You See, Sam Hunt Never Had Any Real Passion for Country Music
Artists with the true love of country music in their hearts, they don’t make country music for money or fame. They make it for life. They make it because they have no other choice. They make it whether they succeed, or it costs incredible sacrifice to keep doing it. It isn’t an option, it’s an obligation to themselves, and the music.
It’s no wonder Sam Hunt is out there saying he doesn’t give a damn if he releases another song or album anytime soon, or ever. We’d only be so lucky after the abomination “Body Like A Backroad” has made of the country genre. It’s all but a formality that his latest single will be named the longest-running #1 song on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts momentarily. But Hunt never had a passion for country music. That’s why he doesn’t sing it, regardless of how it’s presented on the radio, and in the industry. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves in thinking he’s out of our here for good.
“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,” says Sam Hunt in a recent interview with The Boot. “I did that for four years, and it was fruitful as far as my career goes, but everything else in my life had to be put on hold, and I’m just not willing to do that for years and years at a time.”
Of course the personal lives of artists should always come first, and Sam Hunt has been in the midst of codifying a committed relationship recently and understandably taking some time for himself. But if you don’t have any passion for the music to begin with, and you’re just releasing songs strictly for commercial appeal, then it’s no surprise you don’t care to get back in the studio and share your creative expressions, especially when you have a license to print money like Sam Hunt now does due to the success of “Body Like A Backroad” and his other monster singles.
Reading between the lines of Sam Hunt’s interview with The Boot, it’s seems a very real possibility that Sam himself may not even like some of the music he’s released, and feels restricted by the commercial sound.
“My inspiration and the type of songs that I want to write don’t necessarily all aim in that [commercial] direction,” Hunt says. “So, now that I’ve established myself and am in the position that I’m in now, going forward, I’d like to explore writing songs that probably won’t be as commercially viable as some of the songs that I’ve written in the past.”
Even when he talks about his passion for music, it seems more about not undercutting his career or his label, as opposed to extending a true passion for the artform.
“Music is one of many passions that I have in my life, and it has provided so much for me, and provided for my family, and it’s created a business out here on the road, with employees who are also providing for their families, and I’m so grateful for that, but, you know, going forward, I’m not necessarily going to try to keep pushing, pushing, pushing to see how big I can get or make it or go with it.”
Similar to Chase Rice, Colt Ford, and others, Sam Hunt first tried to make it in professional sports, flunking out of the training camp for the Kansas City Chiefs before deciding to give songwriting a shot to quote/unquote “kill time.” Country music wasn’t their first passion, being famous and making lots of money was, regardless of the discipline.
“It wasn’t my dream to be a writer, an artist, for life,” Sam Hunt says, while most any country music artists you speak to without a major label deal would tell you the exact opposite.
It’s potentially a positive development for country music if Sam Hunt is done with the commercial era of his career, and future songs similar to “Leave The Night On” and “Body Like A Backroad” won’t be infecting the airwaves. But as long as Music Row continues to push artists with no true passion for country music, there will be plenty of copycats to rise up and take his place.
July 31, 2017 @ 9:35 am
At least one can hate a song like Dirt Road Anthem or whatever. But this Sam Hunt shit is just a big bag of nothing.
July 31, 2017 @ 9:39 am
So with Body Like a Back Road, country music wasn’t “evolving.”
It was being taken for a ride.
July 31, 2017 @ 9:46 am
His music doesn’t all aim in that commercial direction?
Plot twist: His next album is full-on honky tonk. I’m talking Ernest Tubb style…
July 31, 2017 @ 1:59 pm
So what you’re saying is… Even Sam Hunt will be more country than Sam Hunt… *MIND BLOWN*
July 31, 2017 @ 9:55 am
I gotta say, I kind of respect him more for that interview. I’m not sure about stating that he releases music for commercial purposes, it actually seems like he feels the opposite. I think what he meant was that the stuff he wrote before just happened to lend itself commercially. I think if he wanted, Sam Hunt could probably release a string of 50 silly songs that would make him tons of money but I think he takes what’s released seriously to a degree but has to meet halfway with his business demands. I think he had experiences to draw from and unlimited time for the first album and now he doesn’t seem to have as much inspiration going forward. Its probably fair to claim he doesn’t have a passion for country music, ya, but I think what he’s saying is what it is.
July 31, 2017 @ 10:15 am
Not sure I would ever consider him a country singer.
So he can’t sing he can’t play football so what in the Sam Hill can he do.
July 31, 2017 @ 11:24 am
I think you mean “What in the Sam Hunt can he do.”
July 31, 2017 @ 5:24 pm
Sam Hunt has the best skill of them all.. He has the impeccable ability to skate through life with little effort.
July 31, 2017 @ 10:37 am
See Shane McAnally’s comments in Billboard about the biggest issues facing the country music industry? This guy is a one man wrecking ball destroying any semblance of traditional country in the mainstream.
July 31, 2017 @ 10:52 am
Yeah Macanally is a wrecking machine. Albeit a ridiculously successful wrecking machine. The country music cabal has always had its villains pulling the levers behind the curtain. Chet Atkins name comes to mind also for insisting on syrupy string arrangements that robbed many a country song of that gritty rawness and classic sound that we all like even today. He’s reason one why Willie said screw this and migrated to Austin to do things his way. We can only hope that some of our modern day Willie and Waylons like Stapleton, MO Pitney, Jinks snd Simpson can somehow impact a change. I’m not holding my breath though.
July 31, 2017 @ 11:01 am
I get what you are saying about Chet Atkins and others like him but I would argue that they were much more grounded in country music than McAnally and some of these other clowns like Buxbee and these other pop guys. Plus, the one thing I will say is the whole ‘Nashville Sound’ thing was just that, a sound. The actual lyrics of the songs were not that far out of the norm of country music where as now I would say the subject matter has drifted so far afield as to be no longer identifiably country.
And I’m not some prude or hardliner but I don’t think it can be overstated how the pop/hip hop phrasing degrades the genre lines.
July 31, 2017 @ 11:13 am
I agree on the “syrupy string arrangements.” Another thing that killed some potentially-great music was the overuse of high-pitched backing vocals and gospel-type backup singers on a lot of tracks. I don’t know who did this, but there were a number of Jerry Reed and Larry Jon Wilson songs that would have been much better if the strings and back-up vocals hadn’t been so overdone. Most of C.W. McCall’s songs suffer from these same problems. I know he was acting a part and it was novelty music, but much of it can’t be stomached due to these issues.
July 31, 2017 @ 11:14 am
Oh, and I wanted to add: If you want to know the exact right amount of female backing vocals, listen to Lynyrd Skynyrd. They did it right on almost every song.
July 31, 2017 @ 3:59 pm
I thought ‘Flowers for Mama’ was as cheesy as it got until the back up ladies kicked in and doubled the queso.
July 31, 2017 @ 5:12 pm
Yeah. A lot of those songs are hard to listen to.
July 31, 2017 @ 11:01 am
Oh, but he wrote that “Drinkin’ Problem” song from Midland. That’s the type of tokenism they sell us for their ties to traditional country.
Shane McAnally is the biggest issue facing the country music industry.
July 31, 2017 @ 11:02 am
I know, and Sam Hunt wrote that “I Met A Girl’ song. It’s really diabolical when you think about it.
August 1, 2017 @ 6:41 am
Drinking Problem by Midland sounds an awful lot like Thinking Problem by David Ball. Both musically and lyrically. He oughta sue.
August 2, 2017 @ 6:54 pm
Evey time i hear of Drinking Problem I think of Ball’s song.
August 4, 2017 @ 12:17 pm
You nailed it Bill. ‘Drinking Problem’ is the most overt ripoff I’ve ever heard.
July 31, 2017 @ 11:34 am
What did he say the biggest issue was? The pedal steel and fiddle?
July 31, 2017 @ 11:40 am
That country music should not be defined by genre lines and that they should further court pop fans through acts like Sam Hunt.
Basically he just wants country to be pop music with some country references i.e. ‘Body Like A Back Road’.
July 31, 2017 @ 11:09 am
He gets the last laugh. The “country music bizz” was duped & took it hook, line & sinker.
July 31, 2017 @ 11:16 am
Lord, he talks about his 4 year run as if it was decades of grinding. Damn, wasn’t he up for best new artist awards practically yesterday? This must be a generational thing, honestly.
Does anybody think a return of rock music to commercial viability would help keep guys like Sam Hunt away? I mean, imagine if Kid Rock started his career today. He’d go straight to country radio.
July 31, 2017 @ 11:19 am
The death of rock music and specifically rock radio is in my opinion the major event that started this whole deterioration in mainstream country music. All those musicians and producers didn’t just disappear they just drifted over to country music.
July 31, 2017 @ 4:01 pm
Fuckin Mutt Lange and Shania.
July 31, 2017 @ 11:21 am
Another sports-then-country singer to add, because we know you love him oh so much: Chris Lane, who played baseball (and was pretty good!) at UNC-Charlotte, before injuries killed any chance of a pro career.
July 31, 2017 @ 11:58 am
To be fair, he said that he taught himself guitar in college to kill time, not that he turned to songwriting to kill time.
July 31, 2017 @ 12:18 pm
So basically in a nutshell…”thank you gullible and dumb masses. You helped me make my millions, see ya later”
August 1, 2017 @ 4:39 am
…..and there you go …….and aren’t they all just doing this now ?
July 31, 2017 @ 12:27 pm
I didn’t realize Colt Ford was a pro golfer. He looks a lot like Chum-Lee
July 31, 2017 @ 12:46 pm
“It wasn’t my dream to be a writer, an artist, for life,”
Ha! It shows in his, uhm, production. I hope his attitude renders him swiftly irrelevant!
July 31, 2017 @ 1:13 pm
That guy is the fakest piece of shit ever. How insulting that interview should be to his fans! and you can bet none of them are insulted. they’re weeping over the possibility of the guy not making any more music. sam hunt; GIGO.
August 1, 2017 @ 3:30 pm
Doesn’t matter. As Trigger himself said, if he stops making music they’ll find an imitator soon enough, and the replacement may be even worse. Look what happened when Taylor Swift stopped releasing songs to country radio (notice I didn’t say “went pop” because we all know she always was pop) – we got Kelsea Ballerini, who makes even “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” seem country.
July 31, 2017 @ 1:28 pm
““It wasn’t my dream to be a writer, an artist, for life,” Sam Hunt says, while most any country music artists you speak to without a major label deal would tell you the exact opposite.”
I think any artist, in any discipline would not only tell you the exact opposite, but inherent in their response would be the fact that it has little to do with dreams at all. You either are or are not an artist and you either will always be an artist, or you never were one. Artists, writers, performers, etc. are compelled to pursue their craft and can’t quit even if they want to.
The scariest thing about folks like Hunt finding success is that it seems to imply that big labels aren’t looking for passion. They’re not looking for greatness. They’re looking for one and two album wonders that won’t stick around long enough to get a real contract or take a bigger cut of the profits.
July 31, 2017 @ 1:37 pm
The whole ‘artist’ thing is really overused in my opinion. I make a point of referring to people like Hunt or FGL as ‘acts’ or ‘performers’ because that is what they are in my opinion. Of course, it’s all subjective but to say call Sam Hunt an artist and Merle Haggard an artist just doesn’t seem right and does a disservice to really talented people.
July 31, 2017 @ 2:03 pm
I basically agree with you. I’m definitely guilty of overusing artist, I guess because for a long time you weren’t in the business if you weren’t one.
For me, an artist can be good or bad, successful or unsuccessful. It hinges more on motive and motivation than talent. An artist continuously and purposely tries to improve his or her craft and the byproduct for success can be fame, money, notoriety, etc. An act seeks fame, money, notoriety, prestige and the music is just a possible means to that end.
August 1, 2017 @ 4:20 am
Country Music: The Kentucky Basketball of Music Genres!
August 1, 2017 @ 4:40 am
this
““It wasn’t my dream to be a writer, an artist, for life,” Sam Hunt says, while most any country music artists you speak to without a major label deal would tell you the exact opposite.”
July 31, 2017 @ 1:30 pm
On one hand, at least Sam is being honest rather than phoning it in while giving the fans phony lines about his passion and commitment.
On the other hand, the whole “turned to music in lieu of sports” thing brings to mind Jake Owen, who taught himself to play guitar while recovering from an accident that ended his dream of becoming a professional golfer. Thing is, though, even when Jake is calling out the industry for wanting him to release singles that are frothy and below his talent level (yes, Jake is a talented fellow), you never get the sense that Jake feels anything other than gratitude and passion for the musical path that his life ended up taking.
So yeah, there is that.
July 31, 2017 @ 2:53 pm
Yeah, Jake used to make good music in his first album or two. Then he made too many beach songs. But I’ve heard that dude do a killer Merle cover. Calling Jake Owen a talent-less hack is simply off base.
July 31, 2017 @ 3:29 pm
As much as I don’t want to admit it, I like every Jake Owen album at least to an extent. I wish the last two were more country but if you’re going to play pop in country, Days of Gold and American Love are both full of great pop songs.
July 31, 2017 @ 5:51 pm
No doubt. I like all of them as well. They just stopped being country around the Barefoot Blue Jean Night record
July 31, 2017 @ 3:47 pm
They’ll probably push that even worse Kane Brown in his spot.
July 31, 2017 @ 5:04 pm
I happen to love Sam Hunt’s music. I take offense to people calling his music or any other artist’s music derogatory names. I’m the manager of a rock band and they like Sam Hunt work damn hard on their music. So, unless you’re rolling out number one hits you probably don’t know what you’re talking about.
July 31, 2017 @ 7:24 pm
If you like Sam Hunts music you don’t know what you are talking about. Managing your boyfriends band doesn’t make you an expert at anything but being a groupie.
July 31, 2017 @ 7:29 pm
“So, unless you’re rolling out number one hits you probably don’t know what you’re talking about.”
so… having a music theory degree doesn’t meant I know what I’m talking about?
playing in a live band since I was sixteen, every week for dances and bars, doesn’t mean I know what I’m talking about?
being a board member for a fiddlers association doesn’t mean I know what I’m talking about?
winning fiddlers competitions doesn’t mean I know what I’m talking about.
“I take offense to people calling his music or any other artist’s music derogatory names”
And I take offense to morons like you acting like you know the first thing about music and pretending that only people who make money are real musicians.
When you know what a hemi-demi-semi-quaver is, when you can read the bass cleff, when you know what the word tessitura means, or when you can tell me what 8va, forte-issi-issimo, or accelerando means, maybe then I’ll have a shred of respect for you and your ridiculous opinions.
until that time I shall regard you as you are: completely ignorant of the basics of any understanding of music.
July 31, 2017 @ 9:20 pm
…and…how many #1 hits has your boyfriend’s band rolled out now?
August 2, 2017 @ 7:08 pm
I think a lot of it may be a woman thing. I woman I respected a great deal said “I love this song!” when a Sam Hunt song came on. I wanted to tell her to leave the car but she has a lot of great qualities, so I endured the song. Dreadful experience. So if you’re regarding great music by the number of hits it makes maybe you dont know what your talking about.
July 31, 2017 @ 5:49 pm
Thing is Sam Hunt can not sing his voice is awful so of course he has no passion . Scotty McCreery, Chris young and Josh Turner now those dude’s have amazing voices.
July 31, 2017 @ 6:35 pm
Why do you keep writing about this guy? His music is terrible and he isn’t country. Who cares if he’s played on country music radio stations, or if the masses like him (for whatever misguided reason).
Please just review albums that you like so I can go and listen to some new, good music. I love your recommendations, but I’m sick of hearing about this asshole.
July 31, 2017 @ 6:45 pm
Did he suffer some sort of spinal injury playing football? Why the hell can’t he just stand like a normal person?
July 31, 2017 @ 7:06 pm
Hunt never had a passion for country music.
Sam Hunt never had a passion for music, period.
From https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/another-country-sam-hunt-maps-out-nashvilles-bold-new-future/2014/11/04/bd37cf86-643d-11e4-bb14-4cfea1e742d5_story.html?utm_term=.3b424494a6bd
“I had a couple CDs,” he confesses. “But I never had that first concert experience, that first record thing.”
Good to see him getting honest about just doing the whole thing half-assed, though. Dare we hope he’ll just drop the whole charade and admit he knew that what he was doing wasn’t country but that he just didn’t give a fuck?
August 2, 2017 @ 7:10 pm
And half assed and that special thing is all you need to dominate country radio. That’s how bad the biz is.
July 31, 2017 @ 8:38 pm
Sam Hunt is shit and so are his fans, parents, family members, and ancestors.
August 1, 2017 @ 4:56 am
Wish I were mean enough to say it! thank you!
July 31, 2017 @ 9:19 pm
Sam hunt Body like a backroad is at 25 weeks at #1. a new record, yuck!
August 1, 2017 @ 6:10 am
I’ve never once heard it. I consider that a victory
August 1, 2017 @ 6:15 am
I had never heard of Sam Hunt until I started visiting this site. I still haven’t ever knowingly heard one of his songs. The only time I ever listen to mainstream country radio is when I’m driving my wife somewhere and she says she can’t take that (bluegrass, country, or blues) CD anymore.
August 1, 2017 @ 8:35 am
Sam Hunt is utterly undefendable. If I was forced to, I could muster up a plea for Bryan, Aldean, hell even Thomas Rhett. They either have some good album cuts or a couple of catchy songs.
Outside of the decent pop song “Leave the Night On,” Sam Hunt never gave music anything.
He is up there with Taylor Swift. They never gave a damn about country music outside of its generous financial offerings and Southern hospitality for letting any hack have a record deal.
August 1, 2017 @ 8:06 pm
“Artists with the true love of country music in their hearts, they don’t make country music for money or fame. They make it for life. They make it because they have no other choice. They make it whether they succeed, or it costs incredible sacrifice to keep doing it. It isn’t an option, it’s an obligation to themselves, and the music…”
Maybe the true love of country in his heart is his fiancee. Waylon Jennings would approve. Maybe because he has another true love, besides country music, and he has made quite a bit of money, he can sing songs other songwriters send him, he chooses songs with his true love, which one’s appeal. Maybe he lives a life and has fun and makes money in the country. Maybe they have lots of hobbies and he plays his guitar and smiles. He’ll have lots of country fans, oh he already does. Probably should consider the mass appeals opinion and it’s probably something they shuffle across the bar room floor to, or maybe it’s playing in the bowling alley, it’s in the background anyway, they aren’t always listening and, yes, it is a conspiracy to warp your minds. Make em’ soft and cowardly. There have to be some things you wouldn’t do, even if a gun were put to your head, say pull the trigger. it’s better to die and that should just be a given or off to the wilderness sterilized you may go at 25 there should be something to look forward to each decade a new level or national park, canyons, instead of forests, until they are all gone – do whatever whenever we have what we now call nature shows anything goes it’s weird that there actually are just two kinds in operation, wilderness nature lifers (which includes Everything including released prisoners) and the domestic breed.
August 2, 2017 @ 7:15 pm
“So, now that I’ve established myself and am in the position that I’m in now, going forward, I’d like to explore writing songs that probably won’t be as commercially viable as some of the songs that I’ve written in the past.”
He’s smart enough to know he’s the latest flash of fools gold in the pan and is setting himself up for the inevitable decline into pop and music oblivion. At least that’s my hope.
August 3, 2017 @ 6:33 pm
I really don’t get all of the hatred towards this guy on this website.
For real man….how many fucking articles need to be devoted to him,his music and his ever constant contribution to the demise of modern country music.
He has never claimed to be the second coming of George fucking Jones or a disciple of Johnny Cash.
He has been 100% honest about his background, his musical influences and his aspirations.
For the most part he seems like a good dude…not really a spotlight media whore….not a loudmouth misogynist….what’s the problem?
He’s wildly successful, like it or not.
August 4, 2017 @ 12:22 pm
@ Willie Potter – “….wildly successful?” – yeah, so is Justin Beiber but that doesn’t make him a legitimate, talented musical artist that we should all admire.
August 7, 2017 @ 4:52 pm
@ the realist-
Yup..Sam Hunt is Wildly Successful indeed.
Just based on the songs that he has written or co-written for other artists makes him wildly successful…forget about his own career.
And your right Beiber is too.
But he’s a fucking douchebag.
Sam Hunt just happened to be at the right place at the right time…Have you any idea how the music industry works?
And I for one think it’s trite and redundant the amount of articles that this artist receives here….really..
it’s like he fucked Trigger and never called him back.
Ever.
And now we have to endure endless tears,kleenex and shame.
August 11, 2017 @ 11:35 pm
As a Sam Hunt fan its disappointing to know that he used, fooled and played all his fans. He never wanted to do any of this…he claimed he loved music in college… Guess he lost his passion along the way.. Its heartbreaking to know there will never be any more concerts, records, etc. He’s now just a faded memory in the back of my head, got me thru the hard times and now he’s just off into the sunset with his wife…the only dream he ever had was her…singing these songs was just something to do. He played us, took our money and got everything he wanted. I’ll never get to meet him..he’ll just be walking around Nashville blending in with the crowd. I’ll never forget his album or him. I don’t want to move on to another artist. I put my heart and soul into Sam. How do i even live life now that hes gone. Oh. I actually had to wipe my tears and go re read what the title of this article was.