Walker Hayes on Following ‘Fancy’ Success With ‘Country Stuff the Album’ & Hoping to Live ‘The Artist’s Life From Here on Out’

The past year hasn’t just been career-changing for Walker Hayes — it’s been career-saving.

Hayes, of course, had one of the biggest hits of any genre in 2021 with “Fancy Like,” his ode to low-key date nights featuring Applebee’s Bourbon Street Steaks and Oreo Shakes. “Fancy Like” not only became Hayes’ first No. 1 hit on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart, but it has spent 24 weeks atop the Hot Country Songs chart and reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, while also securing a Grammy nomination for best country song. But the song’s success has also allowed Hayes more flexibility to balance his career with his role as a husband and father, to wife Laney and their six children.

While en route to rehearsals for The Fancy Like Tour, which launches Jan. 27, Hayes tells Billboard, “The tour is now to a size where I can financially handle a bus for my family, and that’s a game-changer. Honestly, before that, I didn’t really know how long I wanted to do this. Before we had ‘Fancy Like,’ it was 50/50 me being a writer versus me being an artist — but now, it’s the artist’s life from here on out, hopefully.”

In addition to his tour, Hayes releases his third studio album, Country Stuff the Album on Friday (Jan. 21) on Monument Records. The album expands on his 2021 EP Country Stuff, which included “Fancy Like,” as well as collaborations with Carly Pearce, Jake Owen and Lori McKenna. The full-fledged LP adds seven additional tracks.

“Fancy Like” flew up the charts in part due to its upbeat groove, but also its relatability to a large swath of small-town, middle America. It’s a blend of story and cadence that Hayes has been perfecting throughout his career.

As with his 2017 album Boom, the songs populating Hayes’ new album showcase his vulnerable and conversational style of storytelling. He’s open about his anxieties as a parent and his ongoing journey with sobriety (“AA”), the relationship he had with his late father (“Briefcase”), heartbreak (“Drinking Songs”) and the risks and rewards of chasing down dreams (“What You Don’t Wish For”) — with those weightier themes tucked between songs about young love (“DeLorean,” “Make You Cry”) and simple living (“Country Stuff”).

“Briefcase,” which he penned with McKenna (“Humble and Kind,” “Girl Crush”) sums up Hayes’s relationship with his own father Charles, who passed away in 2021.

“It’s easy to write the best song on your album with her, and it’s because she’ll go there,” he says of McKenna. “My father was dying when I wrote that song. We had a unique relationship growing up — and by unique, I mean it wasn’t good. He was doing all he could to take care of his family and I, like most teenagers in that situation, I resented any time he was absent. I’m ashamed of that now, but I was a kid. I threw a lot of blame at him.”

That changed, Hayes explains, over the course of his relationship with his own kid. “I held my own first-born daughter, I felt the weight of being a father — and I began to forgive him, and our relationship changed for the better,” he says. “I drive his truck now. When he died my mom gave it to me and it was filled with CDs of my music. I got to sing him that song [“Briefcase”]. He didn’t know who I was by the time I shared it with him — and it was uncomfortable singing it, because it’s not all great — but it also shows respect and love in the end, and I think that makes it even more beautiful than just a song that just praises someone.”

Another track on the album, “What You Don’t Wish For,” serves as encouragement to all “the young kids with guitars/ looking up at the stars.” It’s taken Hayes years of hope and rejection, and thousands of hours spent pouring his highs and lows into song. He hopes his story is one that any young dreamer can look up to — most importantly, his own children.

“Especially my three older children, they have had a front-row seat to a real-life movie about struggle,” he says. “They’ve seen addiction in the back seat of a dad driving drunk. They’ve seen recovery, they’ve seen salvation from the Lord, they’ve seen Jesus. They’ve seen me chase a dream that made zero sense, and they’ve seen the letdowns and the success. And they are watching me, at 42, learn and adapt.

“I could never give them a better lesson than watching this journey that I’m on, and they get to go along with it,” he adds. “There was fear, but I chose to face it. There’s still fear. I wake up and I’m daunted by this tour. It’s a huge responsibility. There’s people I have to pay, my band. I have the fear of, ‘Will I follow up “Fancy Like”? Will I follow up “AA”?’ I have those fears, but when it’s all said and done, hopefully my kids can say, ‘Yeah, dad faced danger all the time, but he chose to be fearless.’”

During the COVID-19 tour shutdown, Hayes began writing several Christian-themed songs, mostly just as a way of expressing his feelings. His management and publishing team at SMACK continued to encourage his writing, setting up a co-write with Bart Millard, lead singer of the Contemporary Christian group MercyMe.

When Hayes walked into Millard’s studio for the writing session, Millard had just listened to “Craig,” a song from Hayes’ Boom album. “Craig” details Hayes’ life nearly a decade ago, when the singer-songwriter was facing a failed record deal and struggling with alcoholism. He was working at Costco to make ends meet, and driving a used Honda Accord that did not have enough seatbelts for his six children. As Hayes details in the song, he met Craig at church. Craig befriended Hayes and gave him a Chrysler Town & Country van large enough for his family.

“At some point, Bart said, ‘Not enough people in the world have heard this song,’ and I suggested that we redo that song together. At first it was just going to feature Bart, but he suggested making it an entire MercyMe collaboration.”

Hayes now counts Craig as a next-door neighbor. They’ve celebrated watching the rise of “Fancy Like” over the past year, and are collaborating on a book, Glad You’re Here, which releases in May.

When “Fancy Like” first gained traction on TikTok, it was thanks to a homespun dance Hayes and his daughter Lela created. The clip earned more than 4 million views in a matter of days, and, given the song’s lyrical tribute to Applebee’s, the restaurant chain soon jumped on board to feature the song in an advertising campaign. Hayes followed with a steady stream of dance-related content for songs such as “U Gurl” and “AA.” Where many artists struggle with the pressure to continually create content, Hayes says his family gives him an advantage.

“My life, it’s a TV show,” the country star quips. “My life is full of laughter and chaos, thanks to my wife, kids and the lifestyle we live — which makes it easy just to pull out the camera and capture moments. We’re actually working on that as my family joins me on the road for this tour.”

He adds, “Every time there is a new social media platform, people are like, ‘Man, I just figured out the last one.’ But my manager Marissa [Turk] was like, ‘This is perfect for you, because it’s so uncalculated.’ I think the more curated, and the harder you aim, the worse they really do. Off-the-cuff content is great for a TikTok, and it’s perfect for me, because I don’t want to spend that time doing it over and over. And it’s great to have somewhere to release music with no gatekeepers — just let a song go right to the fans and see how they react.”

Hayes could see his audiences grow even larger this fall, noting that he has some arena shows on the books for later this year. Regardless of the size of the venue, Hayes is dedicated to making every show worth it to fans, and he’s pragmatic in his approach — because as a parent himself, he’s aware of the effort and cost fans put in to attend concerts.

“I want to be worth the price of the ticket,” he says. “I feel a responsibility to deliver a really powerful show. I know that when I take my family to a concert, that’s going to set me back almost a thousand bucks. I’ve got six kids, and I want to go to a show that we’ll remember forever.”