Sam Hunt doesn’t shy away from his outlaw ways, and that takes center stage in his new track, “Locked Up.”
Hunt co-wrote the song with Shane McAnally, Josh Osborne, Jerry Flowers and Zach Crowell, and the autobiographical tune chronicles Hunt’s hard-to-love ways that eventually landed him in jail.
The first half finds Hunt regretting how his poor life choices affected his relationship with his wife, Hannah, while the latter has him immensely thankful for her steadfast love and support.
“I got locked up I was in a young, dumb, rowdy phase / Still hangin’ on to my bachelor days / You were still prayin’ / For me to start changin’ my ways / Thirty years old and still actin’ a fool / Damn near the same kid you met back in school / I thought I might have lost you / Yeah, I thought it might have cost me / The love and the light of my life,” Hunt recalls in the opening verse, before arriving in the chorus and namedropping Tammy Wynette’s “Stand By Your Man.”
“The night I got locked up / Everything went wrong / The night I got messed up / Should’ve just stayed home / Picked up my phone / What can I say I thought that you’d walk away / But you stood by your man / Tammy Wynette / It hit the 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,” he sings with both remorse and gratitude for Hannah.
The “Locked Up” music video notably takes inspiration from another country legend, Johnny Cash. It features Hunt dressed in a suit with slicked-back hair, performing for inmates on a makeshift stage in jail, reminiscent of Cash’s iconic recorded performances at California’s Folsom Prison in 1968. Hannah also appears in Hunt’s video as they both enter and exit the lock-up together.
“Locked Up” is Hunt’s latest release and follows “Came the Closest,” “Women in My Life” and “Outskirts,” which currently sits at No. 6 on the Mediabase Country chart.
For tickets to Hunt’s upcoming Outskirts Tour shows, visit his website.
Sam Hunt Songs About His Wife
A Timeline of Sam Hunt’s Relationship With Hannah Lee Fowler
Sam Hunt and Hannah Lee Fowler have called it quits after almost five years of marriage.