Disney/Randy Holmes

A decade after breaking out with his debut single, “Take Me to Church,” Hozier notched another big hit in 2024 with “Too Sweet,” which went all the way to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Speaking with Billboard, the Irish artist shares how the success of “Too Sweet” compares to that of “Take Me to Church.”

“When it was ‘Take Me to Church,’ that was the first song that I ever put out,” Hozier says. “So I was learning everything about everything all at once, also while trying to keep pace with this train that was moving.”

He adds, “That was my whole life, was catching up with that song.”

Conversely, Hozier feels that “Too Sweet” “kind of just put wind in the sails of a ship that was already sort of moving.”

“It was just like this thing that happened,” he says. “It’s been like a cherry on the cake.”

As for whether we can expect a huge Hozier hit every 10 years, the 34-year-old says, “I mean, it’d be fun to be 44 and have a No. 1 hit!”

“It’d be fun to be 54, to be 64… Can you guarantee me the No. 1 when I’m in my 80s?” he says. “I’m going to be doing whatever I can to stay alive, man. I’m going to be hiring people to be doing all the weird blood transfusions, [to] hook me up to whatever machine.”

In the meantime, Hozier just released a deluxe version of his Unreal Unearth album and is performing on Saturday Night Live on Dec. 21.

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