Hardy is following up one impulsive country lyric with another. The "Wait in the Truck" singer has chosen "Truck Bed" as his next radio offering. This very modern-day drinking song features a more subtle form of anger.

Unlike his last truck song — a Lainey Wilson duet with vigilante justice at its core — one doesn't feel Hardy's fury until the very last chorus in this song, when a full-throttled electric guitar replaces the gentler version that had been plucking along as he tells of getting blackout drunk in the front yard of his girlfriend's house. He's screaming by this point, and it's whiplash if you'd settled into his early cadence.

"She said, 'Don't come home if you go to the bar' / I said, 'Okay baby,' then got drunk out in the yard," he sings to open the first verse. It's so George Jones-ian.  

"Yeah, she meant business this time / I can't believe my bloodshot eyes," he adds to close the stanza. 

The clever lyrics (Ashley Gorley, Ben Johnson and Hunter Phelps helped Hardy write it) will be overshadowed by the thick guitar outro to "Truck Bed." Country radio has never played anything this close to heavy metal, but the song is finding space in the weeks since its official release. Apple Radio and other streaming services were ahead of the curve on the genre-melting song from The Mockingbird & the Crow. It's a song that proves the old songwriting adage that you don't write what's hot, but what's going to be hot next.

Did You Know?: "Truck Bed" lives on The Crow portion of Hardy's most recent album. These songs were heavily influenced by rock and metal.

Hardy's "Truck Bed" Lyrics:

Chorus:
I woke up on the wrong side of the truck bed this morning / With a bone dry bottle of Jack I was pouring / Damn, she got some nerve, when she kicked me to the curb / Guess you can say I got what I deserve / 'Cause I woke up on the wrong side of the truck bed this morning.

She said, Don't come home if you go to the bar / I said, Okay baby, then got drunk out in the yard / 2AM I knock-knock, knocked up on the door / But she never unlock-locked it, guess I don't live there no more / Yeah, she meant business this time / I can't believe my bloodshot eyes.

Repeat Chorus

I used that empty bag of corn to rest my head / A camo jacket for a blanket, then passed out like I was dead / Still got one heck of a buzz / If I look a train wreck, it's because.

Repeat Chorus

I woke up on the wrong side of the truck bed this morning / Yes, I did / I can't believe I gotta be at work at 9 / That f—-ng bird's about to catch this 45 / Oh, I guess if this really is goodbye / At least I took my boots off this time

Repeat Chorus