Sam Hunt has been rocking a beard look for quite some time, so when he showed up to a press conference on Tuesday (Jan. 30) with nothing on his face, people were like: "Hey, who's that guy?!"

The press event was for Luke Bryan to announce his upcoming What Makes You Country XL Tour, which features the "Body Like a Back Road" singer as an opening act. When Bryan last saw Hunt (during his Crash My Playa event earlier in January), he had a full beard. Even Bryan didn't recognize him!

"For the past couple of years when it gets cold, I like to grow a little facial hair," Hunt says, explaining himself. "There was this cool little barber shop in the hotel I was staying in, downstairs, and he was giving those straight razor shaves and I had never had one done, so I [shaved] it off."

Hunt's wife loved the beard, he said last year, so hopefully he got her okay before going under the blade.

Before he hits the road with Bryan — and Jon Pardi, Morgan Wallen and Carly Pearce, also opening acts — in May, Hunt will be in the studio to work on some much-anticipated new music. He explained during a Facebook Live stream that married life has helped inspire many songs, and he already has written plenty of new songs over the past couple years that will likely be featured on his upcoming project.

"I’m going in Feb. 5 through March and April and I’m hitting it hard before we get out on the road," he says. "So I plan on having new music out a month or two before we strike out and hit the road, where I may not have as much time to write."

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