Original Coverage & Source Attribution: holler.country
It’s no secret that Morgan Wallen, HARDY and ERNEST have become a lynchpin of sorts for modern country music, with the prolific, chart-topping trio establishing themselves as three of the most dependable country music hitmakers of the 2020’s.
And while they’re already widely renowned for their songwriting prowess, Jelly Roll is underlining that they deserve credit for changing the atmosphere of the country industry, too.
While chatting on the Bussin’ with the Boys Podcast during his appearance with ERNEST a few years ago, Jelly emphasised how the three songwriters and artists had built a spirit of friendship and camaraderie in a town and scene that is famously cut-throat.
Jelly mused, “I’ve said from day one that ERNEST, HARDY and Morgan have created a sense of like actual genuine friendship in the music business that hasn’t been seen since how Waylon and Willie really were with each other. You know what I mean?”
The ‘Need a Favor’ singer-songwriter goes on to draw a comparison to himself and Struggle Jennings’ close friendship, which has spawned an array of joint projects and collaborations over the years, “Me and Strugg…that’s what we hope. Me and Strugg will watch y’all and go, oh, this is dope. We’ve been friends 20 years”.
Elsewhere in the conversation, Jelly highlights how Wallen has made a point of showcasing his buddies HARDY and ERNEST whenever he gets the chance, with one of the clearest examples of this being his tours, “And listen, the way they do it – I could bore y’all with nerding out about this. The way Morgan took HARDY and ERNEST on tour last year and then doubled back and brings them both back out next year”.
He gushes, “That’s a man that took his friends with him when he got in a situation to call his own shots. Because let me tell you how Nashville works. Every record label and booking agent in town were pitching everybody but HARDY and ERNEST…Because it’s the greatest look in the music business right now. Dude, he’s the 800 pound gorilla, dawg…Morgan Wallen is the king of country music right now”.
Jelly’s assessment is absolutely right, with Wallen doing his best to make the most of his global platform and elevate his pals by including them on his tours and his albums.
Earlier in the year, Wallen reflected on his unique bond with HARDY and ERN via Morgan Wallen Radio, “Me, HARDY and ERN have kind of just come up together from Day One almost. Just to see how far all three of us have come, it’s really impressive”.
He went on “I’m proud of all three of us…and I don’t think we lack confidence in ourselves. Which has honestly helped, I would say, the confidence that we have in ourselves and in each other. The way that we’ve been not scared to try what we wanted to try, and a lot of times people try to prevent you from doing those things and no-one was able to do that with us. And I’m just really proud that we did what we wanted”.
Between them, they’ve penned an array of now-iconic songs together, including ‘More Than My Hometown’, ‘I Ain’t Comin‘ Back’, ‘This Bar’, ‘I Got Better’ and many more.
Given how instrumental (pun intended) Wallen, HARDY and ERNEST have been in Music City over the best part of a decade, you can’t help but long for a full-blown collaboration between the three of them. They’ve all guested on another’s songs, but we’re yet to be treated to one track that features all three as credited vocalists.
Speaking to Holler back in 2022, HARDY admitted that even he is surprised they haven’t done a joint record yet, with the ‘Man in the Box’ maverick sharing, “Yeah definitely – I kind of can’t believe we haven’t done that yet. But it’s definitely going to happen”.
More recently, in September 2024, ERNEST casually dropped a bombshell on fans when he casually revealed that the trio have a collaborative album “just sittin around”.
If there is a project on the horizon, we have no doubt it would be overflowing with absolute country heaters – with a few genre-blurring earworms thrown into the mix for good measure, too. And you have to imagine that the man who was praising the three artists’ influence on Nashville, Jelly Roll, would have to be a part of the action.
In 2023, Jelly stressed to Holler that a song with Wallen was on his bucket list, before donning a link-up “inevitable”. Jelly teased, “I think the thing about Morgan is it’s a dream collab for me, but I don’t think of it that way because I think it’s inevitable”. We think this duo’s vocals would sound electric together, and we’re surprised we still haven’t witnessed Jelly and Wallen teaming up in the studio yet.
One of the most captivating qualities of this triumvirate of Wallen, HARDY and ERNEST is the fact that – as Wallen explained via Morgan Wallen Radio – they’ve never agreed to play by other people’s rules or abide by external, restrictive expectations.
As a result, if they do ever decide to join forces and release a full-blown album together, there’s no question that it will happen on their terms, when they feel the time is right for it.
But in the meantime, while we wait for that holy grail of modern country music, we’d love to get a song – just one song – featuring all three, to keep us going. Is that too much to ask?
