Hunter Pinkston - The Pink Stones Interview
Born in Albany, GA, Pinkston was influenced by baseball and skateboarding in his early youth with the rise of the Tony Hawk epidemic and would eventually find his true love and passion, music. His father was a musician from the golden 70’s and got him into bands like Mott the Hoople and Faces before Pinkton found his way into the country side of things later on. Pinkton participated in a number of groups before meeting his bandmates and eventually forming The Pinkstones in Athens, GA. The band released their 2021 debut “Introduction” and most recently their highly anticipated summer follow up “You Know Who”. In this interview we explore Pinkston’s youth and formative years, getting into country music, forming The Pink Stones, skateboarding, releasing a new record and much more!
Photo by: Alyssa DeHayes
Tell me about growing up in Athens, GA. What was your childhood like? When did you first begin to fall in love with music? Was music something that was relevant around your household growing up? Do you have any siblings?
I actually grew up in Albany, GA, on the Lee County side. My father was a musician in the 70s so music was around from the start. Like most kids in my generation, things like the Tony Hawk games and skateboarding videos really helped solidify my first true love with music. (Specifically Enjoi’s ‘Bag of Suck’) Also, my parents / sisters loved music. My grandmother got me to play Elvis for her on guitar when I first understood chords. My oldest sister had a drum kit and we always had guitars laying around. Both of my sisters still play a little bit and are lifelong fans of music. It was a pretty good introduction to loving music in that house.
What would you and your friends do for fun growing up? Who were some of your earliest influences in your more formative years? When and where did you see your very first concert and when did you realize you wanted to spend your life pursuing music?
I played baseball until I found skateboarding. Then I did that until I got good enough at guitar and drums to play with other people. Being from a tiny town, there was nothing else to do really, so we did those things and other typical bad kid stuff. (Spray painting, breaking into abandoned buildings, stealing shit, etc.) Lots of time just fucking off and being bad and trying to find the next cool thing to get into. I came up in the hardcore / punk scene so that really really informed my understanding of music and playing music with people at an early age. Before that, my dad showed me stuff like Mott the Hoople, Faces, etc. Rock and roll stuff. Country music was all around me as a child, but I didn’t fall fully in love with it until later in my life. I don’t remember my first concert, but I do know that most of my first shows were small-town metal / hardcore shows in Albany. Quite a way to get into it, but I was hooked.
Did you participate in any groups, or projects prior to The Pink Stones? How did you initially meet your bandmates and led to the decision to form the group? When and where did you guys play your very first gig? The band released its debut single “Jimmy and Jesus” in 2019. Can you tell me about writing and recording those two tracks?
I’ve played in more bands before Stones than I can remember at this point probably. I played in my first local metal band when I was 12. After that I just bummed around playing in hardcore bands. I played in a band called Dope Fiend after high school that took me around a bit, as well as Pay to Cum. Both were Atlanta based bands. Fun times. As for the P stones, I met all of the guys in Athens. Adam and Logan and I were all in school together studying music business. I met Neff shortly after via our jobs and then Gideon in town and Neil via Neff. Athens is a very very small place. It’s hard to not know people. We played our first gig at Flicker Bar. We still play there often. Adam books the place now. It’s the coolest small club in Athens. If you come to town and you’re not famous (yet), play there. We recorded “Jimmy & Jesus” in between sessions for the first LP. Those were the first released full-band recordings of The Pink Stones thing. I wrote “Jimmy Meadows” about our friend that we used to tour with a whole lot. “Jesus” was written by Greg Reece of Redneck Greece Deluxe. He’s a friend of mine who used to play country music in Athens. Great mentor. He let us borrow the song.
In 2021 the band released its debut LP “Introducing...” Tell me about writing and recording this record and what the overall vision was for this project. Would you mind walking me through some of the songs that are featured on the album such as “Put Me On”, “Love Me Hardly” and “Dream So Sweetly”? How did the deal with New West Records come about?
The first LP was really an introduction to the band and my songwriting. Some of those songs were the first songs I had ever written lyrics and music to. We cut it in Athens with one of my close friends Henry Barbe. He’s our guy. We actually had to cut the record twice because it accidentally got deleted in the studio in between sessions. The second run was better anyways (lol). Put Me On was me trying to mix 70s country stuff with Mazzy Star, basically. I wrote Love Me Hardly about Charlie Brown, cuz I’ve had an affinity for that whole thing for as long as I can remember. Dream So Sweetly was the first song I ever wrote for The Pink Stones. It only made since that we would close the first album with it.
Tell me about writing and recording the band’s most recent album “You Know Who” that is set for release in late June. What was the overall approach to this record and what did you guys want to differ from any previous material? What did you ultimately want to explore and express with this material?
You Know Who is surely the next step down The Pink Stones’ road. Some of it was written right after we finished the first LP. Some of it came closer to the sessions. We made it in the summer of 22 at Herny’s house in Athens, GA. I think it really speaks to the songs I want to write and the way that we want to play as a band. It feels more mature and informed, but it’s still our thing. Ya know? We had a good time making it and I’m excited for the world to get to check it out.
Is there anything else you would like to further share with the readers?
Thank you for having me and thanks to anyone who takes the time to read this. We’re gonna play a million shows and I’ll see ya’ll somewhere sooner or later. Keep buying records and going to shows and tipping your bartenders. Cheers.
