Sam Hunt Announces New Single ‘Downtown’s Dead’

New single, tomorrow…”Downtown’s Dead”

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There’s good news and there’s bad news.

The good news is Sam Hunt has announced he will release new single “Downtown’s Dead” to country radio on Wednesday (May 15).

The bad news is the country star tells Yahoo! he’s not sure what’s next.

“I don’t know where my career will go from here, but my sole focus hasn’t been on making music all the time like it was in my 20s,” he says. “I’m not writing as many songs. My interests have changed.”

“Downtown’s Dead” marks the third release from what could become Sam’s sophomore project, but he admits “it hasn’t come together in a way that would really make a great album.”

“I’ve grown up a little bit since my first record, and I feel my first record was inspired by an era of my life that really left with something to say and something to sing about,” he adds. “And at this point … I’ve gotten into some other things outside of music that I really enjoy. Just other interests of mine that have nothing to do with music.” 

The former economics major, who also studied politics and philosophy, goes on to say he’s focused now on continuing his education.

“I’ve been reading a lot in the past year just trying to educate myself. I got married last year, and I’m in my 30s now, and I feel I’m not as educated as I should be,” Sam says. “So I’ve been spending a lot of time just reading and informing myself, outside of putting out songs that work on the radio. Just been trying to broaden my horizons.”

“Downtown’s Dead” is the country star’s first single in more than a year following the record-breaking success of “Body Like a Back Road.” He hasn’t released a full album since his career-defining Montevallo in 2014.

Sam is slated to open for Luke Bryan on his What Makes You Country XL Tour, beginning May 31 in Toronto, Canada.