In 2018, Walker Hayes had two-and-a-half years of sobriety under his belt.
But all that hard work almost got sidelined after his seventh child, daughter Oakleigh, was born and died on the same day that June. The day he and his wife Lainey buried their daughter, he had his mind set on drinking.
In a new interview on the K-Love Morning Show, Hayes shares some of the details of that devastating personal loss, and how a lucky twist of fate prevented him from relapse.
“I immediately came home from the cemetery and drove [to] downtown Franklin to just…self-destruct,” he recalls.
“I drove to a bar called 55 South, and I looked through the window and there were three guys at the bar,” he continued, “And I was like, ‘I’m gonna get a little buzz and I’m going to just mess with those guys. I’m just gonna get in a fight with those guys.'”
“It makes zero sense,” Hayes added, looking back on the moment now.
But something stopped him from walking into the bar that night.
“I opened the Honda, and my wallet wasn’t in the door,” he went on to say.
He turned around went back home — presumably to get his wallet — but something clicked for him when he saw his wife Lainey sitting in their home.
“My wife, sadly, was just sitting by herself, on the day she’s buried her daughter. My kids are I don’t know where, and she’s just in the dark,” Hayes says.
All at once, he realized the enormous amount of pain his relapse would cause to his family during an already tragic time.
“I could literally see what I was about to do,” he continued.
Read More: Walker Hayes Explains How His Daughter’s Death Inspired His Song “AA”
“She’s gonna have to pick me up from jail the next day. We were gonna have to start the rehab process all over, you know, and go back to square one,” Hayes said. “That was some sin in me that I just saw clearly, and thought, ‘I need a savior.'”
“I need redemption from myself,” he adds.
Walker Hayes has been vocal about his journey toward sobriety, both in interviews and in his songs.
Tracks like “Wish I Could Drink” and “AA” speak to the singer’s difficult path to giving up alcohol.
Hayes’ songs are typically refreshingly honest and specific to his experience as a country singer, Alabama native and loving father.
He’s written several songs about and for his kids, including “Chapel,” “Lela’s Stars” and “If Father Time Had a Daughter” — the latter of which even features backing vocals from his daughter Loxley.
His songs oscillate between dark and intimate and upbeat and earmworm-ish. In 2021, he scored a massive and long-awaited ultra-hit with “Fancy Like,” a song that falls into the latter category.
But even “Fancy Like” isn’t fluff: It’s a dance-along song about blue-collar luxuries like a night out at Applebee’s, and all the simple pleasures that Hayes — a middle-of-the-road country singer with six children to support — could relate to as affordable, but still decadent treats.
“Fancy Like” has a family connection, too: His oldest daughter, Lela, came up with the dance that made the song go TikTok-viral.
