Top 7 American Idol finalist Hunter Metts performed a Bon Iver cover and chatted with Ellen Degeneres about life.
During Metts’ Thursday (May 20) in-studio appearance on The Ellen Degeneres Show, the rising star performed a cover of Bon Iver’s “Skinny Love” in addition to chatting with Degeneres about his time on Idol, his latest single “20,000 Kisses” and more.
“Katy [Perry] told you how many people love you and come up to her all the time. I’m one of those people who told Katy how much I love you. I’m a fan I think you’re charming, you have a great stage presence, beautiful voice and I was sad to see you go,” Degeneres gushed over Metts. “I think you have a future for sure.”
After Degeneres praised Metts for his impress vocal abilities, she asked him about his time on American Idol, what he’s been up to since leaving Idol, as well as how his sister, Mattie, had to quit her job in order for him to participate on Idol.
“It’s been amazing to come home and to get some time with your family,” Metts explained of what he’s been up too since being home. “What you dream of with Idol is opportunities like this, and so to come home and get a call like this or to come home and use the launch pad of American Idol has been amazing, yeah it’s been great.”
Metts’ explained that he grew up around music and always wanted to pursue the crazy dream of being a singer.
“So both my parents, like individually moved to Nashville, to pursue music,” Metts told Degeneres. “Long story short, from when I was early in high school, my dad was in and out of jobs a lot because it was when the streaming took off and iTunes kind of took off. So, it was really really difficult to justify why I should pursue such like a crazy dream. So I didn’t want that for my family. I ended up going to coding school after high school. Did software stuff, then it kind of just got to the point where it just ate at me all the time. It was like if I’m going to do this, this is going to be my time to do it. So I did it.”
The “20,000 Kisses” singer then told Degeneres the story of why his sister quit her job in order for him to secure a spot on American Idol. Metts’ sister was working at Disney when he auditioned for Idol and as Disney owns the network hosting Idol, it was considered a conflict of interest if he was on the show while his sister worked at Disney. So, she quit her job to allow her brother to pursue his dreams on Idol.
Watch Metts’ performance and full interview with Degeneres above.
