Question: Tell me about your friendship with HARDY
Stephen Wilson Jr: “Oh, well, Michael’s has been a godsend. I met him in this building at Big Loud in 2016. I was walking up a stairwell, and it was one of my first big rides with this gentleman here named Craig Wiseman. I’d never met Craig, and I was nervous as hell. And I met Michael on the stairwell up. And I just, for some reason, I was really new to this whole game. Like I said, I was a scientist. Before, I really wasn’t. I was just a bit of an outsider here. And he was just so nice and welcoming. And something told me, hey, you’re going to work with that dude more or something. There’s something about that guy. And then sure enough, we ended up in writing rooms, just writing together. He was not an artist. I was not and artist. We were just trying to get cuts on other people’s records. And then we were cutting demos and all that stuff. I still have some of them demos. And yeah, so we were just songwriters at the start. That’s what he was. And that’s what I was. I never really wanted or was trying to be an artist ever. And at that time, I don’t think he was either. And he was just trying to write the best song he could that day. And so that’s really where it started, I think, our mutual obsession with the craft of songwriting. And I could kind of see that obsession in his eyes. Maybe he could see it in mine. And I’ll never forget when I first started putting songs out, like nobody gave. And that’s fine, nobody was supposed to. And I put out this song called The Devil. And to me, it was the first song I ever released. And it’s very much, it’s one of the. You know, the songs I’m the proudest of to this day. But it was not met with much response at all. Like it got like 10,000 plays in its first year. Pretty impressive. Needless to say, nobody was interested in SWJ. And that’s fine. Like I said, I did not put out this music for any of this to happen. I just put it out because I had to. And yeah, I was just sitting around. And I remember I got this text from Michael. And he was really starting to blow up as an artist. He was opening for Morgan. His career was really taken off as an artist and really doing well. And he really was an inspiration to me. Because I saw him have this mutual obsession with song writing, but starting the transition into an artist’s career and doing very well at doing it and kind of Bending genres and doing all that stuff and but still writing country songs. Like I was and And so there was a lot of inspiration that even though I wasn’t really setting out to do that that it could that it Could be done. Like he was proving it. He’s like kind of like macheting out a path for me Whether I wanted to walk down it or not is my choice, but he was at least showing me. Hey, you can It’s here now. We can make hey and we can So that was a big inspiration. But one day, he just texted me in the beginning of all this. After that song came out, nobody seemed to really give a damn. Didn’t get on any playlists at all, ever, it seemed like. But he texted me and said, hey, man, I just heard this song, The Devil. I just want you to know it’s one of the best songs I’ve heard in a long time. Please keep going. And that’s all he said. Please keep go. Don’t stop. And he had no reason to know. There was no reason for him to text me that, and he did, and I just listened to him. And sure enough, we ended up on tour together, you know, probably two years after that text. And he had me come up in the middle, like on our last show of the tour, you know, we’re both named after our dads. And you know I think it, you know, it was an emotional, we didn’t want the tour to end. So we were just like, let’s get super emo. And he’s like, come up and sing Father Son in the middle of my show. And I was like, what? And he was like no, I want you to come up and sing it. Like I don’t wanna sing on it. I want to you to just sing that song. And I’m like, but it’s your show. And he is like, yeah, I know, just do it. Or if you want to. And I am like, okay. And it was up, it was in Darien Lake, New York. And we went out and did it for the first time. And then he came in and chimed in in the middle of it and. Hit the harmony, and it was just like a crazy special moment the very first time we did it. And then we did at Faster Horses a couple weeks after that. And it was this like, we needed maybe put this on tape or something. You know, it was quite evident that, and we just went to my buddy’s living room and sang it. We sang the song three times. And they were actually rehearsals, like each three of them where it’s like, oh, let’s figure it out, you know, make sure. Cause he was playing guitar parts he had never played before and maybe hitting some new harmonies he’d never hit before. And, you now, so it was, it was you know we just rehearsed it three times. And I think, you no, I think rehearsal three was the take and we just sort of like, I think we got it. I don’t think we need to actually do it. I think just did it. Yeah, so we were done. And that’s it. That’s how the song it’s very live. It’s just me and him looking at each other and singing a song about our dad. So yeah, I’ll be eternally grateful for him and the opportunity and the stage he’s given me and the hospitality that he shared and and his whole crew from top to bottom that he’s curated has been just so good to me and he’s like Just a one-of-a-kind artist that is a one of a kind songwriter, but doing things that no one in this town has ever done. There’ll never be anyone like him. [00:00:02][0.0]

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