On a 2020 appearance on This Past Weekend with Theo Von, country music’s hottest trio, Morgan Wallen, HARDY, and ERNEST, discussed their songwriting process and recollect a specific memorable experience when writing one of their biggest hits.
It’s no secret that the three are genuinely close friends outside of music, and it seems that they have much more fun writing together than with anyone else. This is extremely evident in this case, where ERNEST hilariously revealed he was “faded” when they were writing the now 5x platinum hit, More Than My Hometown. ERNEST tells the story:
“The night we wrote ‘Hometown’ I was faded as hell. I always ask HARDY if his back hurt for carrying my ass through that song.”
Wallen then chimes in joking:
“Me and HARDY wrote that song.”
Hey, their process is their process- no judgement here. In a way, this is a testament to their craft, being able to create music while basically just hanging out and being themselves. ERNEST, drunkenly pumped about their progress on the tune, apparently added:
“Ain’t nobody writin’ THIS song in Nashville tonight!”
Now, it doesn’t seem that this was just an average night of writing for them, given the fact that ERNEST is usually the most open and vocal when it comes to his ideas lyrically. Wallen continued:
“That’s not even a diss at Ern because Ern is usually the one saying more than anyone. But his energy in the room… I don’t know that we would’ve wrote that song without that.”
“Usually he’s writing more lyrics than me and whoever else it is combined.”
ERNEST commonly being the driving force in a writing session makes this story all the more amusing. They’ve collaborated for over thirty songs on Morgan Wallen’s last two records alone, which are two of the most popular country albums of all time. Something is working- whether they’re sober or not doesn’t seem to impact the momentum in their creative process.
Despite the comedy of this story, it’s also very fascinating to note that while some would maybe see one person being “faded” as a distraction, they saw it as an energy booster. Whether conventional or unconventional, whatever energy ERNEST brought to the table that day helped the three collaborate and create one of their most successful songs to date.
Check out the clip and full conversation here: