HARDY reveals 'Quit!!' album release date; here's what influenced it's heavy rock sound

Multi-platinum country and rock chart-topping singer-songwriter HARDY has announced the release date for his anticipated rock album "Quit!!"

According to posts on his social media accounts, "Quit!!" will arrive on July 12, 2024. The announcement coincides with the release of his third song this year, "Psycho."

While arriving at 2024's Academy of Country Music Awards, HARDY offered the following statement about his addition to the ever-blurring lines between contemporary country music and the heaviest edge of the past two decades of modern rock:

"I'm excited that we've arrived at the place where we need to ask if country music mixes well with heavy rock sounds. Exploring what that can sound like for the last six months of my life has been really special. This album represents multiple rabbit holes of musical ideas and concepts that I have mulled over my entire life. Getting past the traditional country ways that I've expressed my ideas in the past to encapsulate rock bangers and more now. It's surreal to imagine that the teenage version of me that would get jealous that wasn't able to get up on those stages and play those shows is now doing that. If you look at the name of my album, I'm glad that I refused to believe that couldn't be me one day."

After closing 2023 with a series of shows at Nashville's Municipal Auditorium, HARDY is set to play his first-ever stadium and biggest headline show to date at Mississippi State University’s Dudy Noble Field in Starkville, Mississippi on Sept. 12, 2024. The venue is near his hometown of Philadelphia, Mississippi.

That date is prior to HARDY playing two nights at Colorado’s Red Rocks Amphitheatre on Oct. 20-21, 2024.

These dates are alongside playing CMA Fest at Nissan Stadium in June.

So far, 2024 has seen HARDY continuing to "(change) the trajectory of his life" with a series of serious, but as the artist himself has tongue-in-cheek added, "unserious" moves that are broadening and entrenching his appeal from blue-collar country fanatics to hard-partying tourists and white-collar corporate types in cities and towns big and small nationwide.

Those include pairing with Nickelback for an episode of "CMT Crossroads," plus releasing rock-inspired tracks like "Rockstar" and "Quit!!" to prepare for a "rock [album]" that will be released before his 2024 touring dates with openers including Travis Denning, Ella Langley, Kip Moore and Stephen Wilson Jr.

HARDY accompanied the Jan. 2023 release of his "the mockingbird AND THE CROW" album by playing the country-inspired "mockingbird" half at Los Angeles' Troubadour, then immediately following that set by playing the heavy metal-powered "THE CROW" at the Roxy, a two-minute drive away.

Two months later, his single “TRUCK BED” hit #1 on the Billboard Country Airplay and Mediabase Country charts. The achievement marked his first solo Billboard Country Airplay and Mediabase Country No. 1 hit and his fifteenth overall as a songwriter.

In April, HARDY announced he was personally enlisted by Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre and legendary music industry executive Jimmy Iovine to cut a "HARDY version" of Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre's 1994 rap classic "Gin and Juice."

"A while back, I got a phone call saying that Jimmy Iovine, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg would like me to record my own version of 'Gin and Juice' (for the short film accompanying the launch) of their new drink, Gin and Juice," says HARDY in a press statement.

"I'm still in disbelief, but I am so stoked that I'm dropping my version of 'Gin and Juice' with the blessing of Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg themselves. Thankful for the opportunity."

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: HARDY announces 'Quit!!' album release date. Here's what influenced it