When HARDY joined Devin Dawson and Jordan Schmidt for a writing session in early 2019, he had no idea that only a few months later, one of country music’s biggest superstars, Blake Shelton, would not only record the song, but make it a multi-platinum No. 1 hit as well. For HARDY, the success of the song changed almost everything about his life, including his bank account.

“I would say financially it’s changed a lot,” HARDY told Everything Nash. “To be honest, it’s helped me become more of an adult. I bought a house and paid for it. You know what I mean? There’s a part of that that is definitely becoming an adult. And I think too, just the responsibility that comes with being an artist, you can grow up pretty fast. You’re somewhat under a microscope in a way, and I think it just makes me want to do good and be a better person.

“There’s a lot of people looking at me,” he added. “I have a platform where I can help people and be an influence people. I want to do that in a positive way.”

One of the most talked about — and most creative — lines in “God’s Country” is “The devil went down to Georgia but he didn’t stick around / This is God’s country,” which HARDY says he can take partial credit for, but not all of it.

“It was a mix between mine and Devin’s,” HARDY recalled. “And we were looking for the perfect rhyme … Devin just said, ‘Well, the devil went down to Georgia, but he didn’t stay long.’ And I was like, ‘The devil went down to Georgia, but he didn’t stick around around.’ So it was, it was Devin’s thought, and I kind of turned it into a line.”

HARDY just released his own debut album, A Rock, after releasing his collaborative Hixtape last fall.

“I represent myself, in what I have to say as an artist, more than anything I’ve ever done,” HARDY told Everything Nash. “Hixtape was great, and that is very much a part of who I am. And there are songs on this record that could have definitely qualified for a Hixtape song, but I think this is my true vulnerable, this is what I have to say. These are some of my life experiences that I’m talking about. I think this is my first real true big introduction to country music.”