Were you wondering what Tom Hanks’ son was up to? If so, have I got an interesting update for you.
Chet Hanks is Tom’s 34-year-old son. He’s an actor, model and nepo-baby musician that has garnered quite the social media following online. That’s mostly thanks to a post he sent out a couple of years ago (2021), in which he called for it to be “White Boy Summer.”
Now you know where that came from…
Chet has had modest success acting in movies and TV shows. If you’ve ever watched Shameless, Curb Your Enthusiasm, or Empire, Hanks had recurring roles in all of those shows. He’s also played a couple of supporting roles in…. you guessed it – Tom Hanks movies.
But lately, Chet has chosen to focus in on his music career. He and another artist named Drew Arthur formed a group called Something Out West after living together in California and getting sober together. After releasing a song called “Leaving Hollywood,” the duo signed with Big Machine Records in February – which is a Nashville-based label.
Something Out West’s second song decided to go full Bro-Country, straight out of the Brantley Gilbert 2014 playbook, and it’s titled “You Better Run.” If you are good at connecting the dots, Chet saw it as the perfect opportunity to tie in his father’s 1994 film Forrest Gump.
You can see and hear a clip of the new track here:
Tom Hanks really doing his son a favor by being in that music video, eh? Did he know he was being filmed?
There’s a chance you were distracted by the visuals of the video (feel like that’s what they were going for) that you missed the lyrics of “You Better Run.” Let’s just say the words that go along with the country-trap-beat leave something to be desired:
“You’re probably gonna fall into her spell like I did
You’re probably gonna say the same old lines that I said
She’s a cold wind blowin’
If you see her in her red dress
Looking like a 10 tonight
You better run like the devil’s on your tail
Like you broke out of jail
Like a big storm’s comin
Run like a wild mustang
Like a bullet train
Let me tell you somethin’
You’re running out of time on a tickin’ clock
She’ll be comin’ for you, there’s no time to walk
Run, Run, Run.”
Oh brother.
For some reason, that “There’s no time to walk” line really bothers me. What? Were they in the writing session asking themselves, “What’s the opposite of running?” and then had a eureka moment that led them to include that running means there’s no time to walk? It seems like they just asked A.I. to write a country song that subtly alludes to Forrest Gump.
There’s been a lot of artists trying out country music in recent years, and sometimes it’s not all that bad (Post Malone), but other times it’s really bad (Something Out West). Maybe some people like this kind of country? Unfortunately, it feels like this one could definitely find a home on Broadway in Nashville.
You can listen to “You Better Run” below: