Matt Stell.Photo: Matthew Berinato
In the spring of 2021,Matt Stellsat down and wrote a song about what happens when a girl breaks up with a guy and then must deal with the good and bad fallout of that decision. The country music hitmaker called it “Whatever Helps You Sleep at Night.”
But then Stell’s girlfriend at the time had another idea.
“She thought I should call it ‘Boyfriend Season’ instead,” Stell, 37, tells PEOPLE of the song he wrote alongside fellow songwriters Zach Abend, Seth Ennis and Geoff Warburton.
“And she had a point — no one was sleeping!” he says with a laugh. “We talked back and forth, and her vote was to go with ‘Boyfriend Season,’ so I was like, ‘Well, let’s call it that.'”
Boyfriend Season Cover Art.
“I’ve never really been super public about my dating life,” he says of the mere mention of Fuller, who has alsobeen romantically linked in the pastwith country music artistChase Rice. “I had finished the song up while we were still together.”
He lets out a deep sigh.
“It’s not about her, but it’s not crazy that people would wonder if that was the intent,” Stell says. “It truly wasn’t.”
Nevertheless, the country star did confirm to PEOPLE that he did date Fuller for a span of “two-or-three months” last summer and did experience some social media hoopla towards the end of 2021 when she tagged him in a random Instagram post citing the song. But according to Stell, the relationship is now firmly behind him.
“She’s great,” says the former basketball player born and raised in Arkansas. “Life sometimes makes choicesforyou.”
Serving as the follow-up to Stell’s back-to-back No. 1s, Platinum-certified track “Prayed For You” and Gold-certified “Everywhere But On,” along with his fan-favorite “That Ain’t Me No More ,” “Boyfriend Season” also touches on the freedom that comes after heartbreak, an idea that is captured in the fan video for the song.
And while Stell might like to keep his personal life fairly quiet, Stell explains that it often slips into his music, especially the songs forthcoming later this year.
“I’m not afraid of going there, for sure,” says Stell, who made news in 2019 when he revealed that he and fiancée Sophie LeBlanchad ended their engagementafter over six years of dating. “Heartbreak songs are interesting songs to me. Those are the songs that I always go back to. I’ll still do the ones where love goes right as well, but I’m definitely not afraid of writing songs about when love goes wrong.”
Today, Stell tells PEOPLE his status is currently “single and dating.”
“Love makes me feel a way that nothing else does,” Stell explains. “So, I try to follow that muse as much as I can. I think, over time as a songwriter, I have figured out what it is that I do naturally and authentically, and now I’m just kind of trying to build on that.”
And there’s much more to come. Currently, Stell is working on a new album for release later this year, which will include music set for release very soon.
“I’ve got a bunch of songs ready to go,” he says with enthusiasm. “I kind of load the gun and then my team decides when we fire.”
source: people.com
