The new Johnny Cash, eh?
It’s been a while since we’ve really heard anything new from Sam Hunt. He had a moment with his debut album Montevallo, and of course the follow-up single “Body Like A Back Road,” but since then he hasn’t really made a splash with anything he’s released. His 2020 album Southside didn’t really get a ton of attention once people realized it was more of the same and not the actual traditional country album he had teased, so it was starting to look like his success was more of a flash in the pan.
But what better way to get people talking about you again than comparing yourself to Johnny Cash? (I mean, it worked because I wouldn’t be writing this article about a Sam Hunt music video otherwise).
Well Sam is back with a new music video for his new single “Locked Up,” which dropped today.
In the video, Sam channels his inner Johnny Cash from his prison performances at San Quentin and Folsom Prison as he laments how he almost lost the love of his life, his wife Hannah, thanks to his “young, dumb, rowdy phase.”
Of course the autobiographical song is referring to his November 2019 arrest for DUI that landed him behind bars, as well as his wife’s 2022 filing for divorce (which she retracted a couple of months later).
“The night I got locked up, everything went wrong
The night I got messed up, should’ve just stayed home
Pickеd up my phone, what can I say?
I thought that you’d walk away
But you stood by your man, Tammy Wynette
It hit thе fan, you could’ve just quit
Nah, but you showed me love
You didn’t go when the goin’ got tough, the night I got locked up”
The video not only features Sam dressed in black with his slicked back hair playing for inmates in a scene reminiscent of Cash, but also includes his wife Hannah evoking June Carter Cash as she stands beside him through the tough times.
The song was co-written by Sam along with Jerry Flowers, Josh Osborne, Shane McAnally and Zach Crowell, and honestly it’s not a big departure from the sound that we’re used to from Sam, so there’s really not a ton to say about the song itself. If you like his music, it’s nothing special but it’s fine. If you don’t, you’re probably gonna want to skip this one.
But if you want to see Sam Hunt doing his best Johnny Cash impersonation, check out the music video:
