Michael Hardy, known by his fans as Hardy, is a country songwriter-turned-singer who grew up in Philadelphia, Mississippi, a town of about 7,500 in Neshoba County. After high school, he moved to Nashville to pursue a songwriting career that eventually led to a record deal and huge success in the country music industry. From a young age, Hardy had a recognizable talent for songwriting.
“My sister moved to Nashville in 2007,” he said. “I was a sophomore in high school. Long story short, I had written a couple of songs in Philadelphia. I was probably about 17 at the time. Then one day, my sister texted me and told me that I could get a publishing deal and get paid to write songs for artists,” Hardy said.
This seemed like the perfect opportunity. “When I graduated high school, I didn’t really have anything going on in Philadelphia, so I decided to move to Nashville and try to get a publishing deal,” said Hardy, who later attended Middle Tennessee State University and graduated with a songwriting degree.
After college, the publishing deal fell through. He had little money and wasn’t sure what to do. He learned about a Rodney Atkins concert in East Tennessee that needed an opener and was booked for the job. He used the money he made from the concert to live for three months while writing songs until he found another publishing deal.
After signing the publishing deal, Hardy continued to write songs in Nashville for several more years. “The Florida Georgia Line guys took me under their wing and introduced me to a lot of people, and I got really involved with their camp. That’s when all the good stuff really started happening,” he said.
“These days in Nashville, everyone has a camp. The only real way to rise up in Nashville and really have a solid presence is to surround yourself with a few members of each part of the industry. It wasn’t like that when I moved here, but its definitely like that now.”