HARDY releases anthemic new single 'ROCKSTAR'. Watch the music video here

Multiple-time Mississippi-born country music award-winning performer and songwriter HARDY's rock leanings take their most pronounced turn with his new Feb. 9 single, "ROCKSTAR."

"'ROCKSTAR' is my 'REDNECKER' for rock 'n roll. I feel like it's the first rock song I've released that doesn't take itself seriously and the music video follows suit," HARDY says.

He's referencing "REDNECKER," his breakout 2018 country hit that outlined how proudly being from the smallest town, via having the most enormous taxidermied animal heads and caught fish on his wall, most heavily-accented Southern drawl, most authentic chewing tobacco, loudest Ford F-150 pickup truck engine and exhaust, plus the most attentive bluetick coonhound made him the most ideal "redneck" ever.

A press release notes that the Big Loud-signed artist, who has topped country's charts nearly 20 times in the past half-decade as either a singer or songwriter, is "leaning heavily on the tongue-in-cheek, signature songwriting that's earned him a caseful of awards and accolades" and "[launching] a rocking chapter of self-referential hits with a track built on a sticky, earworm hook" produced by diamond-certified producer Joey Moi.

The track, written by HARDY, Jacob Durrett (Chris Lane's "Big, Big Plans," HARDY's "QUIT!!," Morgan Wallen's "I Wrote The Book") and Blake Pendergrass (Morgan Wallen's "180," Chase Rice's "Bad Day To Be A Cold Beer"), includes the lyrics "Cause everybody's got a song called Rockstar / Runnin' up the pop charts / Talking all the s*** they do / I've been Houdini with my commas / Pissing off my momma / Getting all these new tattoos."

"ROCKSTAR" joins January-released "QUIT!!" among unapologetically rock-inspired songs HARDY has released in preparation for what he has recently noted on social media is 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. begin in late May 2024.

The music video for "ROCKSTAR" continues in HARDY's 2024 nods to multiple generations of rock icons, including AC/DC, Guns' n Roses, KISS, Limp Bizkit and Nirvana, among many — including Nickelback, with whom he briefly performed in concert in Aug. 2023.

Also notable is "QUIT!!"' s release being paired with a 22-minute "becoming THE CROW" short film directed by Justin Clough. That documentary highlights the moment when HARDY's dynamic vision of writing country-influenced lyrics over rock-style riffs and playing with "bright and dark" emotions and moods took their fullest shape.

This occurred during 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.

Dig deeper into his rock interests, and in a Jan. 2023 Tennessean feature, HARDY recalls being ten years old at a Creed concert in Jackson, Mississippi and when hearing the band play their top-10 rock hit "My Own Prison."

"Hearing the key change before they played that song — it was THE one I wanted to hear — and then when the song came in, I was so ecstatic. You make music for moments like that."

"Try to hate the songs [HARDY is releasing right now] — you can't," says "the mockingbird AND THE CROW" co-producer and Music City session player Derek Wells. "They're all the real deal."

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Watch the music video for HARDY's new single 'ROCKSTAR'