It was two hours before AJR’s The Maybe Man show on April 16th, 2024, when Des Moines singer-songwriter Andrew Hoyt received a call from AJR’s tour management proposing the possibility of Hoyt opening for AJR. While some would say he was a lucky duck, and Hoyt was probably on cloud nine, he knew he couldn’t get moody if things fell through.
Hoyt, a musician from Des Moines, was on a run two hours before AJR’s opener, Dean Lewis’ showtime. Lewis, however, hit his head while working out.
“I went to the library downtown Des Moines just to get a library card randomly, and I just got pizza to make at home,” said Hoyt, “I was in my running stuff, I was about to go on a run and I get this message, and it’s from First Fleet—they do Hinterland, Sam Summers runs it, he owns Up-Down and Wooly’s—so I got a message from First Fleet and they’re like, ‘Hey, are you free tonight?’”
At first, Hoyt thought it’d be in an icky venue for a pretty low price since it was a Tuesday night. He had substitute taught earlier that day for kindergarten, but he decided to say he was free. This is when the person on the phone told him the following:
“Keep this on the DL, but we might need someone to open up for AJR at Wells Fargo Arena.”
Hoyt’s jaw dropped, but he didn’t jump straight to getting ready to perform in front of tens of thousands of people. He sent some information over to them, passed them the link to his then unreleased song, “Moody,” and wasn’t sure whether he should be set that it’d happen or not.
“I’ve had many opportunities where I’ve flown out, I’ve had people pay for my flight, I’ve shaken hands with people, I’ve had really cool opportunities, and they’re like, dude, we love you man, but we already have somebody,” said Hoyt, “and I knew this could be one of those things where they’re like, ‘Actually, sorry man.’ So I was like, ‘I’m gonna go run, because this isn’t gonna happen.’”
He started to run, and got a text. They said that fingers crossed they’d get him the spot. He didn’t know until later that the other person who was offered the spot, Derek Frank, a friend and ex-tour member of AJR’s, was in Minneapolis.
Two steps later, he got a call and started walking to his car. The person on the phone was AJR’s tour manager asking what instruments and other gear Hoyt would need. After getting home, he threw on what he thought would be good enough, called his girlfriend, who didn’t believe him at first, and grabbed merch to take to the show.
He parked at the dock at Wells Fargo Arena, and out came 15 or so of AJR’s tour crewmembers, who helped him unload all of his stuff and get him to the stage.
Hoyt was in disbelief until he was a few moments from stepping onto the stage. His girlfriend, who had arrived with her camera to take photos, was there to help him feel better.
“I looked at my girlfriend with her camera, and I was like, ‘I’m gonna forget my name.’ That was the moment when I was like, ‘I can’t even stand up straight.’ Like that almost-about-to-skydive kind of feeling,” said Hoyt. Realizing his nervousness, Hoyt’s girlfriend told him the main things he had to keep in mind: to start with his cover, mention his merch, share his upcoming show, and to tell the audience to follow him on social media.
She also told him not to say thank you more than a few times, because, as admitted by Hoyt, he often said thank you too much.
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When Hoyt stepped out on stage, he said it felt like all the noise centered on him. Nobody knew he’d be there, not even himself until two hours earlier, so silence fell. He introduced himself, and opened with his cover of Jason Mraz’s “I’m Yours.”
While on stage, two more notable things happened, aside from Hoyt killing it with his quickly prepared set. For one, Hoyt called his mom.
“They all forced me. I didn’t mean to make that a thing with her,” said Hoyt. “They were like, ‘Call your mom!’ I was like, ‘Okay, I guess I’m calling my mom now.’”
Hoyt’s mom didn’t think it was a big deal that Hoyt was opening for AJR. She thought it was just a smaller gig, as Hoyt had expected before it was shared with him that it was AJR. She didn’t realize how big of a deal it was until she got texts from her friends asking how proud she was of Hoyt.
The other thing was that when looking out across the crowd, Hoyt saw his previous students.
Before the Spring of 2023, Hoyt taught in Ankeny. He taught kindergarten through fifth grade music class, and he loved it.
“I taught for five years and would play ukulele all day, and sing songs, and play games, and teach about half note, quarter note, and do steady beat with kindergarteners and first graders, and we’d do solfège,” said Hoyt. They’d also do note reading, folk dancing, and play with percussion instruments.
Hoyt loved this, because it took place with kids while music was still a judgement-free zone in life.
“I can be myself, and be fun, and silly, like that is like my favorite thing. And I feel like my funniest moments as a human, and my funniest experiences, like from other people, have been from teaching K through five. It’s so awesome, and they’re just so silly, and they’re just blank canvases, so they’re open to everything,” said Hoyt. “It’s a judgment-free zone, and it’s so beautiful, and it’s like a picture of what the world could be like if we were all just nice to each other.”
While this was a blast, and an incredible experience for Hoyt, he decided that it wasn’t for him. He hit an “off period” in March of 2023 where he decided that he’d rather move on from teaching. So, after school one day, Hoyt went to the principal’s office and told him that after that school year finished, he would be quitting teaching to pursue music full-time.
He would go to shows daily after teaching to play, wherever they would be: Iowa City, Dubuque, Des Moines, or elsewhere. He realized that if he wasn’t teaching, he could book gigs during the day, spend more time writing, and all around work on music even more.
Hoyt could chase what he was super passionate about.
“I think it just goes with anybody, if you love something, if you just keep it up—and there’s gonna be a lot of times you’re like, ‘I don’t know—’ but then you look back five years down the line, you’re like, ‘Wow, if I would have given up, I wouldn’t have been here today.’ So if you really love something, then I think that it’s totally worth pursuing.”
Due to Hoyt’s pursuing his musical dream, he was able to find himself opening for AJR, somewhere he might not have ever believed possible.
“I hope the AJR show is a really cool inspiration for my students when I taught, because when I left school everybody was like, “Wow, way to go. Way to go after your dreams,” and I was like, “I hope that they come true, because I don’t know if it’s gonna happen.” And the AJR thing was like, whoa, I hope that I proved [to] my students you can go after what you love, y’know? And I think there needs to be more of that in the world, where people feel more compelled to go after what they truly love. So I would say I never thought I’d be at AJR, opening for AJR, and I don’t think people around me thought that would happen either. So go after what you love, and pursue what you love, because things will follow in time.