I've been following Walker Hayes' career for years. I've always appreciated the way that he brought multiple genres of music together for something that is so unique. When he started to gain a little traction with 'You Broke Up With Me' I was so excited for him. Walker has always been such a nice guy that has worked super hard for his career and to support his family. If you listen to his music then you know that most of it tends to have a whimsical edge and most of it leans pretty positive.
But Walker says the new album, 'Country Stuff The Album', has music that was born from some of his darker times. During an interview on Apple Music Country he opened up about some of the life struggles that led to the songs.
Take the new single 'AA' as an example. Walker says AA was inspired by one of the worst days of his life. You might remember that the Hayes family lost their 7th child, a daughter named Oakley, shortly after she was born. Walker opened up about the night that they buried her. "That night I actually drove to a bar, and I wanted to just get hammered and get in a fight, and I didn’t have my wallet. And when I went home, I just broke down. When I walked in my house, and I was so ashamed, I saw my wife on the couch all by herself. I was like, ’I’m, I’m so sorry.’ You know, I left her alone to just go self-destruct. And she helped me. She found an AA meeting in Williamson County.”
He said the AA meeting saved his life and he wanted to share some of that emotion on the album. Now, the song AA doesn't feel that dark, but listen to it again and I think you'll capture some of the emotion.
Walker also has a guest appearance from Jake Owen on the record. Jake has been on team Hayes for many years. Walker recalled when he was working at Costco and had written a song that Jake was supposed to record for an album. He was so excited to make some money for his family. Unfortunately Jake didn't end up cutting it. “Well, he didn’t cut it, and he didn’t owe me anything, but he gave me a phone call. I remember sitting in the Costco parking lot. I was devastated. I had just gotten the news that it didn’t make it on his album. And he called just to apologize. He said, ’Man, I still love the song. And, I’m really sorry. It didn’t make it on the album.’ And it wasn’t like the answer to all our problems. But man, that phone call meant so much to me. It blew me away.”
If you weren't rooting for Walker before you read this article, I hope you are now. He's one of the nicest dudes you will ever meet and he's worked so hard to get here. I hope he can ride this wave for a long long time.
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