In this week's Billboard cover story (hi-res image below), Sam Hunt is one of four sartorially inclined cover stars, including Adam Lambert, Wiz Khalifa and Miguel, featured in the Music's Men of Style special portfolio. The singer opens about about his life as a country star who doesn't fit in with the norm, from his fashion aesthetic to his sound.
His style tears down Nashville norms:
When Hunt played the televised CMA Music Festival, one viewer tweeted, "If you really want to be country, drop the flat bill and pick up a cowboy hat and some boots." Elsewhere, he's performed beneath a banner featuring two rows of pastel flowers. But the flowers and flat bills aren't going anywhere. "A lot of the people working in Nashville, they have a model," Hunt tells Billboard. "I don't really fit into that."
On the scrutiny he has received on Twitter because of his style:
“Why is there a rapper onstage?” one person wrote. “Sam Hunt dresses so ghetto!” said another. And a third told Hunt, “If you really want to be country, drop the flat bill and pick up a cowboy hat and some boots.” Hunt has heard many such complaints. “It’s good to be proud of your heritage and your culture,” he says, “but pride can be perverted.”
On Taylor Swift:
"I always appreciated the personal element of her songwriting. My favorite way to write is to be honest and unique, so in that regard there’s a similarity.”
His Lyrics Treat Women Equally
"Respect for women was a very important part of my upbringing," Hunt tells Billboard. "The women in my life demanded that from me." He even named his album after the hometown of a former girlfriend (reportedly Hannah Lee Fowler) and consulted her when writing the lyrics: "I spent a lot of time talking to her about the songs and asking, 'What do you think about this?' Her perspective was a powerful part of me being able to connect with a female audience, not just a male audience."
