It's no secret how proud we are of Acadiana native and Atlantic Nashville recording artist Hunter Hayes. We here at 97.3 The Dawg have known Hunter his whole life, and are following his career as he gets a platinum record, prepares to go out on tour with Carrie Underwood, and gets ready to make an appearance in his home state of Louisiana on Sept 7. I talked with Hunter today, and told him how proud his home town is of him!

Hunter talked about how excited he is to return to home to Louisiana for his upcoming benefit show in New Orleans for the Oschner Clinic,

This is my first show back in Louisiana in like a year and a half. It's been way too long. I'm so excited about it and I want everyone to come out and have a blast. It's just been too long. My whole family is coming out and we're doing a big hang out after the show. It's going to be like a family reunion.

Mr Hayes revealed his big benefit show is not the only reason he's excited for his trip to New Orleans.

It looks like I'm going to get to sing the national anthem for our Saints game on Sunday which I'm stoked about. It just so happens to fall on my 21st birthday too! It's going to be a great weekend to get back to Louisiana. It's just been too long.

The young country star went on to open up to his hometown radio station about touring with Taylor Swift.

Taylor was such a fun tour. It was so quick. It was only like two weeks and it was my first tour. It was really fun. We got to do arenas, we got to introduce the music to a bunch of people, and Taylor was really cool too, she's one of my heros.We've gotten to know each other since then, and it's really cool to have support from somebody I look up to like that.

We look forward to see Hunter performing September 7, in New Orleans as part of a benefit for Oschner Pediatrics. And we might add, all next with Bruce & the Kennel Club, you can win tickets to this great show!

Click the play button below for the full interview.

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