Three of the biggest names in mainstream country music.
In January, 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.
Hardy previously 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 Morgan of course loved it.
But getting Tim McGraw was the person he was most nervous about… of course, he’s friends with Morgan, and I guess he figured if Eric said no at first, Morgan could talk him into it, but McGraw is in an interesting spot in terms of being a current star who still puts out music, while still being in that “legend” category too.
In an interview with WAVE 92.7 radio station, Hardy revealed that he was easily the most nervous to ask McGraw to do the song, and he was blown away by his humility throughout the process, with McGraw telling Hardy he was just “happy to be here,” and Hardy couldn’t believe that:
“I mean, obviously, Morgan is like one of the biggest artist on the planet and Eric is Eric. But Tim is just one of those, like a he’s a legend already, and is still very capable of having more hits, you know, the whole thing.
So it’s just mind blowing to me that he’s like, ‘I’m just happy to be here,’ and I’m like bro, I’m just happy to be here… I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
I really hope they do at least one more song that maybe reveals what happens with Hunter or something of that nature because the first one was so good and I think they still have a lot more story to tell with it.
@wave927 When you’re working with a country music legend, you expect a lot… but HARDY wasn’t expecting this from Tim McGraw. 👀 🎙️ This Saturday at 7 PM, HARDY joins us on iHeartCountry House Party! 🤘 We talk about how a conversation with Tim McGraw led to their collaboration on “McArthur,” what life has been like since becoming a dad, and whether there are more dream collaborations on the horizon. #iHeartCHP #HARDY #TimMcGraw ♬ original sound – WAVE 92.7
Hardy just released a really cool live solo rendition from his current tour… but I think we deserve a full-on performance with all four them at the next possible opportunity:
The original with Morgan, Eric and Tim:
