He took a leap of faith, and has paid off BIG time. Last week, HARDY released his highly-anticipated song “McArthur,” which is a collaboration with Eric Church, Morgan Wallen and Tim McGraw.
Written by HARDY along with Jameson Rodgers, Chase McGill, and Josh Thompson (under his pseudonym “Joshua Dennis Anthony Bagles”), it tells the story of legacy and family in a beautiful way, which starts with Tim McGraw taking on the role of patriarch John McArthur, the eldest in the line who farmed the land to keep his family fed.
Then, Eric Church comes in and his character, Junior McArthur, has passed away “by way of a bullet in Vietnam,” leaving behind his son Jones, who he never actually got to meet. Each of the generations pass down the family land, but the twist comes when HARDY introduces his character, Jones McArthur – whose son doesn’t seem to value the land like the rest in his lineage:
“I’m Jones McArthur and I tried like hell
To teach my son why a man don’t sell
But he came home from college seeing dollar signs
Didn’t want to go to work, just wanted me to die”
The son is, of course, Morgan Wallen telling the story of Hunter McArthur, who’s ready to sign on the dotted line to turn over the family land but appears to have a change of heart at the very end:
“I’m Hunter McArthur and the deal looks good
In 18 months this’ll be a neighborhood
I got a million dollar line I can sign my name on
But there’s a whisper in the pines that’s telling me, ‘Don’t’”
The song ends with a beautiful chorus of the four of them harmonizing, and while it leaves a little bit to the imagination, it’s safe to say that Hunter probably didn’t go through with the sale, and that’s at least what I’m going with, especially because of that last line where he says he can hear a “whisper in the pines” telling him not to sign the land away, and the song starts with John saying he’s just a “whisper in the wind through the pine trees now.” To me, that’s sort of a hint that they kept the land in the end, but again, it’s up for interpretation.
During a recent showcase for the song for radio people, Hardy spoke a lot about how the song came to be, saying they had written it at the beach and he had actually driven back to his hometown right after to go hunting.
After a stiff glass of whiskey, he worked up the nerve to send it to Eric, and he joked that he’s not sure he even listened to the whole song because he texted back within 30 seconds:
“We wrote the song, and I actually drove back to my hometown after the beach to do some deer hunting and I had a pretty stiff whiskey drink, and I just said, ‘F*** it, I’m gonna send it to Eric Church.’ And I did.
I’ve known Eric now for a couple of years, but definitely took a little bit of a leap of faith. I’ve never made a move quite as impressive as, ‘Hey, we should do this song together.’ And man, he responded, it’s almost like he didn’t even listen to the whole song, because it seemed like 30 seconds went by and he responded and said, ‘I’m in.’ He said, ‘Who else should it be?'”
He loved it from the first verse, like many of us, it seems…
They knew they wanted to get Morgan involved as well, and the three of them came up with Tim as the last collaborator and Hardy once again just texted it to him himself:
“And obviously, I said, ‘Let’s see if Morgan will do it.’ I sent it to Morgan, Morgan said, ‘I’m in.’ So the three of us… threw some names out, and we just thought Tim would be the perfect fit. I had just recently got Tim’s phone number, and again, just took a massive leap of faith. Sent it to him, he loved it and the rest is history. Really, really thankful that everybody was just down and ready to play ball.”
Hardy also joked that he told Big Loud Records executive Seth England that he could tell the reaction would be great to “McArthur,” but the tell-tale sign was how many Nashville people texted him to say “f*** you for that song”:
“I’m really thankful for it… I told Seth, I can gauge a song a lot, this is sort of obvious, but a lot people in town, Nashville people, texted me, and they were like, ‘F*** you for that song.’ That’s usually a good sign if I’ve gotten a lot of ‘F*** you’s.'”
It’s obviously a huge hit, and one I think many people clearly wish they had written themselves. The songwriting is powerful, meaningful, and very relatable, and the harmonies and star power just take it to the next level. I’ve had it on repeat myself, and I can’t lie… I might have shed a tear or two listening to it, which I don’t do very often, so I think that speaks to how weighty and significant it really is.
For me, this is mainstream country music at it’s best, and I’m hoping it’s not the end of this group or this storyline, and Hardy also hinted that they might have more coming, which I’m definitely hoping for because I think there’s a LOT more to this story and it’s a truly brilliant concept the way they structured it and got so many fantastic artists involved:
@sabrinafromqueens greatest song of all time I said what I said @HARDY #hardy #mcarthur ♬ original sound – Sabrina from Queens
If you haven’t listened yet… you’re missing out:
“McArthur”
