Celebrity

Cody Hibbard lost his house, became a pill addict, and became angry with his religion. Then He Discovered Music (Unreleased)

By

Chetna Rohilla

Going back to traumatic periods during the recording of “Long Ride in a Short Bed,” the country music musician, was undoubtedly challenging, but it also helped him psychologically clean up.

When country music musician Cody Hibbard fled South Korea, he was just 13 months old.

“I was adopted,” Hibbard, 31, tells PEOPLE. “We lived in Tulsa for the first year. My dad was a trash hauler, and my mom was actually a math teacher. And when they got me, mom quit teaching and dad kept the trash route.”

That is, until his father acquired the farm of his dreams.

“Dad bought 340 acres,” Hibbard remembers of the plot of land located in Adair, Oklahoma. “We lived in a little double wide for a while until dad built the house. We were running cattle out here. And dad wanted chicken houses, so we started doing breeder houses for Tyson [Foods].”

Therefore, Hibbard has always been eager to point out that anyone who has ever questioned his national origins is blatantly incorrect to do so. He laughs and says, “I’m actually sitting out on my side-by-side right now.”

Cody Hibbard lost his house, became a pill addict, and became angry with his religion. Then He Discovered Music (Unreleased)

Of course, Hibbard is the first to own that he didn’t always like growing up in the country. “I kind of had that rebellious spirit,” he recalls. “I had a great time learning about the CIA, Secret Service, DEA, and FBI when my grandfather took me to the United States Military Academy in New York. My true career goal was to work as a forensic investigator.”

However, Hibbard claims he made the decision to join the Marines when it came time to either attend college or start working on the family farm. “I couldn’t think of anything I wanted to go to college for,” he recalls. “I honestly didn’t want to go to college.”

Hibbard’s rebellious character was further exemplified when he ultimately retracted his decision to join the Marines and instead accepted an invitation to attend the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. When he was there, he sustained a shoulder injury that necessitated two subsequent surgeries.

Cody Hibbard lost his house, became a pill addict, and became angry with his religion. Then He Discovered Music (Unreleased)

“I got on pain medication from the first surgery, and I got easily hooked,” Hibbard remembers. “I wanted more and needed more and didn’t think something a doctor would give you would be something that bad.”

Eventually, Hibbard departed the Naval Academy to enroll in another institution; however, his dependence on painkillers developed into an addiction. After graduating from college, Hibbard began playing the guitar while employed as a pipeline laborer.

“I was doing a lot of it behind people’s backs,” he admitted. “I was exceptionally adept at concealing objects.” I recall awaking in the infirmary. I had been dropped off at the emergency room’s entrance by my companions. Perhaps they were frightened and fled. I was aware that I was experiencing an issue.

Ultimately, it was these and numerous other catastrophic circumstances that found their way into his music. In January 2020, Hibbard released his inaugural EP, Memory and a Dirt Road, with the subsequent self-titled Cody Hibbard EP. However, the intensity that emerges from his hard-driving album Long Ride in a Short Bed remains unparalleled thus far.

“‘’Kill the Messenger’ is my song about how I got so mad at my religion,” Hibbard recalls of track one of Long Ride in a Short Bed. “I had spent most of my life following a pastor that ended up doing some really bad stuff,  and so that’s where the symbolism comes in on that song. I had to really dig down deep and, in my mind, I wanted to ask myself if I wasted all that time going to Bible studies and church camps?”

Then there is “Bad Trip,” a soul-sucker in the best of ways that was written solely by Hibbard and emerged from another turbulent period of his life.

Cody Hibbard lost his house, became a pill addict, and became angry with his religion. Then He Discovered Music (Unreleased)

“This was the last time I had a bad night,” remembers Hibbard, who says he “quit pills cold turkey” 10 years ago when he found out his ex was pregnant with his first child. “I took some pills, and I was drinking whatever I had. I was behind on every single bill. My ex had wanted to leave me. I was a young father, and I was trying to pay for whatever took care of our daughter. And I’ll admit it — I didn’t care. I lost my first house. I thought the repo man was after me. I thought the cops were after me because I was behind on my bills. I didn’t know how any of that worked.”

Hibbard found it difficult to return to these stormy times for Long Ride on a Short Bed. But the now father of four says it helped his mental health, as did the album’s melancholy tracks like “Backroad to Heaven” and the destined-to-be-popular “Had It Been a Boy.”

“I’ve never cried in the vocal booth, and I really didn’t cry much until I got to be around 30 years old,” he says. “And I have never cried in the studio as much as I have recording about four or five of these songs on this album.”

But today, life is better.

“I’m not addicted to anything else,” he says. “I don’t have any alcohol in my fridge. I’m very blessed with the way it all turned out.”