‘I Was Not Expecting That at All’

Two years ago, the indie-rock trio Boygenius revealed themselves to be secret fans of Hardy in an interview with Pitchfork. “We saw Hardy in L.A. recently and I lost brain cells,” Lucy Dacus, who makes up the band with Phoebe Bridgers and Julien Baker, said. “The songwriting is excellent.”

During Hardy’s appearance on Rolling Stone’s Nashville Now, we asked the country songwriter if he is aware of Boygenius’ fandom. He is indeed, he says, thanks to his sister, who sent him the original video. He’s since been DM-ing with the band too.

“That was really cool. I was not expecting that at all,” Hardy says. “The way they described a lot of that was super special and just really cool. Julien was talking about it, that it scratches a weird itch in her brain or whatever, and I love that kind of stuff.”

With country collaborations with rock and pop artists reaching new heights, a Hardy-Boygenius collab would be as cool as it gets. “Dude, I’m here for it,” Hardy says of the idea.

Hardy, who released his new album Country! Country! earlier this month, also talked at length about what he’s listening to these days with Nashville Now. Top of his list is the melodic metal band Sleep Token.

“Metalheads love to shit on Sleep Token, but, man, it’s very fresh,” he says. “If you don’t tell anybody what genre it is, and just listen to it and make an assessment: it’s fresh and it’s cool and the melodies are dope. He’s got a very dope voice. There’s a big weird sexual energy with a lot of it, which I think is super cool. The fact that they’re all anonymous and in this spooky ass shit… Aesthetically it’s really cool.”

Download and subscribe to Rolling Stone’s weekly country-music podcast, Nashville Now, hosted by senior music editor Joseph Hudak, on Apple Podcasts or Spotify (or wherever you get your podcasts). New episodes drop every Wednesday and feature interviews with artists and personalities like Charley Crockett, Gavin Adcock, Amanda Shires, Margo Price, Dusty Slay, Lukas Nelson, Ashley Monroe, Old Crow Medicine Show’s Ketch Secor, and Clever.

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