Jesus Loves You,” the Mississippi native took some time to discuss how much of an impact “God’s Country” had on his career and its incredibly fast rise to the top of the charts.
The “One Beer” singer began by recalling that it was actually the first song he wrote in 2019, before noting it was claimed by Shelton just two days after its completion and took just 15 weeks in total to go #1 after writing.
“January… let’s call it 12th of 2019, the first song I wrote that year with Devin Dawson and Jordan Schmidt. We wrote this song; it was a really cool song… I think we wrote the song on a Tuesday. I get a call on Thursday that my publisher had sent this song to a guy named Scott Hendricks who produces Blake Shelton, And he said Blake Shelton wants to record this song.
We wrote it on a Tuesday. Blake heard it and decided to cut it on a Thursday. And if I’m not mistaken, on the next Monday or Tuesday, they recorded the song. And if I’m not mistaken, three weeks later, it was at radio. And if I’m not mistaken, 12 weeks later, it was at #1.”
Looking into “God’s Country’s” timeline, Hardy isn’t too far off in his recollection. As he claims, it was first written on January 12, 2019. Just two and a half months later, it was released as a single on March 29, 2019. And just two months later, it went #1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart on May 25, 2019.
If you do the math, that’s around 19 weeks from the song’s inception to topping the charts. Though he subtracted about a month or so at 15 weeks (and you can’t really blame him, considering he was talking off the cuff), either way, it’s still nothing short of unprecedented.
Before performing the song, Hardy would finish by reflecting on how much the song meant to him in terms of his career before thanking Shelton for taking the chance on the song.
“It was the craziest ride of my life. That song was the start of helping contribute to a lot of awards that I won. It’s a song that I still play in my set. I’m extremely thankful for Blake for giving this song a chance. I truly don’t think, to this day, he has any idea how much this song played a huge part in not only my songwriting career, but even bigger than that, my artist career. He has just let me attach this song to my repertoire, as he has done with his. I’m extremely thankful for it.”
Fire up “God’s Country” before you go.
And Hardy’s solo acoustic version:
Hardy Tour Dates
February 5 – Oshawa, Ontario – Tribute Communities Centre °*
February 6 – Hamilton, Ontario – TD Coliseum °*
February 7 – London, Ontario – Canada Life Place °*
February 11 – Winnipeg, Manitoba – Canada Life Center °*
February 12 – Saskatoon, Saskatchewan – SaskTel Centre °*
February 13 – Edmonton, Alberta – Rogers Place °*
February 19 – Calgary, Alberta – Scotiabank Saddledome °*
February 20 – Penticton, British Columbia- South Okanagan Events Centre °*
February 21 – Abbotsford, British Columbia – Abbotsford Centre °*
March 19 – Green Bay, Wisconsin – The Resch Center °*
March 20 – Moline, Illinois – Vibrant Arena °*
March 21 – Omaha, Nebraska – CHI Health Center Omaha °*
March 26 – Allentown, Pennsylvania- PPL Center °*
March 27 – Charleston, West Virginia – Charleston Coliseum °*
March 28 – Evansville, Indiana – Ford Center °*
April 9 – Knoxville, Tennessee – Thompson-Boling Arena x*
April 10 – Tupelo, Mississippi – Cadence Bank Arena x*
April 17-18 – Durant, Oklahoma – Choctaw Grand Theater *
April 23 – Jacksonville. Florida – VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena x*
April 24 – Charleston, South Carolina – Credit One Stadium x*
April 25 – Orlando, Florida – Kia Center x*
May 21 – Cincinnati, Ohio – Riverbend Music Center ~*
May 22 – Huntsville, Alabama – The Orion Amphitheater ~*
May 23 – Orange Beach, Alabama – The Wharf Amphitheater ~*
May 28 – Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio – Blossom Music Center ~*
May 29 – Darien Center, New York – Darien Lake Amphitheater ~*
May 30 – Bethel, New York – Bethel Woods Center for the Arts ~*
June 4 – Rogers, Arkansas – Walmart Arkansas Music Pavilion °*
June 5 – St. Louis, Missouri – Hollywood Casino Amphitheater °*
June 6 – Noblesville, Indiana – Ruoff Music Center °*
June 11 – Columbia, Maryland – Merriweather Post Pavilion ~*
June 12 – Virginia Beach, Virginia – Veterans United Home Loans ~*
June 13 – Raleigh, North Carolina – Costal Credit Union Music Park ~*
June 25 – Gilford, New Hampshire – BankNH Pavilion #*
June 26 – Mansfield, Massachusetts – Xfinity Center #*
June 27 – Camden, New Jersey – Freedom Mortgage Pavilion #*
August 20 – Lubbock, Texas – Cooks Garage =*
August 21 – New Braunfels, Texas – Whitewater Amphitheater *
° – Cameron Whitcomb
* – McCoy Moore
x – Mitchell Tenpenny
~ – Tucker Wetmore
# – Muscadine Bloodline
= – Jake WorthingtonThe post “Craziest Ride Of My Life” – The Wild Story Behind How Hardy Wrote One Of Blake Shelton’s Biggest Hits first appeared on Whiskey Riff.
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