HARDY Recalls Bus Crash That Nearly Killed Him

Would you mind telling the story about the bus? >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um we were we played a show in Bristol. It was a sat Saturday night in Bristol. Um I was opening for Morgan and then we decided to leave early so we could get to back to town because Bristol, Tennessee is only like four hours away. [gasps] Um and you gain an hour so it doesn't feel like you get in quite as late, you know. Um, so we were 20 miles from town, maybe less. We were like 15 miles back from town. And my tour manager at the time was already sleeping in his bunk. And um, my photographer and I were awake in the front lounge listening to something, listening to music, and uh, my bus driver pulled over on the side of the road and got he came and went to the bathroom. We stayed in there like 5 minutes which was really weird especially being this close to town but we didn't you know we were drinking we we didn't really think anything about it. We were just like it's kind of weird and um came out of the bathroom and I was like Ricky you good and he ignored me which I we were like what is he but he had his Bluetooth thing in so we always wonder if he was on the phone. So I I stepped up and I was like Ricky you good and he was like yep all good. I was like all right man you know we'll be there in a minute or whatever I guess. And anyway, we started going back down the road and then we just just the bus just went off in this like bottom. We we flipped like three times over. >> And you're still in the front lounge. >> Mhm. >> So you're not strapped in at all. You're >> Somebody said like shoes in a in a washing or shoes in a dryer. >> Uh and uh >> So what do you Cuz you must be sat and then feel the bus. We got well we felt the rumble strips and then we felt us like going off the road like you know every now and then your driver will hit like rumble strips and you're everybody's like but we felt the left side hit the rumble strips and we knew we were going off the road and um it just I don't know what it was but when it flipped it got airborne for a second. I I could just there was a moment of like silence before the thing and me and Tanner looked at each other and then just we both just like boom. It was like the hardest force I've ever felt in my life. Just got thrown to the other side. And then we both were like instantly knocked out. So I don't remember anything else. But the way the bus was laying, it's like if it's driving down the road like this, right? It flipped here and then it flipped here and then it flipped here and that's where we like ended or whatever. But I woke up. I was the first one to wake up which sucked. Uh, and I my head was like wedged under this the window which had busted out and um and I it there was like glass everywhere and there was a piece of glass from the window like stuck in my head and I just had to like pull my head out front of this thing [sighs and gasps] and uh I walked up. It was just we went down a really steep hill so I had to walk up. It wasn't like steep like that ceiling by any means but it was probably a 15 foot, you know, like hill or whatever. And um it was cold. It was like 35° and [snorts] uh I was trying I could not flag down a car. It was like 4 in the 3:00 or 4 in the morning and so I could not get a car. I didn't have my phone. I'm blind without my glasses so I couldn't see. I thought everybody in the bus was dead because no everybody was nobody was conscious. Um so I was just helpless. Like I didn't know what to do. And so I went back to the bus to try to find my phone but I couldn't [ __ ] see. So like and I didn't have and I was wearing all black so I couldn't find anything. I mean, the bus looked like it looked like a bomb went off in there. It was just it was just you can't describe it. You have to Google it. But um but yeah, uh went back up to the highway. I'm I'm in the road. I had a white circle on my hoodie and I'm in the road like shaking it and then running to the side. Nobody would stop. Um and then I heard my photographer uh wake up and he was screaming bloody murder, all this thing. and and um and then my tour manager somehow he was blocked in the back that the door was shut to the you know how have you been on a tour bus like yeah the doors you know all that. So that door was shut. Somehow he got it open and uh I mean he's all banged up and he's like looking at me like you're looking at me right now. And I was like I know. And I was like we have to have a phone now. And it was a miracle. His phone somehow and all of that craziness had gotten from his bunk to the front lounge like slid somewhere and and it was at the bottom of a pile of like rubble in inside the bus and went that the second I said we have to get a phone right now. um his alarm to wake up cuz we would have gotten back to town went off. And so I literally reached down into moved all the the whatever the hell it was. Got his phone, called 911. We were thankfully one exit away from uh like a hospital exit. It was like an exit built for like a big hospital complex. Ambulance was there in like 5 minutes. And uh yeah, so all that being said, uh rest in peace Ricky. Ricky, we we wrecked because he had a brain tumor he didn't know about. And so he had either an aneurysm or a a stroke or a seizure. It was probably a seizure because he he they sent him to Vanderbilt because they were asking him questions and he didn't know what day it was or where he was and they were like, "Okay, he's head trauma. We need to get him somewhere." And they didn't find it for like a week, but come to find out he had a brain tumor, ended up killing him about a year later. Um Tanner uh broke like every my photographer broke like every bone in his body. And I just laugh and we can laugh about it now because it was just crazy. But I remembered seeing his uh his bone. He had a compound fracture that broke the skin. So he had a bone sticking out of the top of his foot and he kept he kept telling the uh we're lay we're now we're in the bus and come we're helping. I'm just you know the ambulance is there and he kept pulling on his bone and he was like there's a stick in my foot [laughter] and they're like stop pulling on it. It's a bone. But um yeah, Tanner broke his neck, his ribs, his back, his foot. He was I mean he was so mangled. He's a smaller guy. And um >> I uh Noah, the guy in the bunk, he actually turned out the best cuz he he didn't he was just Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. He was pretty banged up, but no serious injuries. And um I just had a concussion and like a few staples in my head and I fractured my back, but it wasn't even like not very serious, you know what I mean? I like I hurt for a couple months. It's a compression fracture. So I guess when we hit I think my spine just did like an accordion. And >> you feel a little bit shorter than you did before the >> Oh, I I physically was like a half an inch shorter. [laughter] But I but they missed it in the hospital and I like a week later C my wife and I are on a walk and um >> I [clears throat] was like man I feel this like jolt of just like pain that goes through my body >> and I got went and got an X-ray and it was like a bunch of square vertebraes and then one just looked like that right in the middle and they call that a compression fat fracture and they said it you know I haven't gotten it looked out again but said takes six eight months to there's nothing you can do you just it kind of gets back to normal and >> go steady >> but all that being said um yeah it was a very very uh just unpredictable. You know, when you think about it, like we weren't we didn't deal with a drunk driver. We didn't hit a deer or just you know what I mean? We didn't there wasn't icy, there was no snow, no bad weather. >> It wasn't just negligent. >> No, he just he had a brain episode and and it just happened to be then, you know, I mean it >> such a freak thing. Do you think that his trips to the bathroom uh before were early? Oh, there's something going on. I don't feel too >> sorry, I forgot I spoke to that. That's exactly what was happening. So, he was entering into I think it was an aneurysm. Um but he had whatever had happened had happened and it was slowly getting worse and worse or whatever. >> Um and it's so funny. I've heard my dad had a good friend uh that he used to work uh my dad was a high school referee football referee and and uh his one of his best friends had an aneurysm as a referee on the field and it was just very similar cuz he said his name was Lewis and he said Lewis they looked over and he was laid out and they just thought he got knocked over by a player and he got up and he was like no I'm fine but every like minute that went by he was acting crazier and weirder and and then sure enough he you know he almost died but it was a miracle man. You should Google. If you Google just like my name in the in the bus accident, the pictures will come up. There's one of the inside of the bus. Look it up. That's pretty pretty gnarly. >> [ __ ] Um I'm interested. First off, I'm really really glad that you guys are all still here and it feels >> Thank you, man. >> a lot like a miracle. Secondly, I've been on a good few tour buses. Uh single deck is to double deckers especially around Europe. >> That's scary, dude. >> That would have been different. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, but every single time, especially on a double-decker when you're at the front lounge on the top, >> it's you and a piece of glass and then just the road in front of you. >> Yeah. >> Every single time that I've been on a bus like that that's been moving, there is a bit of me that goes >> like in cars, you're supposed to have your seatelt on at all times. >> Yeah. >> You need to spend a lot of time touring, which means you're going to have to be back in a bus a good bit. And you would have had to have got back on a bus. >> Yeah. What was the first time that you got back on a tour bus for a long night journey like after that experience and and sort of how are you now with that? >> Um, this is a this was a this was a journey. This was like a very long So I forgot to mention, but this was 3 weeks before my wedding. My wife was on her bachelorette party the last night. They had again it was 3:00 in the morning. She there in New Orleans. They're all hammered having a great time. I FaceTime her and I'm just like bleeding just bleeding out of my nose and my head and I just look like, you know, I look like I've been in a car accident and I'm freaking out cuz I' I've hit my head really hard and I'm actually pretty with it, but I just I like a brain injury has always freaked me out and I know how that works is sometimes you can hit your head and then you don't know it till like hours later if you don't go get it checked out and d and uh anyway, so I was like, "Hey, I like I we've been in a bus wreck. Like I love you. I don't know what's going to happen. We're going to the hospital right now." And so she's freaking out. So all that because and that's my my number one thought was like I have to get married. Like I literally I have my wedding. Like do not [ __ ] you know like you're going to be fine. >> Don't die before the wedding. Don't die. >> Don't die before the wedding. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. So all that being said, we got married. We went to uh we the week like a week or two after that was CMA week which was very busy and it was a time where which is this this week is also CMA week. Uh, I was I think I'm pretty sure I was like nominated for a lot. It was a very busy like a good like successful week, but I was like a lot going on that week >> with a >> um >> bandage wrapped around your head. >> Yeah, I I had won I won BMI songwriter of the year that year. Um just a lot of and then immediately after the like the night of the CAMs, Cali and I, my wife and I flew to LA to go to Thailand for our honeymoon. So after the wreck, I never had like a t time to like process it. 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