Meet Taylor Swift’s OG friend Tyler Hilton: the One Tree Hill actor and singer starred in one of her early music videos – now he’s written a kids’ book inspired by his daughter with actress Megan Park
Swift was a fan of Hilton in his One Tree Hill days and got him to star in the music video for her song “Teardrops on My Guitar” – now he’s married to actress Megan Park and has 2 children
He recently opened up about their long-standing friendship in an interview with US Weekly and told Elite Daily he’d be willing to reprise his role of “Drew” if Swift were to remake the music video for “Teardrops on My Guitar”.
The 41-year-old actor revealed that his friendship with Swift first started when he talked about her in an interview after hearing her debut song, “Tim McGraw”. Speaking to US Weekly, Hilton recalled speaking to an unnamed “country magazine” in his 20s about “this girl Taylor Swift”, who was 15 at the time, saying: “I heard her song ‘Tim McGraw’ and I was so into it. That first record was so good to me.”
“I told [the magazine], ‘Oh, by the way, that little thing you did on that new girl Taylor Swift, I’m actually a huge fan of her song. She’s such a good songwriter. How many 15 year olds are actually good songwriters?’”
As it turns out, Swift was a huge fan of Hilton and was elated that he’d talked about her in an interview. Her managers invited The Christmas Contract actor to one of her shows in Southern California. At the show, Swift revealed she’d been covering Hilton’s “Missing You” and invited the crooner to join her on stage to sing together.
“[She was] a very forward 15-year-old,” he told US Weekly. “She literally corners me on stage and goes, ‘I didn’t want to ask you backstage ’cause I was afraid you’d say no, but would you be in my next music video?’ … That’s how I ended up in the ‘Teardrops On My Guitar’ music video. And after that, she was like, ‘Oh, I’m doing some shows, would you want to come open for me?’ And she just kept getting bigger and bigger.”
Hilton quickly befriended the Swifts and at one point, even lived on their boat for several weeks when he first moved to Nashville and was looking for an apartment.
So who is Tyler Hilton? Here’s everything you need to know.
He’s a singer and actor
Tyler Hilton was 18 when he signed a deal with Maverick Records. The young singer released his debut album The Tracks of Tyler Hilton in 2004. Since then, Hilton has released five albums.