Sam Hunt Shares How Wife Hannah Deals With His Heartthrob Status (Exclusive)

"From the beginning I never wanted to sell that."

 

Sam Hunt is opening up about married life.

The 33-year-old country star -- who married Hannah Lee Fowler last April -- spoke exclusively to ET's Katie Krause at the Bud Light Getaway Festival in North Charleston, South Carolina, over the weekend. Though his heartthrob status is certainly nothing new, Hunt is reevaluating how he presents himself to the world since tying the knot. 

"From the beginning I never wanted to sell that," Hunt told ET at the festival, which benefited the Surfrider Grand Strand Foundation. "My music... in a lot of the songs, the guy is trying to win over the affection of the female, so I think that created that character that I didn't quite really plan on creating. So now that I'm married I sort of approach that dynamic a little differently than I used to... I don't lay into it anymore... Now I just keep it about the music."

While the "Break Up in a Small Town" singer is mindful of how he presents himself onstage, Hunt also thinks that the fact that Fowler knew him before he had major success helps to keep him from getting too caught up in fame.

"So we dated well before I had any music out, even when... I barely knew any chords on the guitar and just had no idea what I was doing," he revealed. "Part of it is because she doesn't put me on a pedestal. That trait, whatever that is, her ability to see through the thing... endears me to her."

Fowler's no-nonsense attitude is just one of the many things that Hunt has come to appreciate about marriage. 

"[I've enjoyed] sharing life in a more intimate way with somebody," Hunt said of his favorite part of married life. "I was out on the road with my guys and the band and... we're in it on and off the field, I guess you could say, but... we still went home at the end of the day and didn't really share those successes in the type of intimate way that you share with a spouse: successes, failures, the whole deal, just life. So that has made this journey a lot more enjoyable, to have somebody to go through it with."

While his personal life is going well, Hunt admitted that he's had a difficult time figuring out what he wants to say, through his music, next.

"I've been looking for inspiration this past couple of years. [For] a lot of that first record... I wasn't content in life," he revealed. "I felt like I had something to say because I needed to prove myself or, I don't know exactly what it was, but I'm so content and I just don't turn to music as often to... validate myself."

While much of his 2014 album, Montevallo, was angsty, Hunt's focus now is trying to turn love and happiness into great songs.

"There's plenty to write about, it's just... my inspiration has changed because my life has changed a lot," he said. "[Fowler] inspires me, certainly, but the dynamic of our relationship now, compared to then, is a lot different." 

Hunt continued: "I've never written a lot of love songs. Now I feel like my life is full of love and I don't really know what to do with it, I don't know how to get that into a song. I know how to get the angst into the song."

In between working on new music -- he's been playing a new song, "Nothing Lasts Forever," recently -- Hunt admitted that, after more than a year of marriage, baby fever has begun to set in.

"My brother had a baby about a year ago. I've been... watching him grow up through pictures mostly. That has escalated my baby fever a little bit," he shared. "I've always wanted to have lots of kids, so it's not something new... I had two brothers, three [kids] has always been a number that works with me."

Though he knows a family is certainly in his future, Hunt isn't sure if he's "responsible" enough to handle one just yet.

"I don't know that I'm as responsible as an adult as my parents were. So, I'm afraid of taking them on too quickly. I have some growing to do, so we'll see," he said. "I'm going to stretch it out. So I may age out of, even if I wanted to have six or seven, there may have to be a point where I have to call it." 

Hunt also opened up about the delay in his second album, and shared his hopes of going back to school.  The video below has more. 

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