Country star Hardy loves Sleep Token, urges the haters to look past genre tags

Hardy in 2025 and Sleep Token in 2023 — (Image credit: Jason Kempin/Getty Images | Katja Ogrin/Redferns)

US country sensation Hardy is a big fan of Sleep Token.

In a new interview with Rolling Stone, the Mississippi singer/songwriter is asked what artists he’s currently listening to, and the UK masked metal outfit are the first name out of his mouth.

“Me and everybody else in the world: Sleep Token,” says Hardy. “I love Sleep Token, man. Sleep Token is the last thing that I’ve heard.”

He adds that, although “metalheads love to just shit on Sleep Token” due to their mainstream popularity and pop influence, to him the four-piece sound “very fresh”.

“And, if you just don’t tell anybody what genre it is, just listen to it and make an assessment, it’s fresh and it’s cool,” he continues. “The melodies are dope. He’s got a very dope voice. There’s a big, weird sexual energy with a lot of it, which I think is super cool. The fact that they’re all anonymous and in this spooky-ass shit, it’s just aesthetically really, really cool.”

Hardy is the latest in a long line of musicians who’ve voiced their admiration for Sleep Token since the band exploded in popularity in 2023. In June, Korn guitarist Brian “Head” Welch said that Sleep Token “shut up” their detractors when they headlined Download festival in the UK earlier that month. In July, Ghost frontman Tobias Forge named them as one of the bands proving that rock isn’t dead.

Sleep Token released their latest album Even In Arcadia in May and are making their way across North America on a headline tour. Although every date has sold out, the tour hasn’t been without controversy: at Louder Than Life festival in Louisville in September, multiple crowdsurfers were dropped during the band’s set, leading to widespread controversy and discussion about metal concert etiquette.

As for Hardy, he released his new album Country! Country! on September 26. It reached number four on the US Top Country Albums chart, and the musician has a handful of standalone North American shows booked for 2025 and 2026. See dates and details via his website.

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