‘Come Back As a Redneck’ by Morgan Wallen & HARDY - Lyrics & Meaning

On March 15th, 2024, Morgan Wallen surprised followers by sharing a snippet of a brand new unreleased song, entitled, ‘Come Back As a Redneck’, across his socials.

The snippet, which finds the Sneedville singer-songwriter standing up for his Southern roots after feeling belittled by ‘Mr City Man’, was accompanied by a video from inside the studio.

In the clip, the song plays directly from what appears to be Morgan Wallen's laptop. A few months after it was initially teased, Wallen deleted the snippet with no explanation.

Then, on April 1st 2025 - as the furore surrounding his contentious SNL appearance raged on - Morgan Wallen shared a new and somewhat pointed clip of ‘Come Back As A Redneck’.

The revamped version finds the hazy synths replaced by rowdy electric guitars, prompting fans to speculate as to whether Wallen's rock-loving friend, HARDY might be featured. Wallen confirmed there was a mystery guest when ‘Come Back As A Redneck’ flashed up on the TV screen behind him on SNL, with a blanked-out feature.

Shortly after, we got confirmation HARDY was indeed the guest artist. It marks the latest in a string of stellar link-ups from the duo, after ‘He Went to Jared’, ‘Turn You Down’, ‘Red’ and ‘In The Bible’. HARDY also-cowrite a slew of tracks on I'm the Problem.

In the initial clip, the sinuous, electronic-leaning instrumental that introduces ‘Come Back As a Redneck’ cleverly makes the listener think this will be another pop-inspired or Hip Hop-driven track. However, it serves as the epitome of how deftly Morgan balances his eclectic musical influences and his love of country, with the ‘Last Night’ hitmaker's lyrics and delivery unmistakably anchoring the song to the genre.

In the updated 2025 version of ’Come Back As A Redneck’, the synths have been eschewed in favour of blazing, muscled-up guitars, giving the down-home anthem the feel of earlier fan-favourites such as ‘Beer Don't’ and ‘Somethin’ Country’.

“Hey Mr City Man, Rollie on your wrist, NASDAQ in your hand,

Rolling your eyes at my beat-up truck

Feed in the back, spittin’ in my cup

Both our tags say Tennessee”

‘Come Back As a Redneck’ opens on HARDY as he sits in some Nashville traffic, before he flicks his eyes across to the glossy car next to him. He calls him ‘Mr City Man’, describing his flashy Rolex watch and how his eyes are glued to the NASDAQ stock report, painting a picture of a materially-oriented businessman.

Interestingly, ‘Mr City Man’ sounds like a very similar character to the antagonist Morgan and HARDY complain about in their HIXTAPE stand-out, ‘He Went To Jared’.

We get a satisfying transition from the ‘Rollie’ on his wrist to the way the man ‘rolls’ his eyes at HARDY's run-down 4x4, clearly judging its rough-around-the-edges appearance.

HARDY explains how he also feels the man's glare at the animal feed in the truck-bed, a symbol of his role on a farm or a ranch, as well as the fact that he keeps spitting into his cup.

When chewing tobacco - an activity associated with rural Southerners - it generates excess saliva, meaning users have to spit regularly, something that offends ‘Mr City Man‘.

HARDY explains how both the vehicles are from Tennessee, yet this appears to be one of the only things the two men have in common. This leads him into the primary theme of ‘Come Back As a Redneck’ - we shouldn't judge those that live differently to us.

“I don't know you, I know you don't know me

But if this red light didn't have to change

I'd have time to say”

Although their paths are only going to cross for this brief period at the stop-light, the protagonist wishes he could tell ‘Mr City Man’ that he has countryside folk sized up all wrong.

“When you die I hope you come back as a redneck

I hope it sticks on you like that hell-hot sun tattoo

I hope you break your back for that barely-get-by pay-check

And when you can't you've gotta go and bloody up a buck or two”

Morgan and HARDY spend the defiant chorus highlighting how proud they are of the way they were raised and the rural lifestyle they leads. They hope that, when this man dies, he gets to be reborn as a redneck, so he can see how hard they work and how strong you have to be to make it from day to day on those kinds of wages.

The message behind ‘Come Back As a Redneck’ seems to draw on the sentiment of the famous line in Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird, which was set in the rural town of Maycomb, Alabama, “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… until you climb in his skin and walk around in it”.

“Catch the Holy Ghost on a pinewood bench

Drive across the county just to hook up a winch

Revel in the pride of a simple man

Maybe then you'll understand”

As well as mentally punishing ‘Mr City Man’ by imagining him having to toil away at a blue collar job for months on end, and then driving for miles and miles just to ‘hook up a winch’ in order to fix someone's truck, Wallen and HARDY also envision the man getting to experience the more positive aspects of a life in the sticks.

They portray the feeling of spiritual enlightenment as you enjoy some alone time out in nature, as well as discovering an inner pride unique to those that enjoy a simple, modest life.

The hook concludes with the duo wondering whether this act of stepping into somebody else's shoes would provide ‘Mr City Man’ a newfound respect for the ‘redneck’ way of life, and whether he'd subsequently stop being critical and judgmental.

“I didn't choose my raisin’ and you didn't choose your

You work in four walls, and I'm workin’ four by fours

We ain't as different as you think we is

But I didn't pull up sayin’’, ‘Won't you look at that born-rich, fed with a silver-spoon trust-fund kid’, like you did”

As ‘Come Back As A Redneck’ approaches its second verse, Morgan Wallen reminds the listener why he feels disrespected by the man that drove next to him. He underlines that he has nothing against city-folk, and he appreciates that none of us choose our upbringing. He did take issue, however, with the air of elitism and superiority the man exuded as he looked over and sniggered at our protagonist.

We get a witty transition from the fact that the city-man is working in four walls, while the lead character spends his days mending 4x4 trucks - two starkly different ways of life, but the repetition of the number four highlights how we all have common ground.

“Why we say grace, why we hold hands

Keep a shotgun right by the nightstand

And why we love a good rain comin’ down

And never leave these so called backward backwood

Good for nothing hillbilly hick towns”

Morgan Wallen and HARDY go on to reflect on how much better the city-slicker would understand and appreciate their way of life if he spent some time actually experiencing it.

Then, perhaps he'd get why they hold hands and say grace before meals, why they keep a shotgun ready by their bed and why they love rainfall because it helps the crops grow.

Then, with a classic Wallen and HARDY lyrical flourish, they wittily refer to the “backward backwood” that they come from, nodding again to the condescension they endure.

During the album listening event at Morgan Wallen's This Bar & Tennessee Kitchen, the ‘What I Want’ crooner reflected on how ‘Come Back As A Redneck’ came about, “‘Come Back As A Redneck’ with HARDY on it. We did write it together. We took a few writing trips for for this album. All of them were extremely successful, so it's something I'm probably going to continue doing. But it's just nice to get away to wherever, and strictly focus on songwriting without any of the distractions from from being at home or being with other people”.

Wallen expanded, “You know, it was just songwriters all in the house together, just spending a majority of our time working on the album - and getting on a jet ski or something too, in-between. But yeah, that song was hardest idea...I think people just get the wrong idea about about what a redneck is, or at least, when what we're thinking of when we say ‘redneck’. We kind of just wanted to put a little paint behind that, and let them know what we thought when people look down on us for being country or being this way and putting a big sense of pride on who we are”.

“Hey Mr City Man, Rollie on your wrist, NASDAQ in your hand,

Rolling your eyes at my beat-up truck

Feed in the back, spittin’ in my cup

Both our tags say Tennessee

I don't know you, I know you don't know me

But if this red light didn't have to change

I'd have time to say

-

When you die I hope you come back as a redneck

I hope it sticks on you like that hell-hot sun tattoo

I hope you break your back for that barely-get-by pay-check

And when you can't you've gotta go bloody up a buck or two

Catch the Holy Ghost on a pinewood bench

Drive across the county just to hook up a winch

Revel in the pride of a simple man

Maybe then you'll understand

-

I didn't choose my raisin’ and you didn't choose your

You work in four walls, and I'm workin’ four by fours

We ain't as different as you think we is

But I didn't pull up sayin’, ‘Won't you look at that born-rich, fed with a silver-spoon trust-fund kid’, like you did

-

So when you die I hope you come back as a redneck

I hope it sticks on you like that hell-hot sun tattoo

I hope you break your back for that barely-get-by pay-check

And when you can't you've gotta go bloody up a buck or two

Catch the Holy Ghost on a pinewood bench

Drive across the county just to hook up a winch

Revel in the pride of a simple man

Maybe then you'll understand

-

Why we say grace, why we hold hands

Keep a shotgun right by the nightstand

And why we love a good rain comin’ down

And never leave these so called backward backwood

Good for nothing hillbilly hick towns

-

So when you die I hope you come back as a redneck

I hope it sticks on you like that hell-hot sun tattoo

I hope you break your back for that barely-get-by pay-check

And when you can't you've gotta go bloody up a buck or two

Catch the Holy Ghost on a pinewood bench

Drive across the county just to hook up a winch

Revel in the pride of a simple man

Maybe then you'll understand

Oooh

Yeah, then you'll understand”

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