“He Didn’t Write A Bunch Of Country Songs With People That Aren’t Country” — Hardy Talks About Post Malone’s Process With ‘F-1 Trillion’

As genuine as he seems.

Post Malone is gearing up to release his first full-length country album F-1 Trillion, and of course, it features a star-studded lineup of collaborators like legends Dolly Parton and Hank Williams Jr., as well as current stars like Billy Strings and Lainey Wilson.

And it also features some great Nashville writers, like Ernest, Rhett Akins, and Hardy, who will also be singing on a song called “Hide My Gun,” which they debuted at a Nashville concert not long ago.

On a recent episode of the Zach Sang Show podcast, where he discussed what it was like to work with Posty and how he came to Nashville and “fully immersed himself” in the culture of Music City and the way most country artists go about making music, which is pretty different than almost any other genre.

Hardy noted that other than the fact that they started writing and worked well into the night when they had meetings, sometimes working into the next morning, Post did it the full Nashville way and he respected that:

“Well that’s what I love about what he did. Other than the time frame, like instead of starting at 11 we started at night, but he came to Nashville and he sat and he listened.

He didn’t… and I don’t mean that like, he is a great writer, great writer, and he can write country lyrics, everything about it, but what I mean is he came to Nashville and said, ‘I wanna do this the way you guys do it.’

And he had songwriters that the world has never heard of, but in Nashville they’ve written tons of hit songs. He didn’t just want me and Ernest, Morgan and Brad Paisley, and Erich Church and Tim McGraw.”

Hardy said Post pushed to work with “the best” writers, not just the big names like Ernest, Morgan Wallen and others (though they did write together too):

“He was like, ‘Who are the good songwriters in this town? I wanna write with those guys.’ So I’d walk in the room and it would be, Rhett Akins, or a guy named Josh Thompson, these people that are amazing songwriters.

But basically, he immersed himself into the songwriting culture of the town, and I respect that a lot. He didn’t care about who anybody was, he just wanted to get the best song, and so he pulled in the best people for that job and made a great record because of it.

It’s the coolest thing that I’ve witnessed in Nashville, because I’ve heard the record and how good it is… it’s the coolest thing I’ve witnessed since I’ve been in town, to see somebody come and do it that way.”

Hardy explained that Post wanted writers who “speak the language” and know country, and made a real, concerted effort to be as authentic as he could coming into a totally new genre:

“And I’m not knocking anybody else’s process, but he didn’t write a bunch of ‘country’ songs with people that aren’t ‘country,’ or don’t speak that language.

He came to Nashville, and did it with people that know how to speak the language, and again, just a great record came out of that.”

I know a lot of the pre-released songs have been pretty pop-leaning, but I appreciate that Post seems to really respect how country music is made and I think there will be some really great songs on the record that will become staples within his broader catalog of non-country music.

Watch the clip here:

@zachsangshow Hardy on creating F-1 Trillion with @Post Malone #hardy #postmalone #f1 #countrymusic #nashville #lyrics #zachsangshow #zachsang #fyp #foryou @Amazon Music ♬ original sound – Zach Sang Show

And here’s a little bit of “Hide My Gun”:

@whiskeyriff @Post Malone @HARDY #whiskeyriff ♬ original sound – Whiskey Riff

F-1 Trillion is due out everywhere next Friday, August 16th, and Posty’s subsequent tour in support of the album will kick off in September in Salt Lake City, Utah and run through October ending in Austin, Texas.

F-1 Trillion tracklist:

1. “Wrong Ones” (Feat. Tim McGraw)

2. “Finer Things” (Feat. Hank Williams, Jr.)

3. “I Had Some Help” (Feat. Morgan Wallen)

4. Pour Me A Drink (Feat. Blake Shelton)

5. “Have the Heart” (Feat. Dolly Parton)

6. “What Don’t Belong to Me”

7. “Goes Without Saying” (Feat. Brad Paisley)

8. “Guy for That” (Feat. Luke Combs)

9. “Nosedive” (Feat. Lainey Wilson)

10. “Losers” (Feat. Jelly Roll)

11. “Devil I’ve Been” (Feat. ERNEST)

12. “Never Love You Again” (Feat. Sierra Ferrell)

13. “Missin’ You Like This” (Feat. Luke Combs)

14. “California Sober” (Feat. Chris Stapleton)

15. “Hide My Gun” (Feat. HARDY)

16. “Right About You”

17. “M-e-x-i-c-o” (Feat. Billy Strings)

18. Yours