Sam Hunt Embarrassingly Casts Himself as Johnny Cash

Whoa, what in the mothertrucker is this, Sam Hunt? You think you’ve got the mustard to fill the shoes of Johnny “caught at the Mexican border with 1,100 pills” Cash? If The Man in Black were here today, he’d put his size 13 Red Wing straight up your keister and break it off for this abomination.
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It’s been a glorious last few years where Sam Hunt and his stupid EDM music has been relegated to the dustbin of popular country. His last two singles couldn’t even make the Top 20 on the Hot Country Songs chart, and even stalled outside the Top 10 on sycophantic country radio.
People are officially done with Sam Hunt and his music, and this relic of the Bro-Country era seems to feel the same himself, barely touring or making public appearances. He only comes out of hiding to release the occasional single when the mailbox money from monstrosities like “Body Like a Backroad” starts running low. As he said a few years ago,
“I don’t want to come off as … I’m not excited about making music or I’m not very hopeful to have new music for the fans who are anxiously awaiting new music, but, you know, I’m in a place in my career and in my life where I’m not willing to give music 100 percent of me anymore.”
Yeah, no shit? That’s how you get half-assed efforts like his new song “Locked Up” with its droning, unimaginative EDM beats, bad lyricism, and stupid premise. This dude is a leopard print spandex hair metal rocker trying to make it in the Nirvana world. Hunt should pull a Florida Georgia Line and fold like a set of Mike Lindell sheets while he’s still ahead.
But instead of reading the writing on the wall, in all of his infinite wisdom, Sam Hunt thought he would try to exploit his pussy-ass arrest for drunk driving now 4 1/2 years ago through a song. Yet as opposed to exuding the honesty and vulnerability of an actual country song, Hunt once again embarrassingly overshares about his marriage/relationship to Hannah Lee Fowler like he did in the song “Drinkin’ Too Much” from his 2020 album Southside.
Then to add the mother of all insults to injury, for the video for the new song, Sam Hunt casts himself in the role of Johnny Cash from the iconic San Quentin prison performance from 1969. What hubris.
If Sam Hunt actually showed up to a prison to perform this song, a riot would ensue and he’d get shanked in the neck with a sharpened toothbrush handle. Besides, subjecting prisoners to Sam Hunt’s music would most certainly be ruled as a form of cruel and unusual punishment and stayed by the Supreme Court.
Most would rather get raped in a mop closet by a prison gang or face lethal injection as opposed to being forcibly placed in a Sam Hunt audience. Sam Hunt could have remade the time Johnny Cash fought an ostrich. But we all know that in Sam Hunt’s case, the ostrich would have won.
You almost want to feel bad for Sam Hunt. But then you see something like this and you think, “No, let him get gonorrhea, have his penis fall off, and die alone.”
Sam Hunt is a failure at everything he tries to do, including trying to portray himself as a failure. Hunt’s wife should do us all a favor an leave. Then perhaps he might be able to make an actual country song.
Screw Sam Hunt and his stupid haircut. And long live Johnny Cash.
March 22, 2024 @ 11:47 am
Great writeup, other than the fact that I’d managed to go several weeks without having this assclown cross my mind and now I’m going to have to start that streak over.
March 22, 2024 @ 11:48 am
Most would rather get raped in a mop closet by a prison gang……
Man, I spat my coffee down my t shirt at that one ????
March 22, 2024 @ 11:49 am
“Most would rather get raped in a mop closet by a prison gang or face lethal injection as opposed to being forcibly placed in a Sam Hunt audience.”
Best. One. Yet.
March 22, 2024 @ 12:25 pm
Dude needs to go immediately to closest gas station and get him some Mike’s hard lemonade thar he probably likes. Drink 2 or 3 because that will do the job probably, get in his high end mini van that goes “meep meep” and probably plays the Applebee’s song when you unlock it, and immediately drive over to Cash’s grave and apologize for this horse shit
March 22, 2024 @ 12:43 pm
He and everyone associated with this song and video have no idea the significance of Johnny Cash’s Folsom show. I watched the entire video because I hoped to see the inmates pull him off stage and give him a good beating.
March 22, 2024 @ 1:09 pm
Im goin 2 find Rosanne, she’ll have him hung?!
March 22, 2024 @ 1:21 pm
Just to balance perspective in the comments, liked the article, dislike Sam hunt, don’t like the prison rape joke
March 22, 2024 @ 2:29 pm
The great thing about free speech, what’s left of it, is that you can be offended by the joke and say as much, which you did, and people who don’t spend their days looking for something to be offended by can laugh at the joke. Ain’t it grand?
March 22, 2024 @ 8:50 pm
While we disagree about the comedy in rape, we definitely no one should be prosecuted by the government for telling jokes! Really glad Sam Hunts not a popular thing anymore, man I hated House Party
March 22, 2024 @ 6:36 pm
Yep. Rape is never funny whether the victim is male or female, a child or a prisoner.
March 24, 2024 @ 3:18 pm
I’m gonna have to quote the great George Carlin here, the greatest free speech advocate to ever live IMO. His words seem relevant to your disdain of Trigger’s joke.
“Ohhh, some people don’t like you to talk like that. Ohh, some people like to shut you up for saying those things. You know that. Lots of people. Lots of groups in this country want to tell you how to talk. Tell you what you can’t talk about. Well, sometimes they’ll say, well you can talk about something but you can’t joke about it. Say you can’t joke about something because it’s not funny. Comedians run into that shit all the time. Like rape. They’ll say, “you can’t joke about rape. Rape’s not funny.” I say, “fuck you, I think it’s hilarious. How do you like that?” I can prove to you that rape is funny. Picture Porky Pig raping Elmer Fudd. See, hey why do you think they call him “Porky,” eh? I know what you’re going to say. “Elmer was asking for it. Elmer was coming on to Porky. Porky couldn’t help himself, he got a hard- on, he got horny, he lost control, he went out of his mind.” A lot of men talk like that. A lot of men think that way. They think it’s the woman’s fault. They like to blame the rape on the woman. Say, “she had it coming, she was wearing a short skirt.” These guys think women ought to go to prison for being cock teasers. Don’t seem fair to me. Don’t seem right, but you can joke about it. I believe you can joke about anything. It all depends on how you construct the joke. What the exaggeration is.”
March 22, 2024 @ 1:38 pm
Johnny needs to rise from the grave and blast lightning bolts from his hands and the sheer audacity.
No one can outclass Johnny Cash.
March 22, 2024 @ 2:07 pm
I never imagined I would think one of your rants is a little too harsh
Is it a particularly good song? Debatable. Is it a country song? Probably not.
Is it better than anything else I’ve heard by Sam Hunt? Surprisingly, yes. I listened to the whole thing beginning to end and didn’t hate it.
Is this better than dirt Road anthem, Cruise, boys around here? Absolutely.
And as far as name dropping Tammy Wynette, This may be just my opinion, and a weird one of that, but I would absolutely rather hear this name drop them the one about George Jones in dirt Road anthem
In this context, the way it’s used, this feels like a name drop that could genuinely have people googling Tammy Wynette just so they can understand the context.
I think the production here leaves a lot to be desired, but as far as a Sam Hunt song goes this is far from the worst
March 22, 2024 @ 3:55 pm
I do dislike the country name drop. It is usually the lyrical equivalent of the fiddle in Tom Petty’s famous quote.
March 22, 2024 @ 5:39 pm
For the record, the rant really wasn’t for the song, though that wasn’t any help. It was for him presenting himself as a stand-in for Johnny Cash during one of Cash’s most iconic moments.
March 23, 2024 @ 3:15 am
You don’t got to but a article about George Strait manager dying would be nice when you have covered people much less significant deaths.
March 23, 2024 @ 5:49 am
Unfortunately not just his manager but longtime bandmate and fiddle player Gene Elders. The same day
March 23, 2024 @ 8:38 am
Folks are going to have to come to the base realization that Saving Country Music is on borrowed time.
The reason people demand that I cover every single death in country music is because I’m the guy that covers every single death in country music, usually in dedicated obituaries, but if not, than in the most extensive In Memoriam article published every year. But sometimes I am going to wait to cover those deaths until I have all the information possible so I can be thorough and respectful as possible, and when people might actually read the article as opposed to when that information is likely to get buried.
Music outlets with way more full-time staff and millions of dollars of market capitalization behind them never get dragged for not covering so and so’s death, or so and so’s album. But somehow, this shoestring site run by one guy does all the time. I guess those are the expectations I have set for readers.
Also, it’s not my job to inform the public about what they already know about. It’s to inform them about what they don’t, and to offer the perspectives nobody else is sharing. This is what I do in lieu of trying to cover everything all the time.
You understanding is appreciated.
March 23, 2024 @ 8:28 pm
I hope to be able to get music news and commentary, and participate in the full spectrum of comments, from considered and informed to grade school. If/when you have to start charging money to remain in business, I hope you do so with a clear conscience. The expectation that “we” deserve what you do for free is the same expectation that has made the songwriter (and increasingly the artist) business model unworkable.
March 22, 2024 @ 2:30 pm
I laughed my ass off reading this. I enjoy shorter rants. Well done!
March 22, 2024 @ 2:33 pm
more like Mike Hunt
March 22, 2024 @ 3:28 pm
Oh my. This song is just awful.
March 22, 2024 @ 3:32 pm
Douchebag
N – A person with an over inflated ego, coupled with a low intelligence, who has no idea people are making fun on his style or personality AKA Sam Hunt
March 22, 2024 @ 3:56 pm
Meh, his music is hardly worth the effort ranting about nowadays anyway.
“Outskirts” may be on its way to becoming another radio hit for him, but gauging by its #98 peak on the Billboard Hot 100 currently……………I don’t know: I just doubt he’s inspiring water cooler conversation and curiosity like he used to do between his breakout hit “Leave The Night On” and, say, “Hard To Forget”. I kind of see Sam Hunt at this stage being no more culturally relevant than a Chris Young or a Justin Moore: someone who continues to coast on radio hits but having no groundswell of hype or intrigue on any other metric.
March 22, 2024 @ 4:03 pm
More like Sham C-word. Amirite?
March 22, 2024 @ 6:06 pm
AMEN.
I agree with every word you wrote, and that’s comin’ from someone who can proudly say I have never heard an entire one of his songs. And I’m going to keep it that way.
Have a wonderful day.
March 22, 2024 @ 6:09 pm
You real for this.
March 22, 2024 @ 6:42 pm
“a leopard print spandex hair metal rocker trying to make it in the Nirvana world. ” That line is perfect. Completely perfect in a rant that has many great lines.
However, rape jokes are never funny, no matter who the victim is, or would be. Jokes like that minimize the crime of rape which by definition always involves a power differential. Nobody would “rather be raped” than anything. Please Trigger. That’s not woke. It’s just decency.
I sill hope Tyler wasn”t wearing a keffiyah
March 22, 2024 @ 7:36 pm
It probably went too far, but its just a joke about a prison sterotype. And sure its a terrible thing, but there IS a lot worse. I’d rather be prison raped than eye gouged and my kidneys sold.
In fact, I have met a lot of rape victims who seem to live perfectly reasonable lives, and would be preferrable to many things involving accidents and mutilation.
That being said, if you want a hand punishing the perpetrators, happy to tie a loop in a rope for you.
I wouldn’t go as far as stringing up Sam Hunt, but if I could travel back in time, I’d knock on the door of his parents place exactly 9 months before he was born.
March 23, 2024 @ 4:09 pm
The spandex comparison is great.
March 23, 2024 @ 6:40 am
Pieces like these are the equivalent of Sam Hunt’s material, ironically!
March 23, 2024 @ 7:13 am
……..but what do you really think?
Great article!!!!!!
March 23, 2024 @ 6:04 pm
Yeah. I wish Trig were more clear on these things and tell us all what he truly thinks about someone in the country music scene..
March 23, 2024 @ 8:58 am
Found this funny comment under the music video, “I love some of midlands music, but it’s hard to overlook that they aren’t real. This is real.”
Love Johnny Cash’s prison albums, and I think this music video could have been cool, but for someone else and for a different song.
March 23, 2024 @ 8:58 am
He is just dressing up and acting. Like how Cash did during his prison shows. I would be offended by it if Cash himself didn’t play pretend. Those prison shows were an ode to violent criminals. A poser copying a poser. For his next trick, Hunt will cheat on his wife.
Where is RD? His opinion on Cash’s pretend is always useful.
March 23, 2024 @ 9:03 am
So were Johnny Cash’s prison shows him playing “pretend,” or were they an “ode to violent criminals.” One accusation implies fantasy. The other implies sincerity.
Also, who was Johnny Cash trying to dress up and/or act like by wearing a plain black suit and white shirt?
March 24, 2024 @ 7:41 am
I never much liked the Cash prison recordings. It seems odd to paint a bunch of violent criminals as victims of society and not say a thing about the people they victimized. That said, Cash gets a bit of a pass in that regard from me, because the prison performances gave us Merle Haggard.
March 24, 2024 @ 10:09 pm
Johnny Cash was never playing for murderers and rapists. To attend one of the concerts, you had to earn the privilege as an inmate, and it wasn’t extended to everyone. We know this because the first time Cash played San Quentin, Haggard had just entered the prison population, and had yet to earn any privileges. It wasn’t until the next year when Haggard got to see him.
March 24, 2024 @ 7:32 pm
Cash was a poser? Fuck all the way off.
March 25, 2024 @ 8:53 am
Excellent rebuttal. Undoubtedly, your limited retort is a product of public schooling.
March 25, 2024 @ 6:23 am
this is the type of guy who gets upset at people saying christopher columbus should not be celebrated with his own holiday, but doesn’t like that johnny cash played a concert in a prison because it’s ‘an ode to violent criminals’.
March 25, 2024 @ 8:52 am
Columbus’ expeditions led to the founding of the New World. A monumental event that changed world history. He should be honored.
Cash made some overrated albums.
Completely the same things!
March 25, 2024 @ 9:11 am
either you’re being purposely obtuse to my point or you aren’t. either are embarrassing.
March 25, 2024 @ 9:20 am
You had no credible point.
Troll elsewhere.
March 25, 2024 @ 9:22 am
Once again a pointless back and forth between you two.
No more comments on this thread.
March 23, 2024 @ 4:56 pm
Sam Hunt as JOHNNY FREAKIN’ CASH ??????? I may have nightmares about this gross miscasting until my 71st birthday July 6 !!!!!!
March 23, 2024 @ 5:03 pm
“Cruel and unusual punishment by the U.S. Supreme Court?” The prison warden who permitted prisoners to be subjected to Sam Hunt’s,ummmm,”music” might end up in the Hague to answer to the War Crimes Tribunal for torture.
March 23, 2024 @ 5:40 pm
I don’t call him Sam Hunt. No. I call him “Some C*nt.”
I mean that word in the most disparaging way possible for Sam. Can’t stand him and literally for every single reason Trigger listed in the above article. I started off listening to country quite late and my introductions were luckily from someone who appreciated the “Golden Era(s)” of the genre. I am a traditionalist… I prefer my genres separate, but equal.
Anyway, I love it when you write this way Trigger. This is the stuff and not only does it convey the message in a very colorful way but it also spurred lots of belly laughs here.
Kudos!
March 23, 2024 @ 6:42 pm
Why can’t this dipschmhidt come up with his own awkward bro-country BS!? Why “pretend” what you are not…like ripping off “The Man in Black” or as he did a few years ago with Webb Peirce’s THERE STANDS THE GLASS opening! This guy will never be real as long as he is a pretender!
March 23, 2024 @ 10:43 pm
Why do you even waste your effort and time on commenting on Sam Hunt? He is a irrelevant nobody. Give it time and he’ll fade into obscurity, no effort required.
March 24, 2024 @ 12:39 am
For those who wish to be “raped…..”…take your disgusting comments down. Who in their right mind would speak that way. Wtf is wrong with you?!
March 24, 2024 @ 12:55 am
Well guys I kind of like the song. Just don’t watch the video.
March 24, 2024 @ 7:26 am
I hope Leroy Van Dyke,who had Country top seller with ” Just Walk On By” before Sammy Baby came along,never hears the “song” which replaced it,”Body Like A Backroad.” I can’t imagine the 94-year-old Mr. Van Dyke hearing this tripe once without not emulating Fred Sanford and having “The Big One”-only REALLY having it.
March 24, 2024 @ 11:32 pm
Other than the fact that Sam has failed to become a better singer/songwriter, what bothers me is that he has no musical identity. First he horribly sampled “there stands the glass” and now this. He keeps reaching back to acts before him for “inspiration” but the end product is a far cry from the source. How?
March 25, 2024 @ 1:26 am
…the killing of a sitting duck with himars?
March 25, 2024 @ 6:16 am
Does that mean Sammy will inflict himself on Hollywood ?
March 25, 2024 @ 8:48 pm
I do have a set of Mike Lindell’s sheets and they’re wonderful, but difficult to fold.
December 14, 2024 @ 8:24 pm
This reminds me of the wannabes who passed a bad check or two back in the 70s hoping to gain street cred in the then lucrative outlaw movement. The only thing that got outlawed for most of them was a career in country mucic. Then they went back to pumping gas