Songfacts®:

• Spinnin' my wheels out, gone with the wind
  When I need to get back to who I am
  There ain't but just one road there
  Sometimes you gotta start nowhere
  
  This reflective ballad tells the story of a young man leaving his home to see the world. It's only when the lost and weary soul returns home that he truly appreciates where he's from.
• Sam Hunt was born and raised in the small town of Cedartown, Georgia. He left home, aged 18, to attend Middle Tennessee State University, where he was quarterback for their football team. Hunt transferred to the University of Alabama at Birmingham before moving to Nashville in 2008 to pursue a music career. The autobiographical song finds him recollecting how a trip back to his roots helped restore his soul.
  
  "When you grow up in a small town, you love where you're from, you are where you're from, and you answer the call of adventure when you turn 18 and take off out into the big wide world," Hunt wrote in an Instagram post. "If you stay gone too long without coming home, you can get a little disconnected. Sometimes the only way to get your feet back on the ground is to go back home where you grew up."
  
  "Before you head off to college you stop by your local pawn shop, buy a guitar and start writing songs about it," he continued. "A few songs turn into more songs and somehow by the grace of God those songs give you the opportunity to travel the country with some of the best guys you know having the time of your life. But you look up one day and up is down and down is up. You realise you've been gone too long and the only way to straighten yourself back out is to go back home. That's what this song is about. Going home."
• Hunt co-wrote "Start Nowhere" with Josh Osborne, Shane McAnally, and Zach Crowell in early 2021 during a writer's retreat in Florida. Based around the turn of phrase "start nowhere" (a play on the saying "You've gotta start somewhere"), it took them just a couple of hours to write.
• Hunt released "Start Nowhere" on November 23, 2022. The country's star's previous single, "Water Under The Bridge," also finds him reflecting on his upbringing in Cedartown. Having become a first-time father to daughter Lucy in May 2022, his connection to where he's from and the people who raised him are now foremost on his mind. Hunt's little girl has given him new inspiration for his songwriting.
  
  "The things that historically have provided me with inspiration, I don't connect with as much anymore," Hunt told. American Songwriter. "You have to look, you have to sit there, feel, think, and experience. So that's what I'm feeling and thinking and experiencing, and those experiences are filtered through that: Being a father and starting a family. I'm sure most of the songs - a lot of the songs going forward - will come from that inspiration."
• Hunt co-produced "Start Nowhere" with Shane McAnally, Zach Crowell, and Chris LaCorte. Crowell also played the piano, electric guitar (with Devin Malone) and bass. The other musicians are:
  
  Steel Guitar: Devin Malone
  Acoustic guitar: Tyrone Carreker and Josh Burkette
  Percussion: Joshua Sales
• Made from home videos from Hunt's childhood, the music video shows the Georgia native's early life in Cedartown. The footage includes scenes of the younger Hunt playing sports, fishing and cycling.
  
  The visual starts with him showing his younger brother, Van, how to ride a goat. Hunt said the lighthearted moment captures them being boisterous little country kids. "That was a funny moment," he told American Songwriter, "and the dynamic of our brother situation as far as me being the older brother and always leading my two younger brothers into some mischievous adventurer."