Heading into the 4th of July, Katie Neal got to sit down with one of our favorite fireworks, HARDY, who has carved out his own lane in Country music and songwriting since first exploding onto the scene. The GRAMMY-nominated singer is set to embark on a trip to Japan with his wife, his longest time away from his 15-month-old daughter, Rosie. While with Katie, he can’t stop gushing about how smart and sweet his little girl is, surprising himself with the way she has changed him. When asked what surprised him about fatherhood, HARDY says, “I guess in a way this might sound weird, but how gentle and delicate I want to be with her.” “Not that I ever imagined it any other way, but like, there's just something about a little girl,” he adds. “I'm looking at these guitars, all my guitars are banged up, all of my stuff is, I'm just rough on my stuff, and it's something about her that it's just, it's just completely different. I've never been that kind of person to be very gentle or to take things slowly or to be patient with things, and it's just, it's like second nature for me for sure.” The conversation shifts to a mysterious, under-wraps film project involving actor Glen Powell, that HARDY is a part of, filming some scenes recently at CMA Fest. “I got to sit in the room and like he, I don't think this is giving too much away. He's already been talking about it, but like he's immersed himself into the culture. It reminds me of what Post Malone did where he like, he didn't just come here and write with all the big people. He like wanted to write with the songwriters and learn all that, and Glenn really like came to town and kind of, more or less, I guess like method acting, he wants to learn about the town to play the better character.” HARDY would be down to do more acting, but he needs to play himself. “Certain people just play themselves,” he notes, citing actors like Vince Vaughn. “I feel like that's the only way I can do it because I've thought about like, how hard it would be for Johnny Depp to become a completely different person and how good like Jared Leto, some of these people are just great at becoming a different person. There's no way I could do that I don't think.” The real passion for HARDY still lies in songwriting, sharing that he’s having a real “songwriter moment,” including his work on the all-star single, “McArthur,” featuring Tim McGraw, Eric Church, and Morgan Wallen. "It's two different channels of fulfillment too,” he says. “I started a publishing company with some members of my family... we're signing people and then like people that have never had hits and they're like writing hits and we're writing hits together and it's really cool, it's really special." To hear more about a few of those hits and family life with HARDY, check out the full 'Superstar Power Hour' interview above.
