The country star was arrested Thursday morning for allegedly driving on the wrong side of the road in Nashville, Tennessee.
Sam Hunt was arrested Thursday morning for driving under the influence, ET has confirmed.
According to the country singer's arrest report, obtained by ET, Hunt was allegedly driving on the wrong side of a Nashville, Tennessee, street when police noticed and pulled him over.
An initial call was put out for a wrong-way driver going south in the northbound lanes in the area of Ellington N/Ben Allen, according to the arrest report. The report states that when officers got on at Cleveland to go south, Hunt's vehicle (which matched the description) was seen traveling south in the north lanes and then exited at the Cleveland exit heading towards Gallatin. When officers got behind the vehicle, the driver had difficulty staying in the lane of travel and crossed the center divide several times before a stop was initiated, according to the arrest report.
"Once the stop was initiated and contact made there was an obvious odor consistent with alcoholic beverage coming from the defendant as well as red bloodshot and watery eyes," the arrest report alleges. "There were two empty beers in the vehicle next to the driver. The defendant had difficulty retrieving his ID and attempted to give a credit card and passport instead while his TN driver license sat on his lap."
Hunt, according to police, showed "numerous signs of impairment on all tests conducted. After being advised of Miranda and TN implied consent the defendant consented to a breath test." The police report states that Hunt's blood alcohol level was .173, which is more than twice the legal limit. According to the arrest report, Hunt was the only individual in the vehicle, and allegedly "admitted to consuming alcohol recently."
ET has learned that the 34-year-old singer was booked at the Metro-Davidson County Detention Facility around 6:30 a.m. local time and was released after posting the $2,500 bond around 9 a.m. He is scheduled to appear in court on January 17, 2020.
A source tells ET that the night before his arrest, Hunt was at The Ainsworth bar in Nashville with his friends, having drinks, shots and watching a local act perform a show.
"The group was having fun and enjoying the music, but Sam took it too far and unfortunately drove," the source says. "There was roughly Sam and 25 people in his group showing support for the performance."
The arrest comes a month after Hunt released his new song "Kinfolks," which dropped in October and marked his first single in over a year (with a full album expected in early 2020). Since his breakthrough Montevallo album in 2014, Hunt has released music sporadically, with "Drinkin' Too Much," "Body Like a Back Road" and "Downtown's Dead."
Hunt has been married to his longtime love Hannah Lee Fowler (who inspired his Montevallo album) since April 2017. Speaking to ET last July, the Cedartown, Georgia, native said the reason behind him stepping back from music at the time was because he was "so happy."
"I'm so content and I just don't turn to music as often to, like, validate myself, you know? [Hannah] inspires me, certainly. But the dynamic of our relationship now compared to then is a lot different," he shared. "And 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."
Hear more in the video below.
Reporting by Brendon Geoffrion.
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