As musician Hunter Flynn felt his car flip three times on a rainy drive to Lexington, he thought his story was coming to a sudden end—but really, it was only just beginning.

Born and raised in Pulaski County, Kentucky, Flynn spent his early years hunting, fishing, spending time with his family, and finding his voice.

“I grew up singing in church. I’ve always loved to sing, but it was never on my radar to do this for a career,” states Flynn.

It wasn’t until his senior year of high school that he picked up an acoustic guitar from his father’s pawn shop and took the first step on what would be his winding road to music. 

“My next-door neighbor and best friend, Dylan, got a guitar, and within two weeks he was playing ‘Wagon Wheel,’ and I was like, ‘If he can do it, I can do it,’” Flynn says.

After high school, Flynn headed to Eastern Kentucky University on a full academic scholarship, majoring in biomedical sciences and in pursuit of a career as an anesthesiologist. But following a friend’s tragic car accident, he began to realize that his heart was being called elsewhere. 

“[The accident] really made me value what I was doing and how I was spending my time,” Flynn shares. “And I was miserable. I didn’t enjoy biomedical sciences at all. At the time, I was taking a drawing class, and it was just an elective, but it was the only class that I was looking forward to. It also kind of opened my eyes to the potential of how well I could draw. A lot of things kind of clicked for me in that class, for me.”

Very soon after, Flynn transferred into the art program and went on to graduate with his bachelor’s degree in graphic design. However, following school, he immediately went to work as a life insurance salesman, a job that deeply disheartened him and stopped him in his tracks. 

“I remember waking up on the morning that it kind of hit me, tears rolling down my face, and calling my dad saying, ‘This job’s gonna kill me; I cannot do this,’” Flynn says. “And for the first time in my life, he told me to quit.”

But Flynn didn’t quit. That is, not until life unexpectedly placed him at a fierce crossroads. 

While driving down the interstate on a rainy night, Flynn hit a puddle and started hydroplaning. In a terrifying scene, he lost control of the car while going 70 miles per hour.

“I let go of the steering wheel, I closed my eyes, and I thought to myself, ‘I’m not ready to die,’” Flynn expresses.

When Flynn opened his eyes, he was upside down in the passenger seat of his ‘99 4Runner, miraculously unharmed, searching for his phone and his footing. What he ultimately found first was far more significant—the bible gifted to him by his parents, lying just beside the car.

“I thought to myself, ‘If that’s not a sign from God, then I do not know what is,’” Flynn remembers. “So, I ended up quitting the job that I was working the very next day, and I decided that I was not going to spend another second of another day not doing something that I loved, or at least in pursuit of something that I love.”

From that moment on, Flynn took his second chance at life and ran with it.

Moving into his grandmother’s basement, he tapped back into his artistic roots and began creating hyperrealism charcoal drawings on commission, spending anywhere between 16 and 30 hours completing a piece. At the same time, he fully committed to his passion for music, writing songs in his spare time and taking every opportunity he could find to perform at open mics across the state. 

And it wasn’t very long before Flynn was offered his first paid gig: “I think I knew within the first 30 minutes of being on stage that night that it was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. And never really looked back.” 

Since 2022, Flynn has gone on to sign with Big Machine Records and play well over 300 shows. 

As a homegrown Kentuckian, Flynn grew up in Appalachia, a region that is, in many ways, the beating heart of the American folk tradition. The mountainous area is widely known for its enduring culture, groundbreaking literature, and incomparable artists like Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, The Carter Family, Tyler Childers, and Flynn’s personal inspiration, as well as friend, Nicholas Jamerson.

Now, Flynn has joined the ranks of the great artists before him, defining his own distinct voice as a storyteller and songwriter. 

“I think just being from here, [storytelling] is something that you can’t really quantify or put into words, how intertwined it is with just daily life,” says Flynn. “That is how we keep the memory of our loved ones alive; it’s how we express emotion. So, I feel very blessed to be from Appalachia and have that be part of our culture, still.”

It is Flynn’s deep connection to the region that inspired him to develop his very own genre—Appalachian Soul, a name that he feels speaks to the core of who he is as an artist, past, present, and future.

“I guess the joke is that I didn’t ever want to be put in a box,” shares Flynn. “I didn’t ever want someone to say that I am specifically only a country artist, or that I am specifically only a singer-songwriter, whatever it is. So, the idea behind it, I guess, is that I am inherently Appalachian. And everything that I do, I do with all of my soul. So, therefore, whatever I write and put down and sing is Appalachian Soul music. So, it just kind of has no bounds.”

The genre might best be represented by a character of Flynn’s own design known as the Appalachian Astronaut, a once creative take on a self-portrait that has since come to symbolize so much more. 

“[The Appalachian Astronaut] has become this mascot,” says Flynn. “And through the years, it has taken on this metaphorical meaning of not really feeling like I fit into the music scene at first, and having imposter syndrome.”

Since May of this year, Flynn has dropped five new singles in anticipation of his debut record, Roots, coming out October 30. The 16-track album will take listeners through Flynn’s musical becoming, tracing his folk foundation, rock sensibilities, and ultimately expanding into a more experimental style.

“If you listen to it from top to bottom, it’s supposed to take you kind of on a sonic journey,” explains Flynn. “And I feel like we executed that well, so I’m excited for people to hear it and hopefully listen to it that way.”

Among some of Flynn’s favorite tracks are “Great White Lion,” a guttural showstopper, “Desperate Man’s Tune,” an ode to his father’s pawn shop, and a song that nods to that fateful, rainy night, titled “Bridge To Stop The Rain.”

But it’s the album’s title track that ultimately sparked Flynn’s vision for the project, following a much-needed visit home. 

“I sat down and wrote ‘Roots’ in 15 minutes, and it felt like it was my favorite thing that I had written to that point,” says Flynn. “So, when I started thinking about an album and started thinking about the concept of what I wanted it to be, I thought, ‘Well, I want it to contain all the building blocks of what makes me, me.’”

Since October 1, Flynn has set out on his first official headlining tour, hitting cities throughout the US. And while he is excited to perform with his band and explore new parts of the country, Flynn is especially looking forward to meeting new faces and truly connecting with audiences.

“When I started this, my mantra was, for one, to play every show like it’s your last,” Flynn says. “Sing like it’s the last time you get to sing. But also, if you make one fan, or you sing one song for one person that really impacts them, and it invokes an emotion that they feel like they’re seen or heard or whatever it is, then you’ve done your job. It was worth it.”

For Flynn, music cannot be separated from connection—a connection to art, a connection to people, and a connection to something far greater.

And now, as the Appalachian Astronaut shoots for the moon, he hopes that listeners will meet him among the stars. 

“I hope whenever [people] listen, they can tell that I poured my heart and soul into this project,” Flynn expresses. “And that I mean what I’m saying. I believe in the songs that I’m singing. And I’m telling them the truth; I’m not trying to sell them anything. I hope they just appreciate that it’s art from my soul.”

Photos courtesy of Hunter Flynn and Michael Jordan | Interviewed September 21, 2026