It might not be boyfriend season, according to Matt Stell’s new single “Boyfriend Season,” but it is definitely time to travel. Stell just hopped across the pond to play some shows in Europe, and he’s giving us a laugh-out-loud, guided tour of his destinations.
The “Prayed For You” singer took stages in London, England, and Glasgow, Scotland, as part of the C2C: Country to Country music festival, and tacked Paris, France, onto his trip for fun.
“Playing music for new fans in new places is one of the best parts of what we do,” Stell said. “I had heard that country music had a following in Europe, but I didn’t realize how big and enthusiastic the crowd was. They packed out clubs and arenas and knew the words to almost all of our songs—even the ones that weren’t on the radio. I loved my time in London and Glasgow and can’t wait to get back!”
Stell started his journey in France with a “belly full of crepes” at the “world’s most badass antennae” and wove his way through England and Scotland, performing shows and taking in all the historic landmarks along the way.
“Bonjour,” Stell chirped. “Here I am at the world’s most badass antennae like the WSM on there in Brentwood.”
He also dropped by Arc de Triomphe that honors those who fought and died for France in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars and the Lourve where he “looked at some paintins.”
“We are Frenching out today boys and girls,” Stell said.
From there, Stell moved on to London.
“I feel guarded,” he quipped, watching the men marching on patrol.
Next stop, he joked, was the Alamo.
“There’s some jewels in there and they’ve made their last stand against the … French,” he deadpanned, wearing a ballcap and yellow hoodie standing in drizzling rain.
Then, he was off to Buckingham Palace, or as he likes to call it: “The Buck.”
“It’s where the queen lives,” he explains. “Tight.”
But joked he was most excited to find a “little piece of home in London.” In the video, Stell shows a tall, skinny, pointed building.
“They do things a little different everywhere,” he said. “And here in London, they build their pyramids tall and skinny, but man it’s so cool to see a Bass Pro Shop out here.”
When Stell isn’t popping all over Europe, he’s back in Nashville working on his new album. His current single “Boyfriend Season” has caused a stir. He released the song about getting his heart broken, the day after his ex-girlfriend’s birthday. It didn’t help that his ex is Bachelor Nation’s Victoria Fuller, who competed on Peter Weber’s season of “The Bachelor.”
Stell prefers to keep his dating life private, but the news got out when Fuller tagged him in a social media post. He’s adamant he didn’t know when her birthday was, promises the song isn’t about her and says it’s all a huge coincidence. He admits it “ruffled some feathers.”
“We’ve all been in relationships where we feel like we got the short end of the stick,” Stell explained of “Boyfriend Season.” “I wrote that song and was in a relationship and then wasn’t in that relationship, but it wasn’t about that relationship. Because of timing and social media, it seemed like it was, but it wasn’t.”
Stell explained the girl in the song is a “voodoo doll of ex-girlfriends” that he and his co-writers Zach Abend, Seth Ennis and Geoff Warburton stitched together from past bad experiences in relationships.
“I’ve definitely had relationships end where I was a fault, and I’ve had some end where I wasn’t,” Stell said. “Because I write a lot about relationships that I’ve had, it felt like that was a pretty true thing to talk about. But it wasn’t about anybody, and it certainly wasn’t about anyone who was on ’The Bachelor’ – who is a friend of mine.”