-thumb.png;w=960)
TYLER HILTON
Where: Capital Ballroom, 858 Yates St.
When: Thursday, Nov. 21, 9 p.m.
Tickets: $38.50 from thecapitalballroom.com
Tyler Hilton relocated to London, Ont., four years ago, and in the next month or so — assuming he passes his citizenship test — the Palm Springs, California, native will become a Canadian citizen.
That’s a radical turn of events for Hilton, who has spent the last 15 years criss-crossing North America for a variety of film, television, and music projects.
“I always wanted to be on a schedule where I put out a record every year or two,” Hilton, 40, said during an interview with the Times Colonist. “But between acting and other projects, stuff keeps coming up.”
That other stuff includes the birth of his second child in July. Hilton, who rose to prominence in 2004 as a cast member on the hit teen drama, One Tree Hill, is married to actress-director Megan Park, who was born and raised near London, Ontario — hence the couple’s move to the area several years ago.
The two met on the set of the Toronto-shot 2007 indie film Charlie Bartlett, and have continued to collaborate in the years since, including being cast as the main characters in the music video for (Kissed You) Good Night, by Nashville country act Gloriana. Hilton is well-versed in the music video world, having appeared as Taylor Swift’s love interest in the 2007 music video for her song, Teardrops on My Guitar. More on that later.
Hilton and Park’s latest project together was the 2024 film My Old Ass, starring Maddie Ziegler and Aubrey Plaza, which Park wrote and directed and for which Hilton composed the musical score. While Park did press to support the film’s January release, Hilton balanced dad duties with songwriting. The writing process of his My Old Ass score bled into the songs that make up his new country-folk EP, No Land’s Man, which arrived at the same time as the birth of his son.
“I thought I was going to chill for a bit and go into composing and soundtrack stuff while I stayed at home being a dad,” he said.
“But I had these songs written. And everything about my life — having kids, living in Canada — was totally different than it was five years before. We sold our house in Los Angeles, which is why I called the record No Land’s Man, because I felt like I belonged nowhere.”
He’s currently on a tour that brings him to Victoria for the first time tonight. While here, Hilton is continuing a tradition that began in 2019, when he hatched the idea for Coffee With Tyler, a nouveau fan experience. “I wanted to find a way for people who couldn’t come to the show to come meet me for coffee and say hi. But other people wanted to do it, too, so it kind of turned into a whole thing.”
Hilton began making himself available for these quick meet-ups with fans, and came to really enjoy the experience. The coffee chats are now offered as an addendum to each tour date, for $100 per person (he has one available for purchase prior to his concert tonight in Victoria at the Capital Ballroom.)
Even when he’s not on tour, he arranges virtual coffee Zoom chats with fans. “We try a lot of weird s—, and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. But this totally works. I have people that started in 2020, and I’m still meeting them monthly for coffee over Zoom today. It’s crazy. They were my social circle during the pandemic, and now I’ve gotten to know these people so well.”
Audiences were introduced to Hilton when he was cast in 2004 as a music-playing bad boy on One Tree Hill, a hit teen drama on The CW. Hilton said he came to the acting world from music, and often gets cast as a musician in his on-screen projects; in 2005, he played Elvis Presley in the Academy Award-winning biopic Walk the Line, and sang two songs (as Presley) on the Grammy Award-winning soundtrack. That same year, alongside Jennifer Aniston, Brad Pitt, and others, he was named to People magazine’s list of the 50 Most Beautiful People.
His appearance in Swift’s music video in 2007 — a minor-scale break at the time — has swung back into the spotlight during the past few years, as Swift became a pop culture hurricane. With fans examining the minutiae of every step in her career, Hilton once again became a talking point, thanks to his appearance.
“It still happens all the time,” Hilton said, referring to queries from Swifties about his involvement in the video. “But I’m not bored by it all. I’m so proud of her, and she was such a part of my early story. We started at the same time, and I was so charmed by her.”
He opened some shows for Swift during the early part of her career, and remains a big fan. But he never expected her stratospheric rise would reach historic heights 20 years later. “I was blown away by her — I don’t know how to describe it. I’ve met a lot of cool musicians along the way, and a lot of them are really talented, but never would you expect to be tied to somebody who might potentially be the biggest musician of all time. It is unbelievable what has happened.”
He was also in the orbit of rapper Drake when the Toronto superstar was new to the music business. The two worked together on Charlie Bartlett years before the multi-platinum rapper released his debut album or earned a single one of his 51 Grammy Award nominations.
“It was the same thing when I heard Drake’s first record,” he said, drawing a parallel between his relationships with Swift and Drake. “It’s been incredible watching them both take off like they have.”
