Sam Hunt’s Biggest Hit Almost Wasn’t Released
It's difficult to think of Sam Hunt without bringing to mind his No. 1 hit, "Body Like a Back Road." If Hunt wasn't on the map before, that song — a megahit for the genre-bending artist — certainly catapulted him into superstardom.
However, Hunt almost didn't release it in the first place.
"I hadn’t really worked on any new music, but we needed to put out new music if we were going to tour, and ['Body Like a Back Road'] was honestly just like one of the only songs I had written," Hunt reveals to Audacy's Katie & Company.
The song was released in February of 2017 and spent more than 24 weeks on top of the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. This broke a record previously set by Florida Georgia Line and their song "Cruise," another inescapable phenomenon. It also reached No. 6 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 chart after it crossed over into pop music.
"Body Like a Back Road" remains Hunt's most popular song to date.
More No. 1 hits should be on the way for "House Party" singer as he gears up to release his third studio album this year. Hunt's last album, Southside, arrived in April 2020. While speaking to Audacy, he revealed that when his 2020 tour was canceled due to the COVID pandemic, he made a point to get a jump on writing new music. The first song to come out of those writing sessions was "23," which means it will most likely be on his new project.
Hunt hopes to have this album finished by the spring. As for the tone of the project, he says it's "the next step past that youthful, carefree, 'it's all gonna work out one day' kind of attitude."
"So this is kind of like that step into real adulthood," he notes. He did not offer up a release date for the album, noting that he can sometimes be unpredictable when it comes to meeting deadlines.
Hunt has quite a few shows scheduled for 2022, including the Houston Rodeo on March 14. He shared a list of dates on Instagram and teased that there will be more coming.