Back in 2021, Malone teamed up with Dwight Yoakam’s band to put together two amazing covers of Sturgill Simpson’s “You Can Have the Crown,” and Brad Paisley’s “I’m Gonna Miss Her” as part of Matthew McConaughey’s “We’re Texas” virtual benefit concert.
Fans have been begging for a country project ever since, but on Wednesday night, Morgan Wallen, HARDY, and Post Malone rocked the CMA Awards stage with two fantastic renditions of the late Joe Diffie’s smash hits “Pickup Man” and “John Deere Green.”
When the performance was billed as “country classics,” I wasn’t expecting a Joe Diffie tribute, but nevertheless, Posty proved once again that he can handle his own on the country music stage. Honestly, he probably sounded the best of the three with his rendition of “Pickup Man.”
After the show, Post confirmed that a country music is coming someday, and that he might even do a little writing with the great Tanya Tucker, but in the meantime, he have Posts Joe Diffie tribute to hold us over.
The covers weren’t just for show at the CMA Awards. The two covers are actually the lead singles of HARDY’s latest HIXTAPE album. The latest installment of HARDY’s HIXTAPE album has been dubbed HIXTAPE Volume 3: Difftape, is a full on tribute to Diffie himself.
Hardy reveals they got the family’s blessing to use Joe’s original recordings on the two-part project:
“I’m super excited about DIFFTAPE. I think it’s a one-of-a-kind project and we’re the first people to do something like this. Especially having the original recordings and the fact that we have his family’s blessing to do it, it’s all really special.
Joe epitomized the ’90s country voice – he was so good about hearing and cutting hits, recording amazing songs. On a personal level, I only got to meet Joe once, but he was extremely nice to me, and this was in my first year of being an artist when I was an absolute nobody.
He was so, so kind to me and that memory I have of him is truly special to me, too.”
“Pickup Man” will also be sent to country radio as a single, which should do well with Morgan Wallen’s name attached to it. Either way, it’s just great to hear Joe Diffie’s voice again.
Give ’em a listen:
“Pickup Man”
“John Deere Green”
