Jimmy Butler. Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images
Miami Heat's Jimmy Butler has long expressed his love of country music. Late last year, he was seen singing Luke Combs. Then, his story of using Tim McGraw to annoy teammates in college went viral, making his love of the genre notorious among the basketball community.
"I fell in love with country music in the fall of 2010," he told Rolling Stone in a new interview. "It was my senior year at Marquette, and everyone in the locker room was listening to Lil Wayne and Jay-Z... I kept telling them to turn the music down. They said, 'Worry about what’s in your headphones.' So, I went home and googled, 'What’s the most country song?' The first song that came up is “Don’t Take the Girl” by Tim McGraw. I downloaded it, went back into the locker room, and started blaring that song over and over again and everyone was going, 'Turn that shit down! Ain’t nobody want to hear that!' And I went, 'Uh-uh. Same thing you told me last time: Worry about what’s in your headphones, and I’m going to listen to mine.'"
Last year, Butler also briefly mentioned that he's in the studio to record an album, and he confirmed to Rolling stone that it's still in the works.
"I don’t want to tell anyone who I’ve been writing with because then it’ll ruin the surprise," he said. "Now, I’m in the lab writing and producing country music. We got some real artists and songwriters. We probably got around 45 tracks right now, and I hope to go write some more. There’s definitely going to be an album."
Although he's proven his love of music, for Media Day, Butler was seen sporting a new emo look, featuring long bangs, eyeliner, and eyebrow piercing. See a clip of his new aesthetic below and read the full interview here.