Jacob Hackworth grew up on gravel roads around West Plains, Missouri, sang in choir, and played in a local band on his days off from working the railroad before moving to Nashville in 2019. He got by working Nashville bars, Amazon, and a stint DJing on a party boat. A 2022 publishing deal turned things: his label counts roughly 60 major-label cuts since, including Bailey Zimmerman's six-week No. 1 "Rock and a Hard Place," Corey Kent's No. 1 "This Heart," Morgan Wallen's "Jack and Jill," three songs on Jelly Roll's Beautifully Broken, and six on Tucker Wetmore's debut album, "Wine Into Whiskey" among them.
He started putting out his own music independently in 2025, with "When I Don't," "You Ain't" and "Bad As I Do," and signed with MCA in March 2026 in partnership with Goat Island Sound. "What Took You So Long" was his first single for the label and named his October 2026 EP. He spent most of 2026 opening for Wetmore on The Brunette World Tour, and at Red Rocks that October, Wetmore and Vincent Mason, pretending they needed him to record radio liners, invited him to make his Grand Ole Opry debut on December 4.