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Foreign.
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Welcome to this episode of Kenneth Saves World. It's the happiest Happy Hour because J.T. harding is here. Cheers to you in this John Daly.
A
Thank you. Wow. You know Kennedy, her happy hour is from 5 to February. I love it. Thanks for having me. Don't adjust your computers. I'm really dressed like this.
B
I like the cheetah print.
A
Oh, sugar on the rim.
B
That's right.
A
I could write a song about you and your fiance. Yes. Hey, if you're at work, drum on your desk. If you're in your car, flash your lights. And if you're still in bed, dance on your back. It's a rocket ship blast. Kennedy Saves the World podcast. Let me know when it starts. Kennedy, how many teenagers went to bed kissing their pillow hoping it would be you one day? And now you're engaged. I met your fiance last night. He is a riot. Congrats.
B
Thank you. Yeah, he used to watch me when he was in high school.
A
All right.
B
Not funny. And when we met, we met in the elevator, and he had no idea who I was loving.
A
An elevator. Okay. Sorry. I'm going down.
B
Going down.
A
By the way, I am wearing an MTV shirt with the American flag. Hopefully you'll autograph it after.
B
I love that. That is dope. That reminds me of watching MTV at my grandma's in the summer. So I had a John Daly in Nashville at John Rich's bar, and that's why I wanted to serve it to you. Cause it's iced tea, lemonade, Arnold Palmer. I know. When you add vodka, it becomes a John Daly.
A
Oh, I love it. I love it. I love it. Yes. Well, you know, in Nashville, they think Smoking the Bandit is a documentary. So they just love to drink down there. And I love to live there. Yes. I live in Nashville. I absolutely love it.
B
How long have you been there?
A
Probably. What time is it now? No, probably at least 12 or 15 years.
B
Okay.
A
If you want to be. The best songwriters in the world are in Nashville. And I wanted to be where the best songwriters are, so that's why I'm there. But I do love.
B
You've also performed, so it's not just songwriting.
A
Yes. I love to do songwriter shows, and.
B
Yes, but you are. You are a performer as well. So I want to know about. Before we get into your songwriting, which is fascinating.
A
Enough about my songs. Let's talk about me.
B
Exactly. So but we'll. We'll get into the songwriting process, because that is a part of your off Broadway musical that I saw last night, Music City. It is fantastic. If People want to see something and really discover something on their own. This is such a great show to see. And obviously the underpinning of that. It's all your music. It is all. The entire score is music that. That you have written.
A
Yeah. Songs like Sangria for Blake Shelton, Beers and Sunshine, Darius Rucker, Smile I wrote with Uncle Cracker, different for Girls. Lots of country hits. All put into this edgy musical about songwriters struggling to make it in Nashville. And you saw it. I love it. It's not cheesy or anything. It's very authentic.
B
Yeah.
A
But anyway. Yes. And you.
B
You become really emotionally connected to the characters. Always my mark for whether it is a play, a Broadway musical, a movie, a TV show. Do I care about the characters? And you do. And I actually cried at the end.
A
Oh.
B
And I know I wasn't the only one, but it was such a satisfying show. But before you were a very successful songwriter, you worked with Marilyn Manson and Lincoln Park.
A
Yeah. Don't say Manson's name three times. He'll appear in a puff of smoke. We don't want that.
B
I was introduced to him as Brian.
A
Oh, wow. I've never called him that. And I worked with him for a year.
B
Yes. So I. I've always known him as Brian because he was. He was like an audio tech for Nine Inch Nails.
A
Wow.
B
So. And he was working in Nine Inch Nails Studio when they were finishing up Downward Spiral. And that's when I met him. And he was, you know, he didn't have any makeup on. He was this skinny, gangly kid. And he's like, I'm from Florida. My name's Brian. And then he became like this scary Manson character.
A
Yes.
B
It's hard for me to call him Manson. He's kind of a little. But obviously really talented. How did you work with Manson?
A
So I grew up in Detroit. Move to LA. Cause on the back of all my CDs, it said Los Angeles. So I got a job at a record store at Tower Records. I was passing out my demo on Sunset. Yes. Probably came in. I even stole a FedEx jacket. Well, I borrowed it from someone and snuck into all the record companies because we didn't have the Internet then. I couldn't get into record companies. So I would, you know, tap dance like Obi Wan Kenobi going into the Death star. Put my CD in every mailbox with the FedEx jacket on. I would wave to the, you know, secretaries. But. So I got a record deal. It fell through, but I wanted to stay in the music business and I. I Knew someone that worked for Marilyn Manson and he was like, well, we're going on this world tour. You can come and pass out backstage passes. Late 90s.
B
Okay.
A
Yeah.
B
So that was like a real time
A
God's Guns and Government tour. Yes. And I would pass out backstage passes after the show. I would get chased through the arena from. By people's boyfriends. I mean, it was wild. We went all over the world. Places that speak different, that eat different food, different cultures. I've been to Russia, Japan, Iowa. You name it, I've been there.
B
So I used to go when Manson. Because Manson was signed to Trent Reznor's label.
A
Yes.
B
And when they would play with Nine Inch Nails, I went on a bunch of those shows. Went on that tour to a bunch of those shows. Twiggy and Danny Loner from Nine Inch Nails had the stack of passes and they would go find cute girls in the crowd before the show and they would give the passes to the cute girls.
A
Yes, they can.
B
You still do that nowadays? Or is that.
A
No, I don't have to worry about anymore.
B
Has that process been me too, Ed out of existence?
A
I don't know, because I don't have to do that anymore, luckily. But it was. It was a while.
B
You were that guy.
A
Yeah. And like some nights I would go, like, over the barricade to give someone a pass, and then the whole crowd would grab me. They didn't know what I was doing. Then the roadies would try to pull me back over the barricade. Like I was like one of those, you know, Stretch Armstrong, you know, Dolls. And I'd be like, let me go. Yes. And then Linkin park hired me after that.
B
Okay.
A
And they had a record label, so I thought, well, if I work for Linkin park, maybe I can get my songwriting back into it. I never said to Linkin park, I'm a songwriter. Pay attention to me. That's not the. The way to do it. But they. They knew I was a songwriter and they. And very low maintenance. And they started letting me open up for them. And I'll never forget it. I opened up for them in front of JTX. Yes. In front of 20,000 people in Kansas. And this is going to give you a chill. The entire audience when I was singing was going, you suck. You suck. Anything not tied down was thrown at me. I was bleeding from the head. True story. Chester, who is in heaven now, came on stage and rescued me. But a kid told his dad about me, and I was in the newspaper the next day, and someone in LA was like, I think this is the guy that had a record deal. And he said, listen, we love your songs. You got to go to Nashville. Your lyrics are like 3D movies. So that's kind of how it all happened. I mean, it's so you think in the middle, like a movie, we just don't know what the plot is.
B
Moment of my life. But actually, like, that is the inflection point that is about to change the entire trajectory of your life.
A
Yes. Kind of like being on this podcast. Kidding. Yeah. I mean, you can't make it up. And I was like, this is the lowest point of my life. I'm just an assistant. I'm kind of a roadie. People are throwing stuff at me, and then I end up getting a writing deal out of it. Yeah, you. You can't make it up.
B
So how do you get a writing deal when you move to Nashville? How does that process work?
A
So this person in LA called around and said, hey, there's this guy that writes these songs. It's not exactly country, you know, I. I went from, you know, heavy metal to pedal steel. I like to tell people, and someone there signed me and they said, listen, we like your lyrics. Just come here and write with a lot of people. And when I got.
B
How does that work?
A
In what way?
B
Like it. When you're writing with other people, like, are you in a studio? Is it like a music city where you've got a couple people with guitars and they're going. Because also, in Miss Americana, Taylor Swift's documentary, my favorite part of that documentary, and I have a love hate relationship with her, was watching her and Jack Antonoff, like, sort of humming and coming up with lyrics.
A
And that's what it's like.
B
Okay.
A
Yeah. And it's kind of, you know, I tell people songwriting is like sausages. Don't watch them being made, just enjoy them when they're done, because it's not that glamorous. But in Nashville, which I love living there, there's Music Row, and you may know this, it's all of these houses where families used to live, but now instead of, you know, bedrooms, they're filled with computers and guitars. And you just kind of go every day and you come in with a few ideas. You have them in your phone. It's kind of like a think tank. And I write a lot with my buddies, and we just sit there and say, what's happening in your life? What's going on? And you come up with these songs and we write thousands of songs.
B
Are you music first or lyrics first?
A
A little bit of both. I can only play guitar. Really basic.
B
Okay.
A
But a lot of times, I'll have a title. Like, I wrote the song Smile with Uncle Cracker. That was his title. He was like, what about a song called Smile? I wrote Sangria with Blake Shelton. That was my friend Josh's title. But there's a. There's a hotel in Malibu. It just burned down, unfortunately. But it's been abandoned for years right on the coast. And I always thought by the age you could fall madly in love in bed with somebody. Yes, it's near there.
B
Yes.
A
And so I kind of wrote Sangria about thinking about that place, Beers and Sunshine. I wrote Darius Rucker. The original title to that was the only BS I need is Bikinis and Sunshine. You love that, right? But Darius said, let's make it more universal. Let's turn it into Beers and Sunshine. And I thought, this guy's a genius. So that's kind of how it is. So I've written thousands of songs. When you come see Music City, the musical, you're gonna see the best 13 days of my life. Cause it takes a lot of songs to get hits. Yeah.
B
No, but it's one of those music.
A
So if you're just tuning in, my pronoun is y'. All. Okay. Thank you.
B
So how did Music City come together? Was it someone else who went, wow, this guy's got an incredible catalog. Let's take his songs because he'll. He'll let us use them for the musical, and then let's build a story around it. Or were you, like, my songs are so good, they would make an amazing musical.
A
You're gonna love this. I had. It's a great question. I had the extreme honor to go to Afghanistan and perform for American troops. I flew on Black Black Hawk helicopters. This was the, like, 2009.
B
Okay.
A
And I'm not as brave or as
B
smart as all the soldiers was fighting in Afghanistan. 2004, 2005.
A
Oh, my goodness.
B
To this day, he still talks about the people who came to the base because that was a really gnarly time during the war and how much it meant to all of the soldiers there to connect with people, you know, and you.
A
I should have asked him about that. Wow. Yeah. I was voted most likely to be beat up by my own troops. But anyway, so I went to all of these bases, and I left it all on the stage. You know, they had an hour to forget about everything, and I would play my songs. I brought my band. So I met, and I'M just being honest here. This is not political. I met so many soldiers after I would shake hands, take pictures, and a lot of them would say, yeah, I kind of signed up to make money on the weekends. I never thought I would be over here. So I wrote a song called How Did I Get Here? And Peter Zinn, who I knew in seventh and eighth grade, he followed his loafers to the theater world. I followed my checkerboard vans to Hollywood. And he heard the songs at a party. And someone said, J.T. harding from Middle school wrote these. And he said, I've got to write a musical around this song. How did I get here? Yes. So I started sending him my hits that I've written for Kenny Chesney, different for girls, Dirks Bentley. And he said, because he asked me for more songs and he said, hey, man, I need songs that you've written. And I said, no, Peter, I wrote these. They're on the radio. You could have knocked him over with a wet cigarette. He couldn't believe it. So, yes. So all the country hits are mixed in. I don't want to tell everyone the story, but that's how it came about. And thanks for asking. And you know, it's a very American story and it's very authentic. You don't have cows wandering through the set. I wish we did, but yeah. So that's how it came about. And I love being in New York. The sexy pierced belly button on the body of America. New York City. I'm here.
B
How did. So your cast is incredible because everyone in the cast plays an instrument. Plays an instrument, which is really. And. And plays. I loved Anne, by the way, the guitar player.
A
She's like Keith Richards younger sister. She's just in the back jamming.
B
She's like Joey Ramone.
A
Yes.
B
Reincarnated as a woman.
A
Yes, exactly.
B
She, like Anne is awesome.
A
Like Anne is Gabba gaba. Hey, you have a guitar. You just glad to see Kennedy. Hey.
B
So Anne was great, but everyone in the cast was so incredible because they are just multi tool players.
A
Yes. So as Kennedy's explaining, the director said, I'm gonna only cast people that play an instrument. There's not a band under the stage. There's not an AI karaoke machine in the ceiling. And I said, wait a minute. Marijuana is legal where you live? We're never gonna be able to do that. But Eric Tucker, the director, said, we're gonna do it. So the cast, they play the drums, the pedal steel, the bass, the piano, and they all act out scenes in the play. And That's. And the play is also set in a Nashville honky tonk. So as you know.
B
And it feels like that. Like the way I was looking around at some of the eight by tens and the posters and the music stuff you have all over the walls, and I was like, we gotta put a picture of you. I was like, I wouldn't be surprised if this is all JT stuff.
A
Yeah. Well, I went to record stores and coffee shops in Nashville, and I said, do you have any posters? Because I'm doing this musical in New York, and I'd love to hickey the walls with all this authentic, real Nashville stuff. And so they said, yeah, sure. So, yeah, that's. There you have it.
B
Because oftentimes, especially in New York, it just becomes a caricature of what they're trying to capture.
A
Amen.
B
And it didn't feel like that. And it's. You know, the. The show opens with an open mic setup, and it's like. It really is an open mic situation, which I was dying. And then there's a point in the show where people slow dance. And Newt, who plays the. Came up to me. He's like, would you like to dance?
A
He asked you to dance? Yeah.
B
And I looked at Fred and I was like, like, no. And then I felt really bad because
A
the way I said, no, he's gonna put that on his resume. Turned down by Kennedy.
B
He was like, do you want to dance? And I was like, what?
A
Yes.
B
And because I was holding hands with my fiance, and he's like, do you want to dance? And I was like, no.
A
Yes. That song is Alone with you that I wrote with my friend Shane McInally and Jake Owen turned into a number one hit. But in the show, the bar owner plays it on piano, and she turns it into a prayer. And couples would get up and start dancing.
B
Beautiful. I loved that song.
A
So the director said, oh, people are dancing. Why don't we make this part of the show? Everyone in the cast asked someone to dance. It's so classic that you turned him down.
B
Sorry.
A
Fred should have asked you to dance. But when you're at the show, you don't really know. You don't know how to do that. No, no, it's. It's. It's fantastic.
B
And what is the song that. The opening song.
A
Y' all some party people. Yeah, It's a song I love that really didn't become a hit how. But what's great about this?
B
I just missed it, and I'm like,
A
oh, what's great about this?
B
And I never knew.
A
What's great about the show is it's about songwriters that can't seem to really make it, but they're trying. And then I have songs that didn't make it that are in the show that are becoming people's favorites. Like yours.
B
Yes.
A
Is that meta? I don't know what meta means. Is that meta? I don't know.
B
I. I understand what you're saying. I think that's how the world works. And so you had one of the women and. And I don't know if she was a plant, but she played this beautiful song that she wrote for her now husband when they were engaged.
A
No, no. That was part of the starting interrupt. So that was. Was part of the open mic area. Tucker, who directs the show, he said, let's have the show begin with a real open mic. Anyone can set up. So if you come to Music City, anyone can sign up. Sorry, sign up. We have a guitar, we have a piano. You can plug your phone in. And then the show morphs into the real show. But you still think it's ridiculous. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Yeah. So she was a real songwriter that lives in Long island and she played the song on the piano. That was not part of the show.
B
That was such. But she said like, like, yeah. I just posted this to Tick Tock before I went to a yoga class at 6 o' clock at night and I came out and it had a million views.
A
Yes.
B
And it was like. But it was such a beautiful song.
A
Exactly. Can I tell you something? Can I speak freely?
B
Yes.
A
A incredibly great 85 year old woman signed up for the open mic. This is all true. Do you know the song Roll out the Barrel? She gets up there. She gets up there and she sings, Roll out the condom, let's all go and make love. The audience thought it was part of the show. I said, I did not write this song. That is a true story.
B
That's amazing.
A
Never know what you're gonna get at the open mic. It is wild.
B
Yeah. But it's so cool that that's how it starts, which, you know, lends itself. And it's hard to be surprised when you go and see a musical in New York City.
A
Oh, thank you. Put that on the poster.
B
I feel like we've seen everything from. Because I saw Hedwig and the Angry Inch when it was off Broadway. It was like off. It might have even been downtown. And my old roommate from MTV was like, oh, you have to see this. And she described it. I'm like, that sounds so stupid. And Then I saw it, and homeboy was. Was Hedwig. And I was like, this is insane.
A
This is incredible. Yes.
B
And. And that was, like, one of the times I was surprised. Like, Book of Mormon, but, you know, it's like you feel like you've seen everything, like, every stunt and. But this was so cool. I was so. I was so happy the whole night.
A
Thank you. Well, the cast makes it come alive. And Eric Tucker, the director, Peter Zinn, who wrote the book, I just did the songs, but without a drop of alcohol. I leave intoxicated because Lauren Pritchard and Stephen Michael Spencer, who lead the cast, they're incredible. And also, this is not like, I woke up, I found a guitar, I pet the cat. It's nothing like that. It's real country songs in a musical.
B
But especially. So Lauren records as Lolo.
A
Yes. She's fantastic.
B
And she's had. Have four records.
A
Yes.
B
Wow.
A
And I don't even know if she's acting. She's so real. She lives in a small town now in Tennessee.
B
Really? Great.
A
Yeah, she's. She's fantastic.
B
She's so good.
A
Yes.
B
But she had a few moments I was trying to figure out, like, who is my favorite.
A
Yeah. I don't know. I don't know. And I saw Fred rubbing your back sometimes, and I was like, okay, we're. We're doing good. They're feeling the romance. Thanks for being there. And it's so fun to be in New York.
B
Yeah. Don't go anywhere more. Kennedy saves the world right after this.
A
Cheers to America's 250th birthday. Get 20% off your first purchase at foxnewswineshop.com with code FNRADIO20. 20% discount excludes wine club offers and cannot be combined with any other promotion. Expires July 31, 2026. Must be 21 or older to order. Please drink responsibly.
B
What are the plans for the show?
A
Well, we hope all of the Kennedy fans come see it. It's off Broadway, and it's so intimate in this small theater, and I just love it this way. If it was in a giant theater, I don't know if it would be the same.
B
Would you be able to do the tables?
A
And I'm not sure. So we're just gonna focus on right now and keep it going and hope a lot of people sign up for the open mic night. And thank you for being there.
B
Yeah, no, I. I loved it. I'm so impressed by your career. I'm so fascinated by the songwriting process. And does AI affect songwriters now? Because I know AI can help pretty much augment anything. But are there younger writers who are like, well, you know, I'm stuck on this verse. Why don't I ask AI? Why don't I put everything I've ever written into Chat GPT and see what it spits out for this one section?
A
Great question. And not just younger writers, older writers, middle aged writers, all writers. And listen, I think AI can be a great tool. I hope it like cures diseases and helps us all or stops war, whatever it can do. But in the songwriting world, there's just, and I'm not the first person to say this, there's just one of me. There's just one of you. There's just one Dana Perino. There's just one Jon Bon Jovi. Like, why would you let a machine speak for you? Like what, what we have in our hearts, it comes from us. So I just don't know how a machine is going to come up with that. But maybe I'm wrong. Like, what's one of your favorite all time songs? Like the Wedding. Like what would be a wedding song for you and Fred? Sorry to put you on the spot, but it's not.
B
But just like have it like, just like heaven. Yeah, yeah.
A
There's no way AI is going to write that as far as I know. Or the House that Built Me that Miranda Lambert sings, or Total Eclipse of the Heart. I mean, these are classics and I just. Maybe someday a computer will and, and I'll come in here and I'll be eating my leopard print jacket and say I was wrong, but not yet. But don't let a machine choose your words for you. You know, speak out, especially if your voice is trembling when I, when I write a song written about you. But I'm not going to mention it.
B
That is true.
A
Yes. I won't tell on your name. Her name is Kennedy, by the way.
B
That's such an FU song, by the way. That is not a romantic song.
A
I'm adopted. I thought it was about adoption.
B
He wrote that when he was mad at me. And then he was like, here's the tape. Go and listen to it. See if you recognize anything on there. That's incredible. And I heard that song and I was like, dude. And he was like, yeah, yeah, that's right.
A
We're talking about the Goo Goo Dolls. If you don't. What an iconic song. Hey, do your viewers and everyone already know because I'm gonna get your. Your book. It's thirteen hundred dollars on Amazon.
B
That's wild.
A
So how did you go from Oregon? Because I don't know KROQ to mtv. Did you audition?
B
So here's what happened. When I was in high school in Oregon, I worked in politics. I worked for my state representative. I was in youth legislature, Girls State, Girls Nation. I did all that stuff. And then I was really bored in Oregon. A friend of mine was like, well, I need a roommate in Pasadena. So I moved home of Van Halen.
A
Go ahead. Sorry. Right.
B
That's right. And then I was taking a couple of community college classes where you could get extra credit for working in media. And I called KROC because it was my favorite radio station. And they're like, yeah, we're hiring interns, just that easy. And they said, we only hire once a year and the interviews are next week. So I went in and they liked my political experience. And Scott Mason was like, well, you seem organized, so we're gonna go ahead and hire you. It was an unpaid internship. And then I used to ask the program director every day, like, you should put me on the air. Can I do an air shift? And after like 10 months, he was like, yes. He's like, I will let you do a two night audition. And then he listened to it and he was like, there's something there. It's rough, but I think you could develop into an on air talent.
A
Incredible.
B
So then he hired me to be a part time dj. MTV poached him to be their senior vice president of programming.
A
This is the spark.
B
Like they were blowing out their VJs and they needed all new VJs and so they.
A
Where was I?
B
Yes.
A
I was chasing Marilyn Manson around. Hell, that was real. Yes.
B
And. And I got to audition to be a vj. And you know, if it weren't for him, I never would have gotten the audition. And you know, who knows what internal magic he had to work at the company. But that's how I got the job.
A
Right. And because as you know. But maybe younger people don't know, there isn't the Internet. So, I mean, my favorite babysitter of all time was mtv. I would just stare at it for years. And then on 120 minutes, you were showing videos that they didn't show all week. So I would tune into that just to see something. I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but I would just tune into that on Sunday nights to see something different. But I feel like you were on all the time.
B
Yes.
A
And you had a thing you had. I mean, I had hair like you in high school? I wish I still did, you know, but, yeah, you just really stood out from the pack. And when Dana Perino here said, you should do Kennedy's podcast, I was like, oh, mtv Dreams coming true.
B
But. And it's so funny, because what I watched of MTV when I was in high school, and again, we didn't have cable, so we had to watch my grandmother's house in the summer in Indiana, and she was the only one I knew who had cable. And that's what we would watch. And. But, like, what I, as a fan, like, I was like you. Like, that's how I took everything in. And then working there felt so different because I never watched MTV when I was there, so I don't know how it looked, but I know it was awesome, and it was so much fun.
A
And MTV was real to me. I didn't think there was a cameraman or a makeup person. I wanted to crawl inside the tv. Eddie Van Halen doing a touchdown dance with his fingertips. Madonna singing Like a Virgin. You know, Nirvana throwing a pep rally turned into a riot. You know, the first time I saw Duran Duran, I thought I was gay for three minutes. But that's for the podcast next week, mtv. And when I see those videos now, like, on late night cable, it still seems real to me. And if you could bottle up that feeling, it's just magic. And that's why I became a songwriter. And how fun. Here I am talking to you. It's not mtv, but, hey, it's great.
B
What is a song you've written that would be a good first dance at a wedding song.
A
Smile by Uncle Cracker. Maybe a father daughter dance. You make me smile Definitely not I can't be alone with you Definitely not It's different for girls. Definitely not with the one I wrote with Keith Urban. In my mind we're somewhere in my car and you, your fingertips are scratching my back.
B
That's a beautiful song.
A
Yeah. Thank you. With Keith Urban. I give him all the credit. He had the guitar chords, he had the drum beat ready. I didn't know him at all. We were sitting, you know, just eye to eye, like we are. He was incredibly nice and super talented.
B
Yeah.
A
And, you know, I met him. A lot of people might know this already, not your listeners. I met him standing at a urinal at an award show in Nashville, and I said, hey, I'm jt. He liked the Kenny Chesney song I wrote, but he didn't know who I was.
B
Was. Yeah.
A
And he was like, mate, what a song. And he gave me his phone number. I mean, I don't know where else that happens, but except in Nashville. We're one of the most famous people on the planet. It's like, hey, we should write sometime. Here's my number.
B
That's so cool. It's pretty down to earth.
A
Yeah.
B
I think that he has not had good PR since the divorce.
A
Okay, we'll be right back with. I'm gonna have a drink to the. I don't know. I don't know these people. Everyone thinks I'm friends with all these. How do you drink with a microphone?
B
I think it's probably best to not be friends with them in order to have good working relationships, because you need their emotions to be pretty pure. And if you're part of that, like,
A
you're very smart or stay sparkly, like, you know, Yeah, I want to come in and they're like, oh, cool, JT's here. If they see me at. At home, you know, they might be like, he's kind of a little bit wacky, you know?
B
Yeah.
A
Every time I open the fridge and the light comes on, I do a three minute practice for your podcast. So can I say it again? There is sugar on the rim of this glass that isn't that nice. Yes.
B
Like, it definitely elevates. It's the John Daly.
A
It does.
B
There's so few ingredients. You have to do something.
A
You have to do something to give
B
it the jazz hands.
A
Yes. Yeah. People watching. I kept looking at the camera. Studio audience.
B
Yeah. Hey, everyone over there.
A
No, definitely getting a picture of me in the MTV shirt.
B
There's a restraining order, jt. Best of luck, everyone. Go see Music City. It's off Broadway. 308 West 46th Street. St. Luke's Theater. It's inside a church in the basement, and it is perfect.
A
And we do have ice cold beer and wine.
B
And popcorn.
A
And popcorn. Thank you for sharing your audience with me. This is really a blast to finally meet you. And if you would have tapped me on my shoulder as a kid, you're gonna be on Kennedy one day, I'd say. What you talking about, Willis? Some different strokes for all you youngsters. Thanks, everybody.
B
And to Gary Coleman as well. Thank you, jt. Cheers to you continued success and beautiful songs we can dance to forever. This has been Kennedy Saves the world along with J.T. harding and Kennedy. Listen ad free with a Fox News podcast plus subscription on Apple podcasts and Amazon Prime. Members can listen to this show ad free on the Amazon music app. Oh, go ahead and leave me a review while you're there, I'd love to hear what you have to say. You've been listening to Kennedy Saves the World on the Fox News podcast network.
Host: Kennedy (FOX News Podcasts)
Guest: J.T. Harding, Country Hitmaker & Songwriter
Episode: Happy Hour With Country Hitmaker J.T. Harding
Date: July 24, 2026
In this lively Happy Hour episode, Kennedy welcomes prolific country songwriter and performer J.T. Harding. Their conversation covers J.T.'s unique journey through the music industry: from Detroit to LA and finally Nashville; his behind-the-scenes experience touring with Marilyn Manson and Linkin Park; the inner workings of the Nashville songwriting scene; his new off-Broadway musical “Music City”; and reflections on creative authenticity in the age of AI. There’s plenty of humor and warm anecdotes, with the duo reflecting on music, performance, and what it means to “make it” in the industry.
Nashville as the Songwriting Hub
Early Music Industry Hustle (LA Years)
Touring with Marilyn Manson and Linkin Park
Writing with Others
Lyrics vs. Music
Creation & Authenticity
Live Music on Stage
Immersive Experience
On Songwriting Rejection and Resilience:
On Country Music Stereotypes:
On New York:
On Audience Participation:
| Timestamp | Segment | |------------|-----------------------------------------------------------| | 00:10 | Intro banter, Kennedy and J.T. joke about happy hour | | 01:41 | J.T.'s move to Nashville and the city's songwriting allure| | 03:19 | Working with Marilyn Manson & Linkin Park | | 05:54 | Linkin Park, career low point, and Nashville opportunity | | 07:16 | Songwriting process & Nashville culture | | 09:54 | “Music City” musical inspiration & Peter Zinn's involvement| | 11:55 | Cast and live instruments in the show | | 15:23 | Real open mic at “Music City”; audience participation | | 19:17 | AI and songwriting discussion | | 22:46 | Kennedy's career path to MTV | | 24:34 | J.T. recommends “Smile” (Uncle Kracker) for first dances | | 25:02 | Meeting Keith Urban by chance in Nashville |
Memorable Sign-Off:
“If you would have tapped me on my shoulder as a kid, ‘you're gonna be on Kennedy one day,’ I'd say, ‘What you talking about, Willis?’ ...Thanks, everybody.” (26:46, J.T.)
Location, if you want to see 'Music City':
St. Luke's Theater, 308 West 46th Street, inside a church basement in NYC — “and it is perfect.”