When HARDY was trying to make it as a songwriter, the country star had a rude interaction that would help define his career. While performing at a writers’ round in Nashville, HARDY found a note in the tip jar that simply read, “Quit!!” He kept the paper and pinned it to the bulletin board in the makeshift studio in his apartment and used the anonymous criticism to motivate him while he wrote and recorded. “Every day I walked by it before I went into my studio, and it just meant the more success I had, [the note], for some reason, was more fuel,” he says. “It's a symbol to never give up, and that you're going to have haters in the world, that the more popular you get, the more haters you get, and it stands for a lot. I wanted to honour that moment in my life, because it was very inspiring.” HARDY got the last laugh, of course, and named this follow-up to 2023’s the mockingbird & THE CROW after the incident. Appropriately, the record itself is also a bit of a middle finger, as HARDY leans even further into his rock roots alongside producer and long-time collaborator Joey Moi. Highlights include “PSYCHO”, a subversion of the “crazy ex-girlfriend” narrative so prevalent in country music, and “SOUL4SALE”, a surprisingly vulnerable collaboration with Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst. Closer “SIX FEET UNDER (Caleigh’s Song)” is the record’s emotional centrepiece, as HARDY wrote the song for his wife while reflecting on a 2022 bus accident that nearly took his life.