Country singer/songwriter Sam Hunt visited The Recording Academy's headquarters in Santa Monica, Calif., to participate in an exclusive GRAMMY.com interview. Hunt shared how he fell in love with guitar in high school, the experience of writing songs for his debut album, Montevallo, and the R&B influences in his music, among other topics.  

"I was writing for [two] years with a publishing company before I started working on my record," said Hunt. "I went from writing maybe 75 to100 songs a year to writing [10 to 12 songs in the] 18 months prior to putting out my first record. I wrote a lot fewer songs but I spent a lot more time on lyrics and melody."

Born in Georgia, Hunt began his music career as a songwriter in Nashville, Tenn., co-writing hits such as Kenny Chesney's "Come Over" and Keith Urban's "Cop Car." Venturing out as a solo artist, he released a four-track solo EP, X2C, which peaked at No. 36 on the Billboard 200 on the strength of the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart-topping single "Leave The Night On."

In October 2014 Hunt released Montevallo, which features 10 tracks including "House Party," "Make You Miss Me" and "Take Your Time." The album reached No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and No. 1 on Billboard's Country Albums chart, and "House Party" and "Take Your Time" cracked the Top 30 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Hunt is currently on an international tour, with dates scheduled through July 2016.