HARDY Meets Five-Year-Old Cancer Survivor Sawyer, Who Found Comfort In His Music

HARDY spent time with Sawyer backstage and even dedicated a song to him during his show.

Sawyer, HARDY; Photo Courtesy of Sawyer’s mom, Jessica

Five-year-old Sawyer has endured so much while battling pediatric cancer in his first few years of life and HARDY’s music was there to help him along the way since day one. The young fan experienced a full-circle moment over the weekend when he got to meet his country music hero for the first time and attend his second-ever concert.

According to his mom, Jessica, Sawyer’s health journey began very early on when he was diagnosed with bilateral retinoblastoma, which is a form of cancer in the eyes. He went through various rounds of chemo over the span of four years and ended up having both eyes removed and replaced with prosthetics.

Sawyer; Photo Courtesy of Sawyer’s mom, Jessica
She told Country Now that his love and appreciation for live music began when he was just a year and a half old. Particularly, HARDY and Lainey Wilson’s CMA Award-winning collaboration “wait in the truck,” became a source of comfort for the young boy.

“It was right after his first eye was removed and we couldn’t get him to calm down but when the song ‘wait in the truck’ by HARDY and Lainey Wilson came on, he went completely silent and from then on we started to play HARDY after every surgery or chemo that he had so that he would be happy.”

HARDY was such a big part of Sawyer’s time in the hospital that the superstar quickly became his “all-time favorite country artist.” The plan to introduce the young fan to the Mississippi native began when Winston Academy, where Sawyer’s grandfather attended school, reached out asking to raise money for Make-A-Wish so that he could meet HARDY.  Jessica noted it was a “no brainer for us to say yes.”

From there, Make-A-Wish got in touch with HARDY’s team to set up a date and a once-in-a-lifetime meet and greet opportunity. When the day finally came, Jessica captured snippets of the experience in a video and shared it to TikTok. In the first clip, HARDY can be seen crouching down to Sawyers level as he introduced himself during their backstage interaction.

“Anyone who knows Sawyer knows that he is never speechless but in that moment Sawyer was definitely speechless and star struck,” Jessica said of her son’s reaction.

The video then cuts to the moment during the concert when HARDY tells the crowd about his meet and Greet with Sawyer.

“I got a story to tell,” HARDY began. “A couple weeks ago I got a call from the Make-A-Wish foundation…they said that there was a kid named Sawyer that wanted to meet me and Sawyer had some complications with childhood cancer and lost his sight.”

He called Sawyer and his family out in the crowd and shared a few of the topics they discussed, like hunting and fishing. But HARDY revealed that his favorite part of their conversation was when the boy shared that his favorite song was “Rockstar.” Although this track is no longer a part of his live set list, HARDY made an exception that night and performed it just for Sawyer.

“Sawyer, it’s for you,” he declared before breaking out into the hard-hitting tune. Sawyer was captured head banding and dancing around in his seat with a huge smile plastered on his face.

Jessica dubbed this a dream-come-true moment.
Sawyer; Photo Courtesy of Sawyer’s mom, Jessica
This wasn’t Sawyer’s first time seeing the country-rocker live as he also saw him in Starkville, MS, but every concert he’s attended in his life so far has featured Hardy as the headliner, and his most recent show may be the hardest one to top.

Jessica extended a “huge thank you” to HARDY, his team and all those at Make-A-Wish who made this once-in-a-lifetime night a reality.

“We want to say a massive thank you to HARDY alone for his music and giving sawyer peace and comfort through a 4 year battle!!  Sawyer will never stop listening to HARDY!!” she added.

Sawyer’s mom is happy to say that the five-year-old is currently cancer free.