Walker Hayes‘s brand new album boom. is available now, and Walker is sharing his inspirations and stories for the songs on the album.
“Beautiful”
“Beautiful. This song is a true story. My wife and I dated from eleventh grade until right after college then we took a year off. And this was back when we didn’t have any social media so I could just check up on her. I was in Chappell Hill and she was in Birmingham but we collided when I was supposed to sing in a wedding that she was actually going to be in. I warned this girl that I was hanging out with; I said “Hey, I’m gonna go to Mobile. Laney is going to be there. I haven’t seen her in a year. I’m pretty sure everything is going to be alright.” But sure enough, when I saw Laney at the rehearsal dinner, the second I saw her, it made my stomach hurt and about 6 weeks later we were actually engaged.”
“Shut Up Kenny”
Audio 1
“Shut Up Kenny is also a true story. My wife and I associate so many memories in our relationship with the timing of Kenny Chesney songs. His song Anything But Mine, in particular, reminds me of the year we moved to Nashville. So many happy memories: us in a U-Haul, us moving into our first little apartment, all great stuff. But one night Laney and I were in a fight, we were past the point of talking. We were actually being dead silent and I flippantly just turn on the radio and Anything But Mine came on. And that song makes me happy but I wanted to stay pissed in that moment. So I thought “Shut up, Kenny!” and I changed the station and the same song was on another station. So I took that idea a couple of days later and me and some buddies wrote it.”
Audio 2
“Also, this is one of those songs where we worried, “Hey, can this even go on the radio? Can you sing about Kenny Chesney? Can you say shut up that many times in a song?” but we didn’t care. We wanted to just write a song that people could relate to about those moments where you want to listen to song and you kind of wanna hurt but you also probably need to turn it off.”
“You Broke Up with Me”
Audio 1
“You Broke Up with Me. If it’s ever happened to you, it’s definitely empowering when your ex wants you back but you’re alright without them. I can also relate to this song because when Laney and I were dating we were always on and off again. So if we would see each other in bar it was also a competition for who could be the happiest. This would have been an awesome song then for us when we were in college breaking up every other weekend.”
Audio 2
“The idea was also inspired by fair weathered friends in Nashville. About six years ago I lost a record deal and a lot of people probably thought, “Hey that ship has sailed. That guy is never going to be an artist that makes it in this business” and I get it. However, when this project got a little heat and the trajectory increased on my artist career a lot of people came out of the wood work and were like, “Hey you wanna write?” They be texting me, “Hey you wanna grab some coffee, grab some lunch?” and I was like, “Where have you guys been the last four or five years? And so yeah, my reply to them is “Hey, you broke up with me.”
“Halloween”
Audio 1
“Halloween is one of my favorite songs on the record. It features Nicole Galyon singing the chorus who actually wrote the song with me. I’ve always wanted to write my wife a true love song. Not something trite, not something cliché and just something pretty but something about the ugly in our relationship that we’re ok with and this song does that. I was getting out of the shower one day and I saw one of those buckets that kids keep candy in, that looks like a jack-o-lantern, and I thought how Halloween ended when I met Laney. I didn’t know a lot about love when I was in high school but I knew when I met her something was different. I knew that I was actually a different person than I had ever been and who that was that person I was being was actually me. And for the first time, I wasn’t trying to sell myself to anyone. I was just relaxing being exactly who I am.“
Audio 2
“Nicole does an awesome job singing that chorus on this song. We thought about trying to find somebody else but no one could beat it. We kept her on it and I’m glad we did. She sounds amazing and my wife does love this song.”
“Dollar Store”
“Dollar Store. What, what. This is my party song on the album. It’s where I take my kids on their birthday. I know everything you can buy in that store. I’m intrigued by a dollar store. I’m amazed by what you can purchase. But we really do, we take our kids there and we let shop them shop for each other. And we know when they get tired of that stuff we don’t feel bad throwing it away cause it was super cheap to buy. So I had to write a song about a dollar store.”
“Beer in the Fridge”
Audio 1
“Beer in the Fridge. This song is a lesson every time I hear it. It reminds me of everything I almost lost, I guess, back in the days when I was drinking way too much. It’s a song I wrote with Shane McAnally, Matt Jenkins, Scott Sherrod. This beer in the fridge actually did exist in the bottom of my office in a small fridge in the bottom of the office where I write. And it hung around for a little while and I didn’t drink for many weeks after I quit drinking and Scott Sherrod actually noticed it and talked to me about it and we had to write this song. But it’s about addiction. It’s about all the things that I could have potentially lost. It’s about quitting and every time I hear it, it reminds me of all I had to lose and all I have to gain by staying sober.”
Audio 2
“I love how people have responded to Beer in the Fridge. A lot of people have come up to me after shows and have been vocal about their own addition and about their own struggles and their processes of recovery and it’s been amazing. It’s been almost maybe an icebreaker I would say between me and the fans about our issues. We’ve been able to hold each other accountable with this song so it’s very cool. I’m glad it’s on the album.”
“Beckett”
Audio 1
“Beckett. Me and Shane McAnally wrote this song. I was telling him about my son Beckett and just the life he lives and the way he looks at people and his innocence and how beautiful it is. I was saying to him, “Man, it’s weird how you know you grow up and look at a kid like that and you go I want to be like that when I grow up.” Which to me just, you know, that sounded profound I guess. Shane loved idea and we were like why not man why not just put you know at first we thought hey let’s write a song and say when I grew up I want to be five years old but nah we just put Beckett’s name in it. I think the world could use a song like this. I’m no preacher but you know I think we all need to see each other’s differences as cool and each other’s difference as what makes this world awesome. That’s definitely the way Beckett looks at the world and so we had to write about it.”
Audio 2
“Beckett actually hates this song. He’s not the type of kid that wants a lot of attention so when it comes on he can’t stand it but I think as he grows up he’ll come around and he’ll be proud of it.”
“Mind Candy”
“Mind Candy. That’s me and Laney in high school right there. We definitely spent a lot of time behind the gym. That was where it’s at. She made school high as the songs says “reason why school was high.” We’re definitely trying now we’re trying to raise our kids and prepare ourselves for their teenage years so when they ask about the song I’m like “nah, that’s just made up.” But that’s a fun part of high school. I’m glad we have those memories. Thank goodness we got married so we can still, you know, remember those memories together. But I love that song and every time I sing it I’m right there. I smell the smells. I see the scenes in Mobile and at St. Pauls.”
“Prescriptions”
“Prescriptions. One day, me and Matt McGinn got together and I was so fired up about an idea, you know, I love ideas that are edgy and that make me feel something. And what made me feel something was the idea of saying “Hey, you know, you’re gonna think of me” to an ex possibly to say, “Hey you’re gonna think of me when you’re making love to him. You’re gonna say my name.” McGinn was like, you know, “I think we can put that in the song but let’s maneuver our way, you know, to kind of a different hook.” We just had such a great time writing the “you know fight about it all night about it. Wake up blood shot eyed about it cause you cried about it and you’re sick about it.” We had so much fun writing that and we landed on going to your therapist and her not having anything to prescript you but prescriptions. Just kidding kinda. We were like boom, it has to be that. So we forgot all rules and just had a great day writing that song and I think it definitely it’s probably the least personal idea on the album but there are a lot of emotions in there that everybody, you know, has been able to relate to at some time.”
“Craig”
“Craig. This song it is number one for me on the album. It’s a thank you to a very specific person obviously named Craig. But Craig is one of the many who have helped us on this journey. You know, the music business has not been easy. It’s not been kind but I don’t think any big dream really is kind, you know and you need a team. You need people surrounding you who believe in you almost and definitely more than you believe in yourself at times and Craig was one of those people for me and my family. I’m not a religious cat but my wife she’s, I’m kind of the guy she drags to church every now and then but she drug me to this one church called Redeeming Grace and I met a guy named Craig and he scattered all my preconceived notions I had about people at church and loved us in such a pure, unselfish, gracious way, you know, that inspired me to write this song. He’s inspiring before he even gave us a car but he did give us a minivan. It was a time where we just had our sixth kid and I was working at Costco and a dealership we had an endorsement with them but they took our car because, you know, I was longer an artist, a big time artist and Craig showed up at Beckett’s baseball game with the title and the keys to his minivan. And he basically, you know, encouraged me slash forced me to accept it and it was a great lesson in accepting help and I will be forever grateful for that but more so, I’m forever grateful for Craig’s friendship. And I just wanted to write that really wasn’t about me being clever or a great songwriter nothing none of that just wanted to say thank you to this guy for being my buddy at my worst. At the time when we met I was drinking heavily but Craig chooses to see really good stuff in people. He overlooks those types of things and he did that for me and it really moves me and I wrote that song for Craig.”