40 Fun Facts About Hunter Hayes

Which actor attended Hunter Hayes's fifth birthday party and gave the future country star his first guitar?

Robert Duvall wrote, directed and starred in the 1997 film The Apostle, in which the young Hayes had a small part as a child musician. The gift was a beginner guitar.

For which US president did a seven-year-old Hunter Hayes perform at a White House lawn party?

Bill Clinton invited Hayes to play when the boy was seven. By then he had been appearing on national television since he was four.

Which costumed character did Hunter Hayes perform as on the third season of The Masked Singer in 2020?

Astronaut was Hayes's disguise, and the role had him covering pop hits by Ed Sheeran and Shawn Mendes.

Which rock band held the Guinness record for most concerts in multiple cities in 24 hours before Hunter Hayes?

The Flaming Lips set the mark in 2012 with Hayes as their opening act at the Hattiesburg stop. He took the record for himself two years later.

Which 2012 ballad made Hunter Hayes the youngest solo male artist to top Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart?

Wanted sold more than 3.5 million copies and crossed over, reaching the top 15 of both the Adult Pop Songs and Adult Contemporary charts.

Which superstar had Hunter Hayes open ten dates of a world tour in the summer of 2011, before his debut album?

Taylor Swift put him on her Speak Now World Tour, months after he had toured radio stations to introduce his own songs.

Which pop singer joined Hunter Hayes on the re-recorded duet version of 'Everybody's Got Somebody but Me'?

Jason Mraz was invited because the songwriters felt the tune already sounded so much like his own music.

On Jimmy Kimmel Live in November 2016, Hunter Hayes shared the stage with four of what, each one of himself?

Holograms let Hayes perform beside four copies of himself, fitting for a musician who played every instrument on his debut album.

Which instrument did six-year-old Hunter Hayes play as a contestant on a Nickelodeon game show in 1998?

Accordion and singing were the talents he showed the panel, four years after he first started performing at the age of two.

Which Cajun-country town, styled the Crawfish Capital of the World, is the birthplace of singer Hunter Hayes?

Breaux Bridge is where Hayes grew up as an only child, before he left for Nashville, Tennessee, as a teenager to work as a songwriter.

Which Carrie Underwood tour had Hunter Hayes as the opening act for its North American leg from September 2012?

Blown Away crowds saw Hayes on more than 90 dates, and a few months in he introduced Underwood's performance at the Grammy Awards.

Which 2011 debut single by Hunter Hayes has a video showing him play guitar, drums and banjo as he sings?

Storm Warning reached number 14 on Hot Country Songs and was certified Gold, but it took his next single to make him a chart-topper.

Which song did Hunter Hayes premiere live at the 2014 Grammy Awards ceremony, months before his second album came out?

Invisible drew on bullying Hayes faced growing up, and he sang it in front of projected quotes from John Lennon and Steve Jobs.

Which country trio recorded 'Play', a song co-written by Hunter Hayes, on the 2010 album Nothing Like This?

Rascal Flatts cut the song with a producer who went on to co-produce Hayes's own debut, and Hayes opened their Thaw Out tour in early 2012.

Which Nickelodeon actress sang a duet with Hunter Hayes on the soundtrack of the 2011 Footloose remake?

Victoria Justice and Hayes covered the love theme that Mike Reno and Ann Wilson had taken into the charts from the original 1984 film.

What title did Hunter Hayes give the 2013 deluxe reissue of his debut album, which added five new tracks?

Encore pushed the album to a new peak of number seven on the Billboard 200 in its 71st week on the chart.

Which cause did Hunter Hayes highlight in 2014 by playing a record-setting run of concerts within 24 hours?

Child hunger was the cause, and the stunt, billed as a 24 Hour Road Race, doubled as promotion for his second album.

Which organisation's awards show crowned Hunter Hayes its top newcomer in 2012, the year after his major-label debut?

CMA voters gave him a prize that was known as the Horizon Award until 2007 and honours acts tipped for great success.

Which 2014 Hunter Hayes album, his second, shares its name with a track and features steel guitarist Paul Franklin?

Storyline debuted at number one on Top Country Albums, and Hayes had written more than 60 songs before narrowing it down to 14 tracks.

Which single from Hunter Hayes's second album did he debut at the CMT Music Awards in June 2014?

Tattoo became his first UK release that October and lent its name to one of the tours he headlined that year.

Which third single from Hunter Hayes's debut album topped Country Airplay and has a video filmed in Vancouver?

Somebody's Heartbreak mixes footage of his concert at the Rogers Arena with clips from autograph signings, and the single went Platinum.

Which Nashville-born producer, founder of the rock band Giant, co-produced Hunter Hayes's 2011 debut album?

Dann Huff shared the producer's chair while Hayes wrote or co-wrote every song and played every instrument himself.

Which streaming service got Hunter Hayes's 2015 single '21' as an exclusive before it reached digital stores?

Spotify got the song first because Hayes hoped to nudge country music towards digital distribution. It was also his first single with no official writing credit for him.

Which Hank Williams classic did a young Hunter Hayes perform on the TV contest America's Most Talented Kids?

Hey, Good Lookin' suited a boy who was already a stage veteran: he had been performing since the age of two and made his first album at nine.

Which Nickelodeon panel game show, hosted by Summer Sanders, had a six-year-old Hunter Hayes as a contestant?

Figure It Out welcomed him in April 1998, one of several national television spots of his childhood alongside the talk shows Maury and The Rosie O'Donnell Show.

Which 2023 album did Hunter Hayes describe as his first fully independent release after more than a decade of waiting?

Red Sky was more than three years in the making, and he took it on a 22-show American tour that opened in San Diego.

Which singer beat Hunter Hayes's 'I Want Crazy' to the Grammy for Best Country Solo Performance at the 56th ceremony?

Darius Rucker won with 'Wagon Wheel', in the second of three straight years that Hayes was nominated in the category without a win.

Which historic American guitar maker named Hunter Hayes its newest brand ambassador in May 2012?

Martin has built guitars since 1833 and is based in Nazareth, Pennsylvania. Hayes called the ambassador title an absolute honor.

Which group guested on Hunter Hayes's 'Where It All Begins' and had him along on their 2015 Wheels Up Tour?

Lady Antebellum's three members also co-wrote the track with Hayes, and live recordings from that tour fill out his album The 21 Project.

On which TV show did Hunter Hayes surprise fans in August 2019 by revealing an album would be out within days?

Today viewers heard it first: the album had been planned for October 11, the eighth anniversary of his debut, but arrived on August 16 instead.

Which independent album did Hunter Hayes release in 2000 at the age of nine, the first of his career?

Through My Eyes was the first of five independent albums he released before signing a publishing deal in Nashville as a teenager.

Which record label signed Hunter Hayes to its Nashville division in 2010 and released his self-titled debut?

Atlantic Records signed him that September, by which point he was already a published songwriter with Universal Music Publishing Group.

Whose 1973 record did Hunter Hayes break as the youngest solo male artist to top Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart?

Johnny Rodriguez had held the record for nearly four decades, and Hayes beat it by just three months and one week.

Which hitmaker produced the new mix of Hunter Hayes's 'I Want Crazy' that was released in the UK in April 2015?

Ryan Tedder, the OneRepublic frontman, reworked the track for Hayes's international compilation album, which took the song's title as its own.

Which Massachusetts songwriter joined Hunter Hayes and Troy Verges to write his 2013 single 'I Want Crazy'?

Lori McKenna later won the Grammy for Best Country Song two years running, for 'Girl Crush' and then 'Humble and Kind'.

Which Full House actor hosted America's Most Talented Kids when a young Hunter Hayes appeared on the show?

Dave Coulier, best known as Joey Gladstone, hosted the contest. Hayes had been making national television appearances since he was four.

Which 2012 film starring real Navy SEALs has the Hunter Hayes original 'Where We Left Off' on its soundtrack?

Act of Valor gave Hayes a second film soundtrack credit in as many years, this time with a song he wrote himself.

Hunter Hayes's biggest hit ranked third on Billboard's all-time Country Songs chart behind 'Walk on By' and which song?

Cruise, by Florida Georgia Line, topped the 2016 ranking, which was based on chart performance, with Leroy Van Dyke's hit in second place.

Which country duo supported Hunter Hayes on two of his headlining tours during 2014, the year of his second album?

Dan + Shay shared a stage with Hayes again in 2017, when both played the UK's Country to Country festival.

Which Nickelodeon sitcom featured Hunter Hayes in a guest appearance as himself in 2016?

Bella and the Bulldogs brought him back to the network where he had been a game show contestant as a six-year-old.