Spirit Music has acquired select songs from singer-songwriter HARDY‘s music publishing catalog, while also signing the artist to a go-forward exclusive writing agreement with Spirit Music Nashville.

“I’m pumped to be joining the Spirit Music family,” HARDY said in a statement. “They believe in the songs I write and that means a lot to me. I’m excited to see what we can build together.”

HARDY is now with Spirit Music Nashville for songwriting, though he remains a partner in Relative Music Group as a publisher, which previously had his catalog. Relative Music Group signed a deal with Sony Music Publishing in 2021; Relative and/or Sony continue to own their portions of the select HARDY compositions Spirit acquired, while Spirit Music owns HARDY’s portion.

Mississippi native HARDY is a five-time ACM Award winner and a two-time CMA Award winner. As a songwriter, he’s won three CMA Triple Play Awards, three Association of Independent Music Publishers (AIMP) songwriter of the year accolades, and was named the 2022 BMI Country Songwriter of the Year.

HARDY is a co-writer on his own No. 1 Country Airplay hits including “One Beer,” and “Truck Bed,” as well as Dierks Bentley’s “Beers On Me,” which features BRELAND and HARDY. He is also a writer on his RIAA three-time platinum duet with Lainey Wilson, “Wait in the Truck,” and has co-written songs recorded by Morgan Wallen (“More Than My Hometown,” “Sand in My Boots,” “I’m A Little Crazy”), Jelly Roll (“Church”), Blake Shelton (“God’s Country”), Carrie Underwood (“Hate My Heart”), and has had songs recorded by Kenny Chesney, Jason Aldean, Dierks Bentley, Thomas Rhett, Dylan Scott, Florida Georgia Line, Cole Swindell, Vince Gill and more.

“HARDY is a multi-genre force of nature as an artist, a world-class songwriter and a great human being,” said Frank Rogers, chief creative officer of Spirit Music Group and CEO of Spirit Music Nashville, in a statement. “Spirit could not be more excited to welcome HARDY to the family and we are excited about helping him build on his already legendary career.” 

“After years of making music together, I couldn’t be more proud to start this new chapter with my pal HARDY here at Spirit,” said Derek Wells, vp of A&R/Production at Spirit Music Nashville/2Mix. “Great music with great people is the business we want to be in here, and HARDY hits that nail on the head. He is truly a ‘1 of 1’ talent and human that elevates every room he’s in.”

HARDY released Quit!! in 2024 and saw the title reach No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Hard Rock Albums chart. Last year, HARDY headlined a set during CMA Fest, and collaborated with Fred Durst and Chad Smith. He’ll release Country! Country! on Sept. 26 via Big Loud Records, spearheaded by tracks “Favorite Country Song,” “Bottomland” and the ERNEST collaboration “Bro Country.” The same week Country! Country! releases, HARDY will make his first headlining show at Madison Square Garden on his Jim Bob World Tour.

HARDY was represented in the new publishing deal by Scott Safford (Safford Motley PLC), while Spirit was represented by Matthew Beckett and David Crow (Milom/Crow/Kelley/Beckett/Shehan PLC).