Country up‑and‑comer Cody Hibbard’s goal is simple: to remain as unapologetically himself as possible. After a lifetime of going the way of the wind, overcoming obstacles most never experience, why would he be anything but? “I’ve fought for the life I have. I’ve fought life itself. So I’m not changing for anybody.” Hibbard’s upcoming project Long Ride In A Short Bed is laced with this sentiment ‑ from the subject matter of the 10 included songs, like the grit‑based, drum driven “Set In My Ruts” and sentimental ballad “Backroad To Heaven,” to the earnest delivery of each tune ‑ his brazen brand of blue collar honesty radiates, setting the stage for an artist driven by what comes naturally rather than what an industry expects of him.
Born in Seoul, South Korea and adopted into an Adair, Oklahoma‑based family at 13 months of age, the importance of work ethic was instilled in him from an early age. “My parents lived by the motto, ‘stay busy, and you’ll stay out of trouble.’” His dad a trash hauler, and his mom a teacher, Hibbard was raised on a 340 acre farm and grew up just like any other farm kid: his summers were spent hauling trash, and his mornings and evenings during the school year were spent hunting, fishing, and tending to cows and chickens. “I basically did anything my dad needed done.”
His upbringing also yielded his first musical experiences, starting piano at 4 and singing to tracks in church ‑ though it wasn’t until much later that Hibbard embraced music as more than a Sunday morning.
While he struggled to define where he was headed, acceptance into the prestigious United States Naval Academy soon decided his immediate path toward a career in the military. Shortly after starting training, a shoulder injury forced Hibbard to undergo two surgeries ‑ and introduced him to painkillers. “The Naval Academy prescribed me a bunch of pain pills, and I had no idea how addictive they could be. That was a tough era ‑ I spent an entire semester in college addicted to painkillers. And I couldn’t talk about it. I was raised a farm kid, and a Christian ‑ people like me aren’t expected to have an issue like addiction.”
Hibbard ultimately found his way to sobriety, and in the process married, started a family, and found steady work as a pipeline worker. It was during his time in the field that Hibbard happened upon an opportunity to take his music a bit more seriously. “A coworker and I stopped at a TexMex restaurant for lunch. The server said, ‘man, you don’t look like you sound…’ My co‑worker immediately replied, ‘you should hear him sing.’” On the spot, Hibbard was asked to sing ‑ and wowed listeners. He was asked to make the TexMex restaurant a standing gig, and his career snowballed from there, leading to several self‑written songs, a recorded EP and, eventually, a relocation to Nashville. “I enjoyed pipelining. I thought that’s where I was going to stay. But I ultimately felt I could change a lot more behind a mic than I could behind a welding hood.”
With Long Ride In A Short Bed, Hibbard does just that ‑ offering his unique brand of storytelling in a way only he knows how, remaining true to the country roots people are often surprised by when first meeting him. “On this album, I really wanted to show people I am me. I’d like to get people to understand that our genre has become so many people that aren’t actually who they are, and aren’t actually country. I’ll never be a ‘yes man,’ and I’ll never do what the industry expects of me if it deters from who I am as a person or artist.”
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