Sam Hunt Appreciates His Family, Personal Life More After Whirlwind Year

I've been able to appreciate those things a lot more after having not been able to experience a lot of those things over the past couple of years..." said Hunt.

Written by Lauren Laffer
Sam Hunt Appreciates His Family, Personal Life More After Whirlwind Year
Photo via @samhuntmusic on Instagram

It’s been two years since Sam Hunt hit the country music scene with his debut album Montevallo and earned accolade after accolade from the progressive songs on the record. The anticipation of a sophomore album has been building for some time, but the pressure isn’t weighing the Georgia native down. In fact, it’s driving him to be better and do better for his fans in the next go-around.

While a date for the next project is in the distance, Hunt is busy writing away, but also enjoying the things he used to do before becoming a budding superstar. Since wrapping his touring season, the singer/songwriter has taken a step back from the spotlight to enjoy the things that are truly important to him.

“I’m very competitive and driven and passionate about music and what I’ve done and what I hope to do,” Hunt told Sounds Like Nashville and other media recently while aboard the Carnival Splendor. “And I sometimes have to take a step back and realize that it’s not necessarily worth sacrificing all these things in your life that are very important to you, to me, myself. Having time to see my family and to have a love life and to have some of the things that I had before kind of diving into this full-speed. I’ve been able to appreciate those things a lot more after having not been able to experience a lot of those things over the past couple of years because of my obligation to the music and the goal.”

His initial goal was to put out a record, hit the road and pound the pavement in order to make his dream come true.

“Now that I’ve done that, after a couple years, I’ve taken a step back and started to carve out time for myself, because I’ve realized how important that is,” he explained. “Whenever the second record comes out, I don’t think I’ll be prioritizing that over some of the things in my personal life that I feel like are important, that I haven’t been necessarily negligent of, but I haven’t been able to take full advantage of over the past couple years.”

Finding his way back to the things that are important to him is something that Hunt credits his parents with. Their love and support throughout his entire life has kept him grounded through the many lifestyle changes he’s encountered in the last several years.

“Who I was, was a product of the relationships with my family, the environment that I grew up in, and all those things… I kind of put them back when I got into music, and my lifestyle changed dramatically,” he said. “That is still very important to me. That’s something I’m still working on. I think I’ll always be working on for the rest of my life, but I do feel like I’m at a place now that I’m a lot more proud of who I am now in terms of the man I am and the man I want to be…”

“I’ve realized the importance of that, and I’ve realized how to surround myself with the right people and put myself in the right environment to make that process happen like I want it badly in terms of growth as a man and as a person. I’m working on that still, but I’ve got a good jump on it, especially in these past several months with a little more time with myself.”

Hunt is certainly enjoying some time to himself as he’s currently exploring Israel, chronicled by his Instagram timeline.