It's not what you think—just retirees living their lives
Chet Hanks, 35, ditched expensive leases and furnished apartments for trailer park living to avoid repetitive furnishing and maintain personal space. A solo California road trip where he stayed in an Airstream trailer inspired him to purchase an RV with modern amenities like a walk-in shower.
- Chet Hanks, 35, moved to a Nashville trailer park in 2025
- A California road trip to Carmel inspired him to buy an RV
- He launched country music band Something Out West with Drew Arthur
- The band performed at Stagecoach Festival with Tom Hanks in attendance
Tom Hanks' son Chet Hanks has moved into a Nashville trailer park while pursuing country music, trading luxury apartments for RV living after a California road trip inspired the lifestyle change.
Chet Hanks, 35, made an unlikely choice last year: he walked away from the lease-and-furnish cycle of Los Angeles apartment living and moved into a trailer park in Nashville. The decision wasn't born from necessity but from a moment of clarity that arrived somewhere along California's coast.
It started with boredom. Hanks had recently purchased a condo in Los Angeles, furnished it from scratch, and found himself restless. Rather than repeat that process with another apartment, he decided to take a solo road trip north. Driving up to Carmel, a coastal town in the Bay Area, he stayed in an Airstream trailer—and something shifted. The experience felt right in a way that traditional housing hadn't. He liked the self-contained simplicity of it, the sense of having exactly what he needed without excess. When he returned, he bought an RV of his own.
The trailer he chose has the essentials: a kitchen, a walk-in shower—a feature he emphasized as genuinely significant in the RV world, since many models combine the toilet and shower into what's called a wet bath. It's modest by the standards of someone whose father is Tom Hanks, but it suits him. He's the youngest resident in his Nashville trailer park by roughly thirty or forty years, surrounded mostly by retirees. He told Jimmy Fallon during an appearance on "The Tonight Show" that the community surprised him. People often assume trailer parks are sketchy or dangerous, he said, but his neighbors are simply good people living their lives.
His days follow a rhythm that's less glamorous than the lifestyle change might suggest. He tends a fire pit, does campfire activities, and spends considerable time doing what he does anywhere else: staying inside, lying in bed, watching Netflix. The trailer park life isn't a performance or a statement—it's just where he lives while he pursues something else entirely.
That something is country music. In 2025, Hanks launched a band called Something Out West with collaborator Drew Arthur. They released a song called "Leaving Hollywood" and performed at the Stagecoach Festival, where his father was spotted in the audience. Their recent single, "You Better Run," came with a music video inspired by "Forrest Gump." The band is still early, still building, but the move to Nashville—and the choice to live simply while doing it—suggests Hanks is serious about the work. He's traded the infrastructure of luxury for the space to create something of his own.
Notable Quotes
I didn't want to furnish another place. I went on a road trip, stayed in an Airstream in Carmel, and realized I wanted one of these.— Chet Hanks, on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon"
You think it might be sketchy or dangerous, but it's all just retirees. Great people.— Chet Hanks, describing his trailer park neighbors
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why leave Los Angeles entirely? He could have rented a modest place there.
I think the furnishing cycle was the real trap. He'd just bought and decorated a condo. The thought of doing that again—picking out furniture, making a place feel like home—felt exhausting. A trailer is already complete.
But Nashville is where the music is. Was that the draw, or did the music come after the move?
The road trip to Carmel came first. That's what changed his thinking about what home could be. Nashville made sense once he'd decided to pursue country music seriously, but the lifestyle shift happened independently.
He's the youngest person there by decades. Doesn't that feel isolating?
He doesn't frame it that way. He seems genuinely fond of his neighbors. And he's not there to socialize—he's there to work on music and have space to himself. The retirees leave him alone.
What's the actual appeal of trailer park living for someone with his resources?
Authenticity, maybe. Or just honesty. No pretense, no performance. You live in a trailer because you want to, not because you're performing a version of yourself for Instagram.
Does his father's presence at Stagecoach feel like validation or pressure?
Probably both. But Tom Hanks showing up suggests he takes his son's music seriously. That matters.