Jimmy Butler is known for being a talented NBA All-Star, as well as being a major troll when it comes to the NBA’s media day.
In recent years, he’s also let the world know that he’s a huge fan of country music. Butler is even close friends with the likes of Luke Bryan and Morgan Wallen, and the story of how he came to like the genre is as unique of an anecdote as you’ll ever hear.
The forward for the Miami Heat loves country music so much, in fact, that he’s been dabbling in making some of his own. Butler talked last year about how he had around 45 tracks ready to go, and was hoping to record some more. And based on an interesting tidbit he dropped in a recent interview, he has most definitely been busy with the “recording more” part.
Butler sat down with The Guardian, and his country music fandom and creation naturally came up. He told the news outlet that he’s now finished up over 60 songs, and that he hopes to get up to around 2o0 before he finally picks and chooses out of those to make a full-length album.
As to why he’s chose to do this, it basically comes down to the fact that Butler likes to challenge himself, and making music has been challenging-yet-rewarding experience for the basketball player:
“There’s so many people out there, and I’m one of them, that are like, ‘Man, I can do that,’ and you really don’t know how difficult it is to make a number one song, how difficult it is to have all these songs on the back burner. And you got to pick the right ones.
And it’s fun, and I do love it, but my goodness, it’s difficult. It’s stressful – it’s completely different from basketball. I’m not saying basketball’s easy either, but just for people to be able to think they can just go do this or that – it’s like, man, look. Humble yourself. It is incredibly fun, I’ve had a blast while doing it. But I will tell you that it’s not easy.”
The interview also revealed that Jimmy Butler won’t necessarily be singing on his country album. He sees himself as more of a producer of the project, or as he put it:
“I’m like the DJ Khaled of this thing.”
So who’s ready to listen to a full-length country album put together and produced by an NBA All-Star? Considering that he’s close to some respected figures of the country music world, I’m actually optimistic about the project. And when you have 200 songs to filter through, you’ll surely get at least 10 good ones, right?
