Country
Page: 59
Post Malone, a Grammy-nominated artist and purveyor of six No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 hits including his recent six-week chart leader “I Had Some Help” (featuring Morgan Wallen), teamed with Bud Light to throw an intimate-yet-rowdy Nashville party Tuesday (July 16) at Music City’s Marathon Music Works, where he previewed some songs from his upcoming country project, F-1 Trillion, which releases Aug. 16.
Posty delivered an evening of stories and songs that was dubbed “A Night in Nashville.” Clad in a ball cap, long-sleeve shirt and jeans, he sailed through a mix of hits such as “Sunflower” and “Circles,” but he also had some help in previewing some new songs from Blake Shelton, country-rock purveyor Hardy, country traditionalist Joe Nichols and Americana-bluegrass iconoclast Sierra Ferrell.
Trending on Billboard
Over the past several years, Post has tilted at his passion for country, including posting covers of country classics, making a top-notch appearance at country music festival Stagecoach earlier this year, and his earnest, engaging performance at the ACM Awards in May. His warm, honeyed voice leans squarely in a more traditional, ’80s and ’90s country-inspired lane and his genuine passion for the genre seems to have garnered Post plenty of support from his fellow artists.
“Cheers, motherf–kers!” Posty said, uttering an oft-repeated phrase throughout the evening, prompting the crowd to raise their cans of Bud Light high in the air.
Shelton, a 28-time Country Airplay chart-leader, joined Post for their new track “Pour Me a Drink.” Notably, Shelton’s wife, Gwen Stefani, was also in attendance, watching the show from just offstage.
“He’s a good buddy of mine and a really sweet man, and one of the most talented people I’ve had the honor of knowing,” Post Malone said, welcoming Shelton on stage.
Post Malone and Sierra Ferrell perform onstage for Bud Light’s “A Night In Nashville” concert at Marathon Music Works on July 16, 2024 in Nashville.
Jason Kempin/Getty Images for Bud Light
“It’s a Post Malone world we’re living in!” Shelton said, with Post later teaming with the country star to perform the former Voice coach’s 2004 multi-week No. 1 Country Airplay hit “Some Beach.”
“Oh my god, nobody’s going to remember this song!” Shelton said, though the crowd swiftly proved him wrong, singing along passionately to the tune, with many pumping their fists at the tune’s signature turn of a phrase.
Calling her “possibly the best singer I’ve ever heard in my entire life,” he welcomed Ferrell on stage to offer up superb harmonies on “Never Love You Again,” the song Post previously performed solo on the ACM Awards in May. They then gave a rousing, light-hearted performance of the Johnny Cash/June Carter Cash hit “Jackson.”
Hardy joined Post Malone onstage to debut a new song, “Would You Hide My Gun,” followed by a rollicking singalong to the late Joe Diffie’s “Prop Me Up Beside the Jukebox (If I Die).” The two previously honored Diffie at last year’s CMA Awards, when they teamed with Wallen to perform Diffie’s “Pickup Man.”
Post went on to recall recalled how, in classic Nashville fashion, he first met Hardy and Wallen at Nashville haunt Loser’s before their CMA collaboration. Later in the show, Nichols teamed with Post for a rendition of the former’s 2002 song “Brokenheartsville.”
Post Malone and HARDY perform onstage for Bud Light’s “A Night In Nashville” concert at Marathon Music Works on July 16, 2024 in Nashville.
Jason Kempin/Getty Images for Bud Light
But Post had more new music for the crowd as well. He performed a stirring new song titled “Yours,” which he said was inspired by his 2-year-old daughter and the thought that though she might one day choose to walk down the aisle and get married, she’ll always have her father’s heart.
He also thanked the crowd of fans for their faith in his music, noting he faced some harsh criticism early in his career.
“They called me a one-hit wonder,” he said. “Thank you to each of you tonight for your love and support–it’s been 10 f–king years,” he said, eliciting cheers from the audience before he offered the crowd his own bit of encouragement. “There may be people who feel not as loved as they are — you are loved more than you f–king know. I love you so much and there are so many people who love you. Do whatever you want to do in this life and world, and trust yourself.”
He then launched into a solo rendition of his 2017 hit Quavo collab “Congratulations.”
Post ended the evening with “I Had Some Help,” his six-week Hot 100-topping collaboration with Wallen. While the “Last Night” singer was not in attendance, Post had plenty of help from the packed audience at Marathon Music Works, who raised Bud Light cans high, cheered, swayed and sang along with every word.
He repaid the help in kind, ending the show by jumping down off the stage to shake hands, trade hugs and take pictures with several people in the front row. It’s the kind of intentionality in making direct, one-on-one fan connections that have, over the years, helped accelerate and sustain careers of artists such as Garth Brooks, a pre-pop-ascendant Taylor Swift and Lainey Wilson, the reigning ACM and CMA entertainer of the year.
In June, Post Malone did another intimate Nashville show, at the Bluebird Cafe. That show was geared toward Nashville’s music industry, welcoming top songwriter Ashley Gorley, Wilson and guest Ernest. With both country music fans and within the Nashville industry, Malone seems intent on putting in the work and making the connections.
Bud Light will also be the official beer sponsor of Post Malone’s upcoming F-1 Trillion tour this fall, which launches in September and runs through October, ending with a show at Nashville’s Nissan Stadium on Oct. 19.
Ingrid Andress is leveling with her fan base after going viral Monday (July 15) for her televised performance of the national anthem at the Home Run Derby in Arlington, Texas, revealing in a statement posted the following day that she was drunk on the field and plans to voluntarily seek rehab treatment. “I’m not gonna […]
Life is psychologically challenging in 2024.
The planet gets hotter by the month, the technology that was supposed to improve lives stalls or breaks down, artificial intelligence poses a threat to future employment and there’s a chance democracy could crumble before the United States turns 250. It’s no wonder that one in six American adults are currently battling depression, according to a 2023 Gallup poll. That figure is even higher among women, minorities and people younger than 45.
It’s almost as if the marketplace had been primed for Jelly Roll. His country singles thus far – “Son of a Sinner,” “Need a Favor,” “Halfway to Hell” and the Lainey Wilson collaboration “Save Me” – have captured souls in battles with darkness. He extends that string with “I Am Not Okay,” released by Stoney Creek to country radio via PlayMPE on June 11.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
It’s “real music for real people with real problems,” Jelly Roll says. “That struggle is something that a lot of my music touches on. It’s something I am honest about with my own life and something that’s for anyone who is going through that.”
Trending on Billboard
“I Am Not Okay” reflects both real-life anxieties and the audacity of optimism. Songwriters Ashley Gorley (“Bulletproof,” “I Had Some Help”) and Casey Brown (“Blue Tacoma,” “Girl In Mine”) booked flights to meet Jelly Roll and fellow writer Taylor Phillips (“Hurricane,” “World On Fire”) on tour in North Carolina last fall, but a series of airline issues delayed their commute by eight hours and took them to a different airport. They rented a car in Charlotte and drove four more hours.
Despite their frustrations, the group composed two or three songs prior to the Oct. 5 show in Wilmington, a concert that proved particularly inspirational.
“I found myself multiple times during the show kind of looking at the crowd to see the reaction of these people that were soaking in this music,” Phillips remembers. “And as you look amongst this crowd, you see people crying, you see people rejoicing, and you see people putting their hands in the air.”
Later, as the bus rolled out for Greensboro, Phillips told Jelly Roll the concert was like going to church. The singer noted that he was essentially making it “okay for people to not be okay.” That corresponded with a title Gorley had logged in his phone, “I Am Not Okay,” and he sat down at a piano, singing the title as a melody and progression began to unfold. He created a cautiously ascendant bassline, with the piece moving instinctively from darker chords into brighter triads.
[embedded content]
“I started all the phrases with the six-minor chord, but then I always ended up on a major chord,” Gorley says. “Not that I was thinking about that. If I was smart, I’d be like, ‘Oh, I did it on purpose.’ But it just sounded like that.”
Gorley was psyched to explore the topic – he’d gone on the trip hoping they could write something that would bring attention to depression, a topic that’s important to him and to Phillips, who lost a friend, Brian Kindle, to suicide on Christmas Eve in 2020. (Phillips now does an annual benefit in Kindle’s honor). The issue resonates with people in every walk of life.
“Everybody has to go through something,” Phillips says, “whether you have a billion dollars in your bank account, or if you got zero dollars in your bank account.”
The “I Am Not Okay” text emerged in linear fashion, each line building on the previous one. Additionally, the song’s individual sections gave a big-picture view of the protagonist’s battle. He starts in verse one mired in total depression. The chorus acknowledges the issue’s prevalence – “I know I can’t be the only one” – and ultimately settles into a quiet confidence: “I’m not okay/ But it’s all gonna be alright.”
Verse two has the character vacillating between progress and backsliding, confessing that some days he can barely get out of bed.
“I’ve been blessed beyond belief,” Gorley says, relating the message to his own life, “But some days, I’m still like, ‘Oh, shoot, this is gonna be rough.’ You know, I lay there, and everybody in the room feels the same. Anybody around the world feels the same, if we’re honest about it.”
By the time “Not Okay” hits the bridge, the singer envisions an afterlife when the struggle is over. It gives some motivation to keep improving, though it’s unclear if the protagonist will ever crawl out of the emotional hole completely.
“If you put too much of a bow on it, it doesn’t feel like an authentic Jelly song,” Brown says. “There’s a really cool thing that all of his songs do, where it kind of meets you in the middle of hurting, and sits there with you and encourages you in a way that doesn’t feel forced. I think he’s a really unique voice that can kind of approach songs from that way.”
Gorley had to leave early the next morning for a family commitment, so he laid down a piano track and sang a rough vocal for the demo. Brown got Jelly Roll to redo the vocal the next day, but left it in that simple form for producer Zach Crowell (Sam Hunt, Dustin Lynch).
“I didn’t really want to do a ton to it,” Brown says. “It felt like a really special way to present the song and just kind of put it in his camp and let Zach kind of treat it however he wanted to.”
“I Am Not Okay” was the first song recorded for the next album at Saxman Studios, owned by session drummer Grady Saxman. Crowell’s primary goal was to inject more grit into the performance than he heard in the demo. “It had a happier feel, a softer feel,” Crowell says. “When we went to record it, we tried to find a different vibe, just to put it a little more in Jelly Roll land and have a little more of a motion to it.”
Session musician Nathan Keeterle translated the demo’s piano intro on a guitar with a rubber bridge – it sounds a tad like the resonator guitar in the intro of Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain.” Combined with scrape-y, ethereal electric guitar and pedal steel sounds, the track has a mysterious, ominous tone, eventually giving way to a subtle spiritual current created by a string section led by arranger David Davidson, who overdubbed a quartet multiple times.
“It’s probably 100 tracks of strings, just mixed real low,” Crowell says. “I wanted strings on it, just for the emotion of it. But I didn’t want it to get too triumphant and too dramatic.”
During the final vocal session, Jelly Roll tinkered with several small lyrics – “I’m,” “it’s,” “we’re” – at the end of the chorus. As a result, the song takes on a wider meaning as the personal “I’m not okay/But it’s all gonna be alright” becomes more cultural the second time around: “It’s not okay/But we’re all gonna be alright.”
“It felt like the message we wanted to leave people with,” Jelly Roll says.
His unconventional vocal style – frequently loud and a little raspy at the height of a phrase, trailing off at the end with little diaphragmatic support – was perfect for the song. “It’s not a secret that I am not a classically trained vocalist,” he says. “When I sing, I sing what I feel, what I felt, and I know what it feels like to be in that moment and know what it feels like to have fans tell you what they are going through. I pull from that, and that’s what you hear.”
Stoney Creek had several options for the first single from the next album, but settled on “I Am Not Okay” because of its emotional heft. It currently sits at No. 14 on the Hot Country Songs chart dated July 20, and rises to No. 19 on the corresponding Country Airplay list. Clearly, the world is responding to the much-too-familiar battle with depression that “Not Okay” depicts.
“It’s not a linear path or cure-all, and in the case of addiction, it’s an active choice each moment and still a back and forth,” Jelly Roll says. “In those moments where you’re saying or feeling ‘I am not okay,’ it’s that push and pull of that moment we wanted to capture.”
Austin City Limits will kick off its 50th anniversary year by honoring Garth Brooks for its 10th anniversary Hall of Fame celebration.
Brooks and his band will perform Sept. 5 at ACL Live at the Moody Theater in Austin, Texas. Brooks’ induction from the Hall of Fame ceremony will air as an hourlong broadcast of Austin City Limits premiering Sept. 28 on PBS. Tickets for the event go on sale Aug. 2. The golden anniversary celebration will last through 2025.
The country superstar is no stranger to Austin City Limits. He appeared twice during the 25th anniversary year to open and close the season and first appeared on the program in 1990, at the beginning of his career.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
“To be part of anything Austin City Limits is and always has been an honor,” Brooks said in a statement. “I am humbled and grateful to not only be a part of the 50th Anniversary, but to be inducted into the ACL Hall of Fame is over the top.”
Trending on Billboard
Austin City Limits’ 10th annual Hall of Fame Honors is produced by Austin PBS and proceeds benefit the public television station.
Austin City Limits, which taped its pilot episode on Oct. 17, 1974, premiered on PBS in 1975. Since its inception in 2014, the ACL Hall of Fame has honored artists who have played a pivotal role in the music series’ half-century. The inaugural awards in 2014 honored Willie Nelson and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Brooks’ wife, Trisha Yearwood was honored at the 9th annual Hall of Fame Honors last September.
Brooks is in the second year of his residency at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. The run currently concludes Dec. 8. He also recently released the 777 Jackpot boxed set, a 7-CD collection of new and previously released material that commemorates his Caesars Palace stint. The $40 set, available through Ticketmaster, includes 77 songs and a custom 88-pagebook full of photos. Earlier this year, Brooks opened his new bar on Lower Broadway in Nashville, Friends in Low Places Bar & Honky-Tonk.
In other Brooks’ news, he plans to wrap up his weekly Monday series, “Inside Studio G,” by the end of the year. The chat with fans, which originally aired on Facebook and SiriusXM, and now airs on his website and The Garth Channel on TuneIn, launched eight years ago this month. “I think we’re going to put an end to Inside Studio G this year, probably sometime around Christmas,” he announced Monday (July 15), giving no reason for the end.
The Academy of Country Music will celebrate a major milestone next year, when the 60th Academy of Country Music Awards are held May 8, 2025 at the Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas. The ACM Awards will again be streamed live on Amazon Prime Video, according to an announcement on Tuesday (July 16) from the ACM, Prime Video and Dick Clark Productions.
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
This marks the third consecutive year that the ACM Awards are broadcasting live from Texas (the ACM also celebrated its 50th-anniversary awards show in 2015 at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas). The Ford Center at the Star in Frisco opened in 2016, and serves as the practice facility for the Dallas Cowboys, as well as hosting major sporting events throughout the year. The 2023 ACM Awards were the first awards show to be held at the venue.
As previously announced, 16-time ACM Award winner Reba McEntire will return to host the event, marking her 18th time hosting the ACM Awards.
Trending on Billboard
“We’re excited to honor and celebrate the legacy of the ACM Awards all year long surrounding the 60th anniversary show returning to Amazon Prime Video next May,” Academy of Country Music CEO Damon Whiteside said in a statement. “Reba McEntire has hosted more ACM Awards shows than any other artist in history, and after her triumphant return this year for the 59th show, there is clearly no one better suited to helm this milestone show! Our landmark 50th anniversary show in 2015 marked our debut in Texas, and we’re thrilled to return again to celebrate another major moment in ACM history. We look forward to seeing our industry, artists, and fans celebrate in Frisco, Texas next May for an unforgettable week!”
“I’m thrilled to be coming back to host the 60th ACM Awards on Prime Video,” McEntire added. “It’s going to be an absolute can’t miss show and I can’t wait to see everybody back in Texas!”
The Academy of Country Music was founded in Southern California in 1964, operating as a regional trade organization, but in the six decades since its founding, the organization has enjoyed global reach in supporting and promoting country music. Now based in Nashville, the ACM boasts a record-high membership of over 5,000 members globally.
The 59th annual ACM Awards streamed live for an international audience across more than 240 countries and territories, via Prime Video and the Amazon Music channel on Twitch. The show featured performances from Kane Brown, Jelly Roll, Cody Johnson, Miranda Lambert, Post Malone, Lainey Wilson and more.
Wilson earned the ACM’s highest honor, entertainer of the year, which gained the Louisiana native the coveted ACM Triple Crown in only three years. Chris Stapleton led the evening with four overall wins, followed by Wilson with three trophies, and Luke Combs and Jordan Davis with two wins each.
More details regarding award submissions, voting timelines, nominees, performers, ticket sales and more will be revealed in the coming months.
WWE Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque announced on July 16 that chart-topping country artist Jelly Roll will provide the official theme songs for this year’s SummerSlam event.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
The prestigious annual wrestling spectacle, scheduled for Aug. 3 in Cleveland, will showcase two of Jelly Roll’s tracks: “Dead End Road” from his album Twisters and his recent hit “Liar.”
Levesque’s social media announcement included a telling hint at a possible live performance. “Excited to have my friend Jelly Roll back with two official #SummerSlam theme songs: ‘Dead End Road’ off Twisters: The Album, and ‘Liar’ off his album coming this fall.”
He added, “btw, @JellyRoll615 – let me know if you’re free on Aug. 3 to play a few songs for the @WWEUniverse,” he tweeted, leaving fans speculating about an in-person appearance by the musician.
Trending on Billboard
This isn’t Jelly Roll’s first interaction with WWE.
The Nashville native has made several surprise appearances at WWE events in his hometown, most memorably in November 2023, during which he got involved in a match between wrestlers Randy Orton and Dominik Mysterio by pushing Mysterio and JD McDonagh after they confronted him outside the ring.
“I just felt like I was backing my boy,” Jelly Roll said at the time.
It’s the latest addition to Jelly Roll’s ever-growing list of achievements, with the country superstar recently collaborating with Eminem on “Somebody Save Me,” which served as the closer on the rapper’s latest album, The Death of Slim Shady (Coup De Grâce).
Reflecting on working with the Rap God, Jelly Roll shared, “I always say my childhood heroes lived somewhere between Willie Nelson and Eminem.”
“As a teenager (and still today) I could recite every song on the Slim Shady album, the Marshall Mathers album and The Eminem Show. When I bonded out of jail at 17 years old and was sneaking into cyphers and battles in Nashville they would also play the ‘Lose Yourself’ beat when I came out on stage at the freestyle battles.”
“I related to every word Eminem wrote. I understand him and felt like he understood me, which was rare cause I spent most of my life feeling misunderstood.”
“God Bless the U.S.A.” singer Lee Greenwood and “Buy Me a Boat” singer Chris Janson are among those taking part at the Republican National Convention, which runs through Thursday (July 18) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Other speakers named as part of the convention include lawmakers, governors and officials, as well as rapper Amber Rose and media […]
Morgan Wallen will soon have a triumphant homecoming when he performs at the University of Tennessee (UT)’s Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tenn. later this year as part of his One Night at a Time Tour.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Wallen is bringing the tour to his hometown show at Neyland Stadium on Sunday, Sept. 22. He’ll be joined by HARDY and his fellow Tennessee native Ernest.
Wallen, an 11-time Billboard Music Award winner, grew up in Sneedville, Tennessee and then moved to Knoxville as a teen. In 2011, he graduated from Gibbs High School, located just outside of Knoxville, and has often nodded to his love of UT’s Tennessee Vols in songs including “Had Me By Halftime” and “Tennessee Fan.”
Wallen — who deleted his Instagram account back in June — reinstated his account just before revealing the news of the upcoming Neyland Stadium show.
Trending on Billboard
“I’m coming home,” Wallen wrote on Instagram, the text accompanying a video that featured the song “Rocky Top” (one of Tennessee’s state songs, which has also been associated with UT since the 1970s) as well as footage of Neyland Stadium, performance shots of Wallen and images of Wallen wearing an orange Tennessee Vols jersey.
“I’ve had the honor of playing in a lot of college, MLB and NFL stadiums the past two years, but getting to play to my hometown at Neyland Stadium, nothing tops this for a boy from East Tennessee,” he further added in a statement.
Wallen’s collaboration with Post Malone, “I Had Some Help,” is currently at No. 3 on Billboard’s all-genre Hot 100, and previously spent six weeks at the chart’s pinnacle.
Tickets for Wallen’s Neyland Stadium show will go on sale at 11 a.m. ET starting Wednesday, July 17 on the singer’s website.
The oak is a symbol of strength.
So when Oak Ridge Boy Joe Bonsall, 76, died July 9 of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, formerly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, it came as a shock to many. He was the most active Oak onstage during the bulk of a sturdy, 50-year membership in the group, installed in the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Gospel Music Hall of Fame and the Grand Ole Opry.
Bonsall was a dedicated runner into his 50s and, after that, routinely walked five miles when the bus reached a concert destination, insistent on maintaining his fitness in a touring lifestyle that makes that difficult. He determinedly worked on his farm in Middle Tennessee until recent years, when battles with blood clots and later ALS damaged his physical capabilities.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
“A lot of those ships have sailed,” he told Billboard Country Update in a 2023 interview while celebrating the 50th anniversary of The Oaks’ most successful lineup, and contemplating how the group’s future might unfold.
The Oaks’ history is one of innovation, though many current country artists and executives may not fully grasp the impact that the quartet — including Duane Allen, Richard Sterban and William Lee Golden — had on the genre. In October 1973, Bonsall was the last of that lineup to join the group, which was originally known as The Georgia Clodhoppers and, later, The Oak Ridge Quartet, following its 1945 formation.
Trending on Billboard
The Oaks experienced several conversions in the decade after Bonsall’s arrival. They moved into country music in the mid-1970s, Bonsall’s tenor soaring over the ensemble as he took command of the closing choruses on the group’s first country hit, “Y’all Come Back Saloon,” in 1977. In 1981, the act evolved further, becoming a leading ambassador for the format during one of its biggest crossover eras with the novelty “Elvira” hitting No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and high-energy “Bobbie Sue” rising to No. 12. Bonsall’s voice imbued both those singles with a cutting quality, though he was also quite capable of more thoughtful performances, including the tender “I Guess It Never Hurts To Hurt Sometimes,” a lullaby to a late father.
[embedded content]
Not that Bonsall was the lone Oak voice. Each of the members took the lead on different releases during their career, amassing 17 No. 1s among 34 top 10 country singles. Teamwork among four voices of distinction was a hallmark of the act.
“That’s been one of the secrets to our success,” Bonsall said. “All four guys can actually sing, and we feature them all on different leads, so the show was not boring.”
The Oaks’ approach to concerts was particularly groundbreaking. A few rock acts, such as KISS and Alice Cooper, employed elaborate staging in the late 1970s, though video screens were not yet invented and multicolor lighting was crude and somewhat random. Most country artists were content to stand behind a microphone and re-create their hits. The Oaks, led by Bonsall’s high-energy personality, were more freewheeling onstage, and they were much more aggressive in securing advanced lighting systems and paying spotlight operators who could hone in on specific locations from near the front of the stage instead of back-of-house light directors with wider, more diffuse effect.
“Even in the gray days, when the Oaks went onstage, we invested,” Bonsall remembered. “I think we borrowed money to buy a huge logo of the Oak Ridge Boys [for a] lighted sign that came down behind us, no matter where we were playing. We were already ahead of it, production-wise.”
The Philadelphia-born Bonsall immersed himself in vocal harmony at a young age, playing with various local groups until he landed in The Keystones, a gospel act that included Sterban, a bass singer who was born in nearby Camden, N.J. In addition to performing, Bonsall promoted concerts in the area, and when he booked The Oaks, he hit it off with both Allen and Golden, who had joined the group in the mid-1960s. The Keystones soon signed with a gospel label, and Allen produced a string of albums for the group. When Sterban left The Keystones to join Elvis Presley’s tour in 1972 as a member of J.D. Sumner & The Stamps Quartet, Bonsall was unable to find a suitable bass vocalist. Instead, he made The Keystones more of a rock-edged ensemble.
After Bonsall joined The Oaks in 1973, that forward-thinking mentality fit their approach as they became a significant country act. Their instrumentation and presentation made them competitive with pop and rock artists on the arena circuit in the ’80s.
“We made sure that we went out there with smoke and lasers and a big set,” Bonsall recalled. “When we’d do ‘Dancing the Night Away,’ man, I could run around on my own ramp. I mean, it was so cool. We had a big production. I don’t know how it compares to the kids today — probably not as much. But for those days, it was big-time production.”
[embedded content]
As The Oaks made the inevitable shift from country newcomers to A-list headliners to veteran status, Bonsall expanded into new outlets, writing 11 books and periodically playing banjo with other artists. The group determinedly continued its road-dog lifestyle.
“We don’t even know how to slow down,” said Bonsall last year. “I guess we feel as Christian men that God will tell us. God has guided our career, he’s guided our personal lives and our families. We’ve been very, very blessed. I think God will tell us when it’s time, and he may be whispering in my ear.”
Indeed, Bonsall played his last concert with The Oaks on Dec. 17, announcing his retirement from touring in January. It was a difficult decision — he was completely committed to being one of the mighty Oaks. He recalled a typical encounter at a grocery store:
“Some guy says, ‘Aren’t you one of the…’ ‘Yep, that’s my middle name: of the.’ Our middle names are all ‘of the.’ ”
Bonsall, of the Oak Ridge Boys, chose not to have a funeral. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to The ALS Association or Vanderbilt Medical Center ALS and Neuroscience Research Center.
On QUIT!!, HARDY’s new rock album released Friday (July 15) via Big Loud Rock, several of the characters are, to put it mildly, not quite right in the head. “Jim Bob” is a disillusioned pill-popping veteran who “has a breakdown every 45 seconds,” according to the singer-songwriter, while the protagonist on “Psycho” becomes unhinged at the thought of his girlfriend leaving him.
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
But HARDY warns not to confuse the characters working out their demons in his songs with their creator. “I’m a pretty tame, surprisingly soft-spoken dude,” he says. That may be, but he’s far from soft-spoken on Quit!!, on which he shows he can unleash a rock-and-roll howl worthy of the best heavy metal singer.
In addition to the songs featuring fictional characters, a number of the tunes are deeply autobiographical, including the title track, which relays the true story of how a patron wrote the word “quit” on a napkin and put it in HARDY’s tip jar while he was playing a bar more than 10 years ago. That insult fueled HARDY’s ambition and put a chip on his shoulder that still drives him today.
Trending on Billboard
“Feeling like you have something to prove to somebody always I think is important— at least for me for my creative spirit,” he says. “Complacency kills.”
The album also tells the upbeat tale of how he met his wife, Caleigh, on “WHYBMWL,” which stands for “where have you been my whole life,” and the set closer, the deeply romantic (yet fatalistic “Six Feet Under (Caleigh’s Song).”
“I surprised her with ‘Six Feet Under’ and didn’t play her that until my entire record was done and and she like lost it, which was the reaction that I needed,” he says. “I wanted so bad to make her cry. [Laughs.] I mean it was so special, and it was just such an emotional time for us. I’m so thankful that she loves it as much as she does.”
[embedded content]
HARDY came to Nashville more than a decade ago to be a country songwriter and had considerable success, penning hits for artists like Florida Georgia Line, Morgan Wallen and Blake Shelton, before releasing his first album, 2020’s A Rock, which included the multiple ACM and CMA Award winner’s first Billboard Country Airplay No. 1, “One Beer” (featuring Lauren Alaina and Devin Dawson).
He followed with 2023’s The Mockingbird & The Crow, whose tracks were half country and half rock, and established his rock bona fides by topping Billboard’s Top Rock Albums chart and with singles “Jack,” the title track and “Sold Out” all reaching the top 5 of Billboard’s Hot Hard Rock Songs chart.
Over the last several years, HARDY, who was named BMI’s 2022 country songwriter of the year, has become one of Nashville’s most reliable and successful writers He credits his way with words to having “a knack for English and the rules of the English language ever since [I] was a kid,” he says. “I was terrible at math. I was okay in science, but only because I thought it was neat … when it came to using your words, I swear to God, it was just from birth, or God-given, or whatever you want to call it.”
Despite the outsider status that many of the album’s character inhabit, HARDY says his experience in Nashville has felt embracing, even as he has toggled back and forth between rock and country, landing on more than a dozen different Billboard charts.
He’s encountered no naysayers discouraging him from following his wandering musical muse, HARDY says. “Not one time,” he says. “I’ve got to say being in [Nashville] for 14 or 15 years, I’ve heard the creative horror stories or people being held back and I give all of the props in the world to Big Loud and to [his publisher] Relative Music Group for never, not one time ever, holding me back.”
Even on a song like “Orphan,” which sounds like a treatise against the country music industry as HARDY sings that he feels like “somebody left me in a basket on the front steps/screaming bloody murder at the church door … the orphan of this country music town,” he stresses he is fighting an “internal battle,” not an external one. “I have not been oppressed in any way. Let’s put it that way,” he says.
The exception is his first publishing deal early in his career, which left a grudge that he can conveniently draw upon to this day over his predilection for drawing on redneck themes in his music (After all, this is someone whose first single in 2019 was titled “Rednecker.”)
“Some of the people that I was working with told me verbatim, ‘This song is good, but that redneck s–t ain’t my jam and it’s gonna be hard for me to pitch those kinds of songs,’” he says. “That lit such a huge fire under me. I think to this day that chip on my shoulder is just constantly coming out because I’m like, ‘I’m gonna prove to you that this redneck s–t works.’ There are a ton of people who grew up like me and want to hear that stuff. There’re a few moments early on in my songwriting career that I felt like maybe I believed in myself more than anybody else did. But some of the stuff is just so deeply cut that it’s just there’s no like healing from it.”
Though his rock songs may sound more visceral and raw because of the intense, defiant delivery, Hardy says country songs allow him to tap more into his emotions.
“There’s more poetry in country,” he says. “I think there’s more demons in country than come out in rock. The country stuff is actually where I get more emotion out into the world with songs like ‘Wait in the Truck,’ ‘Give Heaven Some Hell,’ that kind of thing.”
He’s also pleased that fans seem to accept all sides of his artistry, even though he admits he avoids reading the comments on social media and other posts about him: “I don’t really go in too deep and try to dig into the comments or the articles or anything, because I just am afraid of the one bad comment, and I try to keep that negative energy out of my life. But the reception seems like it’s been pretty good so far.”
HARDY didn’t worry about cohesion when creating the album. “I know it’s a little all over the place sonically,” he says. “At the end of the day, I just wrote a bunch of rock songs that I love and love the sound of.”
And songs that he thought would appeal to his fans — especially in concert, including “Jim Bob.” “I wanted a song that everybody in the crowd would be like, ‘This is who I am, I want to go get drunk and shoot my pistol in the sky and all that kind of s–t,’” he explains. “But I don’t pop Percocet and I didn’t damage my knee in the war and s–t like that. I’ve stuck pretty true to who I am and the best way to do that was to make that song about somebody else.”
[embedded content]
In a career that tolerates, if not encourages, “Jim Bob”-type indulgences, HARDY works to keep himself in check, especially since, as he has previously mentioned, alcohol issues run in his extended family. “Every so often [I] kind of take a look and [am] like, ‘What am I doing? How much am I doing? Let’s maybe back off, take a break.’ You just gotta be aware,” he says. “You can’t let it take control of you too much. Sometimes you can be too late, or you can get in a mess, so just keeping myself in check every now and then.”
The album features high profile guests including Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, who plays on the ‘90s pop-punk-inspired “Good Girl Phase,” as well as Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst on “Soul4Sale.”
HARDY met Smith through Nickelback lead singer Chad Kroeger at this year’s Super Bowl — Nickelback and HARDY share producer Joey Moi — and in a playful tribute to Nickelback, HARDY wrote Quitt!! song “Rockstar,” which name drops the band, while paying tribute to its 2005 hit of the same name.
“I didn’t have that on my Bingo card,” HARDY jokes of getting to work with musical inspirations like Kroeger and Durst. “To meet people that like who truly influenced the s–t out of me growing up and then to become friends with them, it’s a very cool thing.”
[embedded content]
The rocker who tops his wish list to share a stage and a scream with is Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl. “I don’t even know if he even knows I exist, but he would be cool. Alex Terrible from Slaughter to Prevail, he’s a pretty big deal right now. That’s a big one too. But Dave Grohl is definitely No. 1.”
While music is keeping him very busy, HARDY convincingly plays an institutionalized, straight-jacketed mental patient in the “Psycho” video, and says acting is something he would also like to pursue as time allows. “I was actually surprisingly comfortable in that video, which is kind of dark and disturbing,” he admits with a laugh. “I think the further away from myself that I can act, the more comfortable I am doing it. It’s really hard to act like yourself, in my opinion … But I love acting.”
In a milestone moment, HARDY will headline his first stadium gig Sept. 12 in Starkville, Mississippi, 45 minutes from his hometown of Philadelphia, Mississippi.
“It won’t really hit me until I get out there and it’s full of people hopefully,” he says. “It will be really emotional. There’s always a little part of me that’s like, ‘How did I get here?’ But I’m truly ready for this one and I’m truly looking forward to it.”