Hardy has found himself in some hot water…
Over a t-shirt. Yes, a shirt…
It all started because Hardy, who is admittedly a huge fan of metal and rock and roll music, wanted to release a shirt that mimicked a similar look to what you would find in a design from a metal band concert tee.
He posted a couple stories on Instagram yesterday announcing the new shirt design:
“As y’all know, I’m a huge metalhead, I love metal, I’ve loved metal for a really long time, so I decided to do something a little different.
And we’re gonna put out kind of a metal-style shirt and it’s gonna be available for pre-sale here pretty soon. I’ll keep you posted and y’all keep your eyes peeled ‘cuz it’s coming.”
Then a couple hours ago today, he posted the photo of the shirt on his Instagram page to let his fans know it was available for preorder.
The photo of the t-shirt set off a firestorm of comments on Instagram, with people commenting that it looked satanic and promoted evil and hate.
Here’s a look at the shirt:
As of right now, it’s still up on his website and hasn’t been taken down.
Comments ranged on the photo, with quite a few people commenting that they didn’t like the shirt, mainly saying it looked “satanic”. Here’s a snippet of some of those comments:
“Satanic. disappointing.”
“When u see all those legitimately satanist people using that pic on TikTok u can’t help but think it’s a little too much.”
“Satanic vibes. This ain’t it.”
Then, you have people who like the shirt and seemed to defend Hardy for putting something out that was so different:
“Makes me want to sacrifice a couple dranks.”
“I love that you are so different than all these other country singers. Keep doing what you do man! Forget what these people say! You, Morgan, and Koe are bringing back the don’t give a damn country! These shirts are sick!”
“These comments are full of clueless normies”
After his comments section blew up with the ranging opinions on the shirt, Hardy took to his Instagram stories again to make a statement and clear the air about what it meant and defend his decision to make the shirt.
He didn’t mince his words, saying it does not represent Satan in any way, shape or form and that he believes in God:
“I wanted to make a quick statement about the t-shirt that I released. In no form or fashion am I making a statement about Satan. I do not stand for Satan.
I have a lot of fans that are rock and roll and metal fans, and I wanted to put out something out that I thought they might enjoy. Believe it or not, I do believe in God. I think that God is the reason I am here today, I think he is the reason that I am successful and I’m very thankful for that.
And I pray to him every single night and I thank him for the blessings that he has put upon me, okay? You don’t have to buy the shirt if you don’t like it. And if you don’t like it that much, you don’t even have to be my fan. I don’t care.
But I don’t preach hate and I don’t preach evil and I wanted to let you guys know where I stand on this entire situation, so that you guys know going forward.
So thank you so much, God bless, and have a good day.”
Well, I guess that’s that.
We’ll see if he ends up taking it off of his website, but it sounds like Hardy has no plans on backing down or changing the shirt any time soon.
And, while we’re on the subject of rock and roll and metal, Hardy recently covered Puddle of Mudd’s song “Blurry”:
