🎸 From One Tree Hill to Picture Books—Tyler Hilton’s Rockin’ New Chapter!
Children’s Book Editor Danielle Ballantyne Interviews Tyler Hilton, Author of Daddy, Live in Concert
Every kid dreams of having their favorite rockstar put on a show at their house, but what if your dad is that rockstar and he’s promised you and your stuffed animal friends an exclusive front row seat to a private concert featuring such classic hits as Old MacDonald and The Wheels on the Bus? Thrilling, right?
In rhymed verses and lush illustration, Daddy, Live in Concert captures just that sense of wonder and excitement for young readers—Daddy, after all, is “the biggest rockstar / the world’s ever known.”
Written by singer-songwriter-actor Tyler Hilton of One Tree Hill fame, Daddy, Live in Concert recently caught our eye as an excellent interview opportunity for Foreword‘s Children’s Book Editor Danielle Ballantyne. She connected with Tyler to talk about his career, the events leading up to this writing project, and future plans for more children’s media.
Many people might recognize you from your role as musician Chris Keller on The CW’s One Tree Hill. Which came first for you: acting or music?
Music came first for me, actually! I come from a family of musicians and it almost felt like going into the family business. I knew I’d be a musician from an early age, even if it meant not being a front man. I’d considered songwriting, scoring, being a side man on the road … these were all my back up plans. But my dream was to do essentially what I’m doing now which is sing and perform my songs, my feelings, and experiences. Acting was a hobby; I loved doing theater in school and hoped to keep doing it for fun throughout life. It was kind of a shock to me when I got the opportunity to do it professionally, and continue to do it!
What inspired you to start performing concerts at home for your family during the pandemic, and what made you decide to post them?
We’d just had our first kid and my life was suddenly full of children’s music. I wanted her to connect to music, any music, not specifically the music I like. So I was encouraging her enthusiasm in any song or music she showed interest for, which was, unsurprisingly, a lot of the children’s classics. I guess that’s why they’re classics, haha!
Since it was all I seemed to be listening to, it was all that was in my head. I’d sing them to her when we were together and eventually learned them on guitar, which I really enjoyed doing, more than I would have thought. This turned into morning concerts when she and I were up early. We’d do it every morning and soon I realized I was getting a pretty extensive set list going! I started realizing too, that a lot of my fans had kids and they were all trapped inside during the pandemic.
This was early on. So I had the idea to do weekend sing alongs on my Instagram for any of their kids that wanted to tune in. The kids ended up loving it, which was such a welcome surprise ’cause I was having a blast too! Kids music is so fun and so the opposite of a lot of the music I normally play, which is so feelings based and emotional. It ended up being just as good for me as it was for the the kids, I think.
You’ve been in hit TV shows and Academy Award-winning films and toured all over the world, but I imagine going viral might have been a horse of a different color. How was social media fame different than what you were used to dealing with in other aspects of your career?
Such a good question! It’s not that different, but it does bring in a different type of fan that may not have found me otherwise. I found this with TV, too. I’d been touring for awhile before that and the people that found me were essentially music fans. But TV broadened that to people that weren’t necessarily your live music enthusiast. Same with social media—it introduced me to people I may not have connected with otherwise. Now my concerts are a real mix of people I’ve met through all different mediums. It’s really fun for me!
How did the idea of turning your lockdown concerts into a children’s book come about?
Just like with the children’s music, when my daughter was born my world became all about children’s books. I’ve run a charity along with a bunch of fans and friends called TH Books For Kids since 2004—which raises money to buy books for children who don’t have them—so I was overly excited to have my own kid and get to read some of these books for them. There were so many that were clever, funny, heartwarming, and we had to read over and over. And there were others that were like, “Really? How did this get made?”
I realized a lot of the books were like songs in the way they rhymed. I started having my own ideas and began a document of the books I’d want to try writing, not really expecting to get the opportunity. At one point, my wife and I were toying with the idea of a children’s show. It didn’t end up going anywhere but one of the people we’d been working with mentioned they were looking for more dad centered children’s book content. I told them I had a million ideas and I’d love to try! The idea of turning one of our home concerts into a huge deal for the kid was always one of my favorites though. What if this dumb little concert the parent put on ended up being a massive special event from the kids perspective? What if the parent was actually their kids favorite band? The first draft spilled out really fast, so much of it was true!
You’ve put together several albums throughout your career, but this was your first foray into publishing of the nonmusical sort. How did the process of crafting words for print differ from songwriting, if it did?
It came really easily for me! Don’t get me wrong, the editing process was so helpful and Familius, the publisher, taught me so much. Their ideas were incredible and they helped shape it into the book it is now, which was its own magical process to go through. But essentially the book was a song. I was in the same part of my brain writing the book that I’m in when writing music.
Now that you’ve dipped your toe into children’s media, do you have any plans to continue making content for little ones?
Yes! I love it and still have a document full of other book ideas I want to do next. And, I’m working on a children’s album right now that’s been a blast to make! I’m planning on it being out in April when the book is released. Children’s media has been such a fun world to be in, I may never come back into the adult world. Haha.
Danielle Ballantyne
