Last year’s American Idol winner has opened up about the day he ran from police and ended up in handcuffs.
Laine Hardy, 19, recalled sitting in the back of a police cruiser one Saturday morning in 2016. “I think I was crying. I’m pretty sure I was crying,” he told Taste of Country. “The handcuffs really hurt my wrists.”
Hardy was riding his four-wheeler to a friend’s house when he was spotted by cops. “I didn’t know what to do so I took off down my buddy’s road,” he said, adding that he hit 54 miles per hour. “There was two of them with their sirens on.”
The Louisiana teen said he passed his friend’s parents who were outside having coffees. “I’m still trying to figure out what they were thinking when I passed them with two cops behind me with sirens on.”
After trying to evade the police by taking a swamp trail, Hardy’s four-wheeler got stuck and he decided to face the music.
“I walked up back to the house and got put in handcuffs,” he said. At one point, eight officers were on scene. No charges were filed but Hardy said he was punished by his father.
“I learned from that not to run from the cops.”
Listen to Hardy’s new single “Ground I Grew Up On” below: