Never going to hear the song the same way again.
Dusty Slay is one of the best in the business when it comes to stand-up comedy right now. The blue collar comedian and co-host of the Nateland podcast has made a name for himself with his hilarious stories about growing up in a trailer park in Alabama, and has appeared on the Grand Ole Opry and most of the late-night shows (as well as joining us for an episode of our Whiskey Riff Raff podcast back in 2021).
After moving to Nashville and spending years working his way up in the stand-up scene, Dusty released his first Netflix special, Workin’ Man, back in 2023. And one of the best bits in the entire special was his take on breaking down the lyrics of a ’90s country classic, Travis Tritt’s “It’s A Great Day To Be Alive.”
Well this week, the comedian and country music fan is back on Netflix with his second special, Wet Heat. And this time, he’s giving his thoughts on a different ’90s hit: “Hard Workin’ Man” by Brooks & Dunn.
“He starts the song off, he says, ‘I’m a hard workin’ man,’ just lays it out there for you. Lets you know who he is, how he likes to work…
And then he says, ‘I wear a steel hard hat.’ Wants you to know he takes safety very seriously. Wears a hard hat, doesn’t mess around with plastic. It’s steel for this guy. Loves his hat. Wears it all the time.”
Now, this was funny because I have a friend who’s a safety inspector and just this week he was talking about how the line “steel hard hat” doesn’t make any sense. But anyway, Dusty continues:
“Then he says, ‘I can ride, rope, hammer and paint,’ four things that you don’t really need a hard hat for. His coworkers are like, ‘I don’t know why you’re wearing that hat again. We’re ropin’ cattle today, buddy. There’s nothing to fall on you out here.’
You wanna wear a helmet, wear a helmet, you know? But that hard hat’s not gonna help you out here.
But he says, ‘I can hammer and paint, do things with my hands that most men can’t.’ I’m like, ‘I dunno, I think we can all hammer and paint.’ Like some people do it better than others obviously, but I think we can all do it. I don’t know how good of a hammerer Bob Ross is, but pretty good painter I’d say. I bet he’s hung a painting or two on the wall.”
The best part, though, is Dusty’s theory on the line, “I can’t get ahead no matter how hard I try.” For such a hard working man, why is he living paycheck to paycheck?
“Where’s the money going? These are the kind of questions I have.
So you get to the second verse, and the second verse he says, ‘Come Friday night, I like to party hard.’ Oh, I see where this is going. Starting to unravel a bit of the mystery here….
‘Spend my whole week’s pay on some weekend beauty.’ Oh ok, well there’s your problem right there. I think we can close this investigation. Tell Columbo to head on back to the house, we’ve solved the crime here.
I’d like to see this guy meet with a financial advisor. He’s like, ‘I just can’t seem to put any money away. I’m a hard working man, I wear a steel hard hat, I can ride, rope, hammer and paint but I can’t seem to put any money away.’
Financial advisor’s like, ‘I dunno, let’s dig in, see what we can find.’ Pulls up the report, gets to page one, he’s like, ‘Oh, found it right here. A lot faster than I expected. Seems here you’re spending everything you make in one night on some sort of a prostitute.’
I don’t know if that’s what a weekend beauty is, but might suggest a cheaper option. Maybe a weekday beauty. Get yourself a Tuesday beauty, save a little money around here.”
Makes perfect sense to me.
The whole special is hilarious and worth checking out – but chances are you’ll never hear “Hard Workin’ Man” the same way again.
