Over the last few years, Monument Records recording artist Walker Hayes has experienced just about the highest high an artist can dream of. After grinding for nearly 20 years in Nashville, he struck gold with his smash hit “Fancy Like.” For months, the fun-filled tune could be heard in every bar, restaurant, sports game or tailgate, all while hundreds of thousands of people danced to it on TikTok. The song garnered Hayes a GRAMMY Nomination, among many other accolades, and led to a sold out, headlining arena tour.
While that success could be seen as the “American Dream,” Hayes knows better than to trust the fame and fortune. In the same set of years that he saw his music dreams come true, he went through one of the toughest losses of his life – the passing of his father. As a dad to six himself, with his seventh child Oakleigh in heaven, the loss hit Hayes square in the chest. Now, the singer/songwriter is delivering a project that highlights the loss his family has experienced while doing what he does best – looking inward. On the track “6 string american dream” Hayes sings:
Yeah I’m a little bit higher up on that Nashville ladder
but money didn’t fix anything that really matters
my haters still say I can’t sing
my marriage still needs counseling
my sons don’t know how not to fight
my daughter’s shorts are too short & too tight
if I’m drinking honestly
still can’t drink responsibly
I’m a 6 string American dream
but I still wake up sad
I still need Jesus
and I still miss my dad
The other track, titled “if father time had a daughter,” is equally as introspective and finds Hayes begging Father Time to have mercy on the fathers who have to watch their little girls grow up so fast, singing “time would stand still a little longer / if Father Time had a daughter.”
“Been waiting to get these two songs out for a long time,” says Hayes. “As I look at the body of work and the songs I’m sitting on, I think about what I want to say – and this is what I want to say to the world right now. These songs wreck me in different ways and it’s my hope that everyone that listens will leave feeling real feelings.”
being a dad and missing mine is out now on Monument Records, and is a prime example of why Billboard praised his music as “personal, soul-bearing storylines; rolling rhymes; and Macklemore-like cadence.”
Listen to being a dad and missing mine HERE.
Hayes is set to kick off his headlining arena tour, The Duck Buck Tour, this April in Rosemont, IL. For more information, visit walkerhayes.com.
