“I’m Tired”: Country Star Gets Candid About Burnout and Social Media “Hamster Wheel”

In 2020, Nate Smith went viral on TikTok with his song “Wildfire”. The Paradise, California-born singer-songwriter parlayed more than 3 million views into a publishing deal with Sony. Things moved quickly from there, and Smith has since sent two singles—”Whiskey On You” and “World On Fire”—to the top of the Country Airplay chart. Building a massive following in a span of just several years, the “Bulletproof” crooner, 40, opened up in a recent social media video about exactly how much his country music stardom has cost him.

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Is Nate Smith Stepping Back From Country Music?

Nate Smith has wiped his entire Instagram feed clean apart from one video, shared May 24.

Sporting a white T-shirt and a black San Francisco Giants ball cap, he began by thanking his supporters before admitting, “I don’t know where to go from here.”

“I don’t know how to navigate this really weird world that we’re in right now,” Smith continued.

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An inevitable aspect of entertaining these days is a near-ubiquitous presence on social media. Smith didn’t mince words as he described his discouragement when the new songs he promotes don’t gather immediate steam online.

“I’m going to obsess over how many views as I got and watch as my team goes, ‘Ah, shoot. Yeah, that one only got 20,000… Probably not a hit. Probably not a smash,’” he said. “And then my worth is all determined based on likes and all this stupid stuff.”

The fickle, unpredictable cycles of social media promotion have become “tiring” and “mentally exhausting” for the country singer.

“I’m tired, you guys,” Smith confessed.

Continuing, he added, “I just want to make music… I just want to play shows. I don’t want to play these games. That’s kind of what this all feels like. It feels like one big game and it’s old… I’ve got some great songs that I want to share with you guys, but I’m not doing it this way. There’s just got to be another way. I’m tired of this hamster wheel crazy, crazy, crazy thing that we’re doing out here. This isn’t what I got into music for.”

“We Are All Tired of This Horses—“: Country Singers Rally Around Smith

Nate Smith isn’t the first country singer to speak publicly about the pressures of social media. And judging from the comments section of his post, the “After Midnight” singer is far from alone in feeling this way.

[RELATED: Country Music Hitmaker Announces Temporary Hiatus, Vows To “Come Back Even Better”]

“We are all tired of this horses—,” wrote Mitchell Tenpenny. “Keep making music bro. I feel you.”

Added Caylee Hammack, “Listen to your gut, push those songs, focus on what makes you love music & the music will find its way to the fans. We love you.”

Featured image by John Shearer/Getty Images for Stagecoach