Country singer Hunter Hayes said it feels like he’s played a thousand shows in Pittsburgh, but a night off here early in his career sticks out in his memory.
Having recently turned 21 back in 2012, Hayes and a group of around 30 people from the bands and crew went to see the James Bond movie “Skyfall.”
“I’m a big James Bond fan, and we went out to this martini bar beforehand and I ordered a Vesper. And not having a lot of experience, I didn’t know that that was gonna take some experience to get through. You know what I mean?” he said with a laugh. “Obviously, we had a show the next day. I loved the movie. The movie was great, but I definitely remember going back to my room and being like, ‘I don’t know if I’m gonna be OK tomorrow,’ because I was so new to the whole thing.”
A five-time Grammy nominee, Hayes broke out with his hit single, “Wanted.” He’s still going strong with his 10th studio album, “Evergreen,” which will be released on Friday. His tour kicks off later this month, with a March 27 show at Mr. Smalls Theatre in Millvale.
In a recent Zoom conversation from Nashville, Hayes spoke with TribLive about the new album, what he considers evergreen, getting his first guitar from Robert Duvall and more. Find a transcript of the conversation, edited for clarity and length, below.
You have the new album “Evergreen” coming out March 6, so what were you hoping to accomplish with that?
“Evergreen” has been in the working for a while. It’s been almost 10 years in the making. It was sitting on the sideline for a while. It all started with “Wild Blue.” That was my first properly independent album. I made it while I was at a label, but I made it in kind of secret. And the label let me put it out, but then I got to sort of take it with me when I left. And then “Red Sky” being my first proper independent album that grew out of songs that I knew weren’t right for “Wild Blue.” And then “Evergreen” was always this grounded concept on the sidelines, and I kept writing songs for it. I wrote “Evergreen” the song, I think, in 2018. I kept looking at it. I had this complicated relationship with it, I think. Not complicated, but I knew that “Evergreen” felt grounded. I knew that “Evergreen” felt peaceful. I think that I hadn’t really gotten there as a human yet, so I didn’t feel qualified to speak on it.
Then as I finished “Red Sky,” I had this list of songs already written, and then I had a list of titles that I wanted to write, and I felt a lot of energy, wanting to write again, which it had been a while. And “Evergreen” became this very clear manifestation record. There’s parts of it that were written from life experiences, and there were parts that were written from the dream, the wanting, the this is where I want to be, this is who I want to be, and this is how I want to be. Even if I’m not there yet, I can feel it, and it feels good. So it was the beginning of call it prayer, call it manifestation, whatever you want to call it, but “Evergreen” feels like a brand new home with a lot of things in it that have a lot of stories of traveling the world and a lot of experiences. It feels very grounded, very planted, but it definitely has a lot of memorabilia from things years past, experiments, things I’ve tried. It’s a lot of things in one place, but it feels like home, I think more than anything I’ve done in a long time.
So it sounds like you had a theme, you had an idea, but did you have to wait for the right songs to slot into that then?
Both. The songs were kind of there already, and the songs were getting written, and I had a theme. I’ve noticed that what I do the most is I give myself themes. I think subconsciously I end up giving myself themes that I know I’m going to grow into or that I feel like I want to grow into, maybe that’s the better way to put it. I’m still figuring this out. I don’t know any of this for sure yet, but I’m learning that I give myself these spaces to go and work and write, mentally, thematically, that feel like where I want to go, that feel like places to grow.
Did you feel like you were really putting your heart out there on this album? Was that challenging at all?
Man, that’s one of my favorite parts about what I do. I wear it all on my sleeve. I’ve made no secret about that. And also I’m very passionate about, I want to do this for the rest of my life, right? I love doing this. I’m just getting started. And because of that, it doesn’t always have to be about me. I know I’m not attached to, this has to be about my story right now and exactly what I’m going through. It’s coming from experience. It’s coming from places that are very personal. But at the same time, I want space. I want space for me to grow into some of these songs. I think some of the best songs are the ones you learn from after you write them. I also want people to listen to my music. I’m giving this to the world, right? So I want there to be space for other people to live in this, too. I want it to be a conversation. I always want my music to be a dialogue in that I want to, let’s say “Evergreen,” for instance, is a great example. “Evergreen” is a dream. “Evergreen” is a commitment to someone you haven’t met yet. I feel like everyone has had a version of that in some form or fashion. So I’ll write my version and I want to make sure there’s space enough for you to know that this could be your song.
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“The Ones You Love” is probably a song that could hit home for a lot of people. Was there anyone in particular who inspired that one?
I think I experienced a lot of loss during. Honestly, I think it’s dealing with loss I haven’t dealt with in a lot of ways. I lost my grandfather when I was on the road in 2013. I had, by the grace of God, spent time with him before I left for that trip, but you don’t get to pick the timing of that. I’ve lost a few people while I’ve been on the road, and my little guardian angel, Ella, my dog that I had for 10 years. I think that was kind of the wake up-call because she was healthy. I think that losing her unexpectedly while I was away put a lot of things into perspective. It just forced me to call up that theme and realize that it’s time to process it. It’s time to work with it. And it was a song I just needed to write.
And not take for granted these people or animals because they might not be around forever.
Time is both something we have in abundance and take for granted and something we have no control over and no say on what it does. I write about that a lot on the project. “Too Late” is ironically the song right before that, and “Too Late” is just like, it’s never too late, trust the process, it’s all good man, it’s gonna happen when it’s supposed to. And then “The Ones You Love,” it’s just like, you know what, sometimes it is too late, and sometimes you realize that the time you have is all you have.
The album cover says Season 1, so do you envision future seasons of this album?
Yeah, the way that I’m working in albums right now is I’m working in series. I love working on albums because of the way that the streaming world works. I’ve seen a lot of flow in releasing singles, so my way of marrying that and figuring out how to bridge those and connect those things is I work in series. So “Evergreen” is the theme and sort of the set of rules, the whatever you want to call it, the mantras, brand, whatever. “Evergreen” is the world that I’m in, that’s the garden that I’m growing. Season 1 is the first album from that series, and then there will be obviously a Season 2. This way of thinking and this way of working means that I can go to any album at any point and bring it back. There’s six songs that never made it to “Wild Blue,” which was from 2019. There’s 10 more songs that never made it to “Red Sky,” which was my release in 2023. So this is my way of saying, hey, there are no more rules. (laughs)
If an album is out, it doesn’t mean that I can’t go back because I also am really passionate about letting songs grow with me. I wanted “Evergreen” to be a new start for me in that I wanted it to feel like a garden that was always growing because I’m always making music. You’re in the room with me, there’s a session up right now that I’m going to work on as soon as we’re done. This is what I do, this is what I love, and then we bring it out on the road. That is why I do what I do. I wanted to live in a world where everything could live and grow with me. Season 1 is just my indication to everyone in the world that this is the beginning of the story. I like releasing them in singles because it makes sure that every song gets its day and every song matters to the story. There’ll be Season 2, there might be Season 3. There’ll be Season 3 and 4 of the albums past, and I love living in this world where an album is never done. We just watch it grow.
With the theme, are there things in your life that you consider evergreen? Are there movies, books or music you consider evergreen?
A hundred percent. Music is evergreen, the albums that have stuck with me. I just recently reconnected with a mentor, that was a mentor of mine 10 years ago, because I just couldn’t stop listening to the music that he made, and the messages that sunk in that still apply to this day. My life has changed so dramatically since the last time I listened to those albums, and yet my relationship with them is just the same, and I think that’s the kind of music I want to make. That’s the impact that I want to leave. I want to leave evergreen music. That’s what I want my legacy to be, leave something that lives in the world years after I’m not here anymore. So I think music is that. Art is that, and I think that love is evergreen, because I look at some of my favorite relationships, and they’ve changed shapes so many times. I think being in love with my favorite person has taught me a lot. It’s different every day, and that’s the beauty of it, like it’s not the same. I think sometimes I can get scared when there’s not consistency, because I need structure, I’m a Virgo or whatever I am that connects to that, but I love consistency, and yet the best things in my life change with the season, and I’ve learned that if I can grow to change with the seasons, I’m better for it.
In light of Robert Duvall’s recent passing, I know that you had a relationship with him, so could you talk about that? Do you still have the guitar that he got you?
I absolutely still have that guitar. It’s crazy to me because it’s such a young experience. I was 6 years old so my ability to process what was happening, I couldn’t understand the significance. And looking back now, the role that he played, it was short in that I hadn’t seen him in years, probably since he gave me that guitar when I was 6 years old or I guess (“The Apostle”) premiere and stuff like that, but the fact that that moment happened, I wouldn’t be here talking to you if it wasn’t for that gift that he gave me when I was 6 years old. If he hadn’t made a couple extra minutes to stop by and give me that guitar at that jam session birthday that I was having, yeah, I wouldn’t have the relationship with songwriting that I have right now. Talk about moments that changed the course of history in your life. He did that, and my guess is he probably had no idea that it would make that big of an impact on my life, but here we are.
Has that influenced your relationship with fans whenever you meet them at all?
That and several other moments have made me realize the significance of moments and the significance of understanding that every moment matters. Every interaction, every time I shake hands with somebody in a meet and greet, every time I see somebody out, as I say, in the wild outside of the studio, those moments are significant to me and maybe they’re significant to the other person. Maybe they’re not, but they are significant, they play a role, and I think it helps me, not that one would ever intentionally take something like that for granted, but I think in the dizziness of life and the chaos of life, when you’re running from one thing to another, my little ADHD self, it really helps me focus on the things in front of me and be grateful for them.