It’s been over a year since Sam Hunt released a song, and this week he dropped “Downtown’s Dead,” the follow-up to the multi-week, five-times platinum “Body Like a Back Road.” It’s also been a year since he married his wife, Hannah, so over the past year or so, Sam’s been busy being a husband, being at home, traveling all over and experiencing the world after his whirlwind rise to the top of the charts and headlining tours. He’s also been busy writing songs following the success of his multi-platinum Montevallo album. He told us he’s probably written 50 or 60 songs, including “Downtown’s Dead,” which he says stood out from the rest of the pack.

“That song…checked all the boxes that I needed to check in a song, and I felt like it was lyrics that are lyrics I felt comfortable saying,” says Sam. “The idea I thought was relatable to people, and it just sounded like a song that people would come out to shows to sing and would inspire people to come out to shows. But ‘Downtown’s Dead,’ it’s hard for me to really say for sure what made that song stand out. I could break it down, I guess theoretically, but I just have those moments where there’s just a gut feeling that says, ‘Okay, this is the song you should put out. This is how you need to say it. This is what you need to say. This is how it should sound,’ and when I get to that point, then I put it out. That song was the one that sort of rose up from the batch that I’ve been working over the past year or two.”

Sam is nominated in five categories at Sunday night’s (May 20th) Billboard Music Awards, including Top Selling Song for “Body Like a Back Road,” as well as Top Country Song, Top Country Artist, Chart Achievement and Top Country Male Artist. Tune in to NBC on Sunday beginning at 8pm ET.

Sam will hit the road with Luke Bryan on the What Makes You Country XL Tour, which will hit stadiums beginning May 31st in Toronto Ontario. He has one date prior to the tour – he’s performing at the Indianapolis 500 next weekend.