“Nobody's Selling More Tickets Than Him”: HARDY Says Morgan Wallen is the King of Country Music Right Now

The debate surrounding who should be considered the King or Queen of Country Music has raged on for decades, with emerging trailblazers and chart-toppers being championed as potential replacements for the old guard every few years or so.

With this contentious discussion being sparked once again in recent months, courtesy of the genre's explosion in popularity being led by a handful of artists, we thought we'd look back at HARDY's thoughts on the matter, which he shared with Holler in 2023.

When asked who he considers to be the King of Country Music, the ‘ROCKSTAR’ singer-songwriter opted for his good buddy, Morgan Wallen, “I would say right now the King is Morgan Wallen, because nobody's selling more tickets than him”.

HARDY went on to add the qualification that, of course, historically speaking, the King of Country Music has always been deemed to be George Strait, thanks to his dizzy array of No. 1s and the ‘Amarillo By Morning’ hitmaker's lasting impact on the genre.

HARDY stressed, “Notoriously, the King is George Strait”, with the genre-blending maverick tipping his cap to Strait on a number of his tracks, including his HIXTAPE Vol. 2 stand-out, ‘WD-40 4WD’. Although he doesn't feature on the track, HARDY co-wrote the down-home anthem, with the hook toasting the unmatched joys of “Some WD-40 and a 4WD / Six PBRs and some '93 George S-T-R-A-I-T”.

Elsewhere in his 2023 Quick 10 chat with Holler, HARDY crowned Dolly Parton the Queen of Country Music, as well as heralding Miley Cyrus as his dream female duet partner. As for a male artist, HARDY heartwarmingly explained, “If it was a dude, I would say Post Malone - I want to do a song with Post Malone. I love his stuff”.

Endearingly, since that interview, HARDY has fulfilled his objective of hitting the studio with Post Malone, with the duo joining forces on the stormy, brooding ‘Hide My Gun’ from Post's debut country album, F-1Trillion. HARDY and Post also linked up on-stage at the CMA Awards in November 2023 to perform Joe Diffie's ’Pick-Up Man’.

We're hoping that a HARDY and Miley Cyrus link-up comes to fruition in the near future, but it's safe to say the latter has a long list of hopeful collaborators lining up outside her door, with Jelly Roll also expressing his keenness to work with Cyrus last month.

In addition, we'll be keeping our fingers crossed that HARDY and Morgan Wallen have found time to cut another infectious duet in the mould of ‘He Went to Jared’, ‘In the Bible’ and ‘Red’ for Wallen's forthcoming studio album, I'm the Problem.

The two were spotted in the studio earlier in the year, and with HARDY having co-written one of Morgan Wallen's latest singles, the haunting ‘I'm a Little Crazy’, it's clear HARDY has been working on I'm the Problem. With the rowdy ‘Come Back As A Redneck’ exploring a very Hixtape-esque feel and Wallen confirming it features a mystery artist, fans are speculating that HARDY might be appearing on the track.

Either way, it remains to be seen who will be considered ‘The King’ of modern country music, and whether anyone will be able to leave a mark sizeable enough to overshadow the colossal legacy of George Strait. But it must be said that, at the moment, if you had to tip anyone to achieve these heights, it would be Morgan Wallen, with no other country artist rivalling the Sneedville megastar's ticket sales, streaming figures and cross-genre chart performance over the past few years.

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