Walker Hayes Worries He’s Messed Up His Kids

Walker Hayes is probably thinking about his kids right now. He’s either replaying some decision that only he’ll worry about, or he’s trying to solve a problem on the horizon.

• Walker Hayes’ fifth studio album 17 Problems drops Friday, Aug. 22.
• It includes the single “17 Year Old Problems,” plus collaborations with Kane Brown, Colbie Calliat and Nic D.
• On Oct. 17 he’ll begin an acoustic tour in Duluth, Minn.

“Seventy percent of my brain is consumed with fatherhood,” he tells Taste of Country, admitting that his professional team wishes he’d give them a little bit more. “It’s all I think about and I want to be a great example for my kids.”

An outsider may argue that he’s succeeding.

In 2016, Hayes quit drinking, and one year later he resurrected his career with songs from the Boom album. Since then, it’s rare to get consecutive social media posts that don’t include one of the six kids that tour with him.

In 2018 his family struggled through the worst kind of tragedy when his daughter Oakleigh died shortly after childbirth, but they’re getting through it. Hayes may give credit to his wife Laney for leading the family through the darkness, but she’d likely put it back on him.

“She would say I’m a very present dad. She would say I’m an honest dad,” he says. “She would say that Jesus shines through me on our kids.”

Hayes will sit on what he did wrong.

“We had an incident actually this week,” he shares. “One of my sons, his name is Chapel … we were playing 21 [basketball] and my son, he’s huge. He’s a great athlete, he’s a good basketball player and I’m trying to get him to be big in the post, use his body, always look for contact and keep it at the rim.”

Instead, Chapel got the ball and took a three-point shot, which bothered Hayes, who, admittedly, can’t take the coach hat off. He reiterated his point and play resumed, until there was a loose ball at their feet.

“We were both getting down on it and my head hit his nose and it cracked his nose,” he recalls. “That’s quintessential me. I was so sorry and I even am now … I’m like retracing my steps that night going, ‘How do I not get to a broken nose and just my son knowing that I love him?'”

Time out on “Fancy Like” era Walker Hayes — this current chapter finds him wrestling with big questions about relationships, mortality and regret. 17 Problems is filled with doubt, anxiety and a crippling fear that he’s doing life wrong.

“I want to be a great example for my kids,” he’ll say. “I say ‘sorry’ a lot and I do feel this pressure. My boys are teenagers now and there’s this sense of, ‘I already messed ‘em up. It went by too fast.'”

If unlocking a complicated relationship with your father years after his death keeps you up at night, you’ll find yourself in his lyrics.

If you feel frozen in repairing a broken relationship, then a song or two will hit like a school bus.

The man who once longed to keep his daughters off the pole and his sons outta jail is now planning his funeral. As always, he was open to talking about all of it during a different kind of interview with Taste of Country Nights‘ Evan Paul.

Taste of Country: What’s a habit or engrained belief that you had growing up that you’re still trying to unlearn?

Walker Hayes Oh my gosh. I’m 10 years sober, so that was an early habit that formed when I was about 13. I never thought I would kick that. Same with smokeless tobacco.

I feel like you kind of grow up in a little bubble, and then you move to another place. For us it was Nashville. My wife and I grew up in Mobile and life is one way down there, and then you kind of get out and it’s like … it’s different. There’s different types of people, differing beliefs. I grew up in a really conservative Southern Baptist, pretty old southern way of life. So it’s been interesting getting further and further removed from that.

Take me to the day you wrote “17 Year Old Problems.”

It was a Friday and life was heavy. “17 Year Old Problems” literally spilled out … I was kind of assessing my to-dos and my to-work-ons, things like that. Honestly I thought I gotta be the stupidest adult. How did I get here? How am I 45 and there are a lot of basic things that I don’t know how to do?

My sister takes care of my mom in Mobile, and my sister is an angel. I look at my sister and the way she takes care of my mom, there’s no way — no matter how much God works on me — I’m not gonna be as good at taking care of my mom. I’m blown away. But I’m supposed to know how to do that. I’m supposed to be a good son now.

I’ve got a brother that I haven’t talked to in 10 years. Say I live to be 90, you only get nine of those, so what am I doing?

That song spilled out. That first line flopped out. I was noodling on the guitar and I just said “Man, how in the world were we supposed to memorize our fake IDs?” I started smiling and was like, I remember Laney’s dad, he couldn’t stand me.

I remember tripping running through the sign in 10th grade playing football. I remember that happening a couple times and just rolling and being like, “No I’m good!”

I didn’t really know where that song was going. It really happened like you hear it. I listed these problems and then I was like, ‘I want those back.’ Those problems make me smile now.

Why don’t you call your brother?

That’s, uh — yeah. We’re equally messed up and it’s not good that we talk. It’s OK.

You have a duet with Kane Brown on this album called “Song for My Son.” Why did you choose Kane?

He’s always been someone in my corner. He’s somebody I’ve been on a stage before, feeling out of place, and seen him standup and applaud for me and my band.

I love the way he’s a dad. He’s an inspiring father. He’s inspiring with his family. I think Kane just kind of does his own thing. We’ve always kind of related from a distance like that. Just kind of trying to do us and not trying to chase something.

There’s nobody I really would have considered on this song except Kane, and actually there’s a cool story.

He said, in his verse, he says, “Lord let this cross on my neck not just be a bunch of bling.” You know, the song’s a prayer. I texted Kane and said, “Hey man, what do you think?” And he texted me a picture of the cross he had on. He just said “I’d be honored” and sent the cross.

I was like, ‘Lord, thanks.’ This just seems natural.