This past November, Hayes played at The Nutty Irishman in Farmingdale on Long Island. “That was a good time,” he admitted. “The fact that we filled it up was ridiculous.”
Regarding his touring endeavors, he said, “We just finished a 30-day tour, which was mind-blowing. It was educational and nice to see our labor in the fans faces. I am just a guy from Mobile, Alabama, who writes personal songs about his life, which are ripped out pages of my journal. To hear people singing along to the words was just incredible.”
“It took us 15 years of sweat, blood, rejection, heartbreaks, and poverty to achieve all that success, and that makes everything even sweeter,” he said.
On his new single “Don’t Let Her,” he said, “That song is made up of a billion emotions. My wife, Laney, and I had a tough year last year. When we lost our seventh child last year, Oakleigh, we were reminded of how fragile life is, and how much control you don’t have over life. In a lot of ways, that type of wisdom gives you some freedom. You begin to let go of things that just don’t matter.”
Hayes added, “I am always trying to convey my love to Laney. It’s a love letter to her. My music is always personal. This song morphed. It began as a list of specifics about Laney. Honestly, it is such a special song. It feels like a ‘renewal of the vows’ moment for me and Laney.”
On being a musician in this digital age, Hayes admitted that it “keeps them on their toes.” “There are so many avenues where our music can have lives,” he said. “A song can have a bigger life in a different digital streaming service. It gives you a lot of opportunities and analytics to pull from to fight that radio battle,” he added.
Regarding the passage of the Music Modernization Act (MMA), Hayes said, “That’s awesome. I am always for the songwriters, and people protecting us. A lot of times, we like to feel fairly compensated for the creativity that we can bring to the table.”
Hayes defined the word success as a “steady flow of fulfillment” with his occupation. “I have been given a desire to write songs and to sing them,” he said.
His new single “Don’t Let Her” is available on iTunes and on Spotify.
For more information on country singer-songwriter Walker Hayes, check out his official website.
Read More: Digital Journal reviewed Walker Hayes’ “Don’t Let Her.”
