July 30, 2024 • 39 mins
Walker Hayes talks about his new album "Sober Thoughts," his tour and stop in Colorado Springs at Sunset Amphitheater on August 17th, his sobriety, family, loss of a child and putting GOD first. This is a compelety transparent interview with Walker Hayes. We were supposed to talk for 5-10 minutes, ended up talking for 35 minutes. Enjoy!
It kicks off with a pop culture update with Denise's Dirt.
It kicks off with a pop culture update with Denise's Dirt.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Do Do Do Do Do. Hey, y'all, it's Denise's podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Hey, Hey, Happy Tuesday.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
I have such a great interview lined up for you,
Walker Hayes. Out of the thirty three plus years of
working radio and TV, this is one of the most
transparent interviews I've ever had. He talks about the loss
of a child, He talks about sobriety, his family, how
(00:31):
he puts God first, the challenges he has with his family.
Although you know social media makes everything look perfect, No,
you have to work for a marriage. He was just
so open and honest and I can't wait for you
to hear it. He's coming to Colorado August seventeenth. Yes,
(00:51):
we'll have more tickets listen to one oh six seven
the Bowl. But I want you to log on right
now and buy those tickets for Saturday, August seventeenth, the
same Drunk Tour. It's going to be at the Ford Amphitheater,
Colorado Springs. Go to AXS dot com to buy those tickets.
But before I get to this incredible interview, I got
a quick look at pop culture for you Denise's Dirt.
(01:12):
I'll make it a quick one because I want to
get to the interview with Walker Hayes.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Wow, we were.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Supposed to talk for five minutes. We ended up talking
for like forty minutes. Walker Hayes is just amazing. Now,
this is breaking. It just came across Angelina Jolie and
Brad Pitt's son, packs Jolie. Pitt was rushed to the
hospital after sustaining a head injury following a crash in
Los Angeles yesterday. According to law enforcement, he was driving
down Las fe Lies Boulevard around five pm on an
(01:38):
electric bike and he crashed into a back of a car.
He was not wearing a helmet at the time of
the crash. He was transported to a nearby hospital. He
was complaining about his head injury and his hip following
the impact. They were concerned of maybe a minor brain bleed. Now,
as far as we know, there wasn't any serious injuries
(02:01):
and he's supposed to be discharged a little bit later today.
Like I said, that just came across and I just
found out about it now. Simone Biles, Yeah, he Simone Biles.
She's done it again. She earned her fifth Olympic gold.
USA women win gold medal in the team final. Gosh,
they're such a talented team.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
It was amazing.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
The room was filled with a lists lebs just cheering
on Team USA. Do you ever wonder what's in that
mysterious box at the Olympic medal winners get when they're
standing on the podium. Well, here's the rumor. This is
what I found out. They of course get their medals,
but they also get a slim, mysterious box, and inside
that box is the twenty twenty four Paris Olympic poster.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
It's pretty cool.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Yeah. They also get like a little French plush toy,
which is the twenty twenty four Paris Olympics mascot.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
It's called Freeji. So now you know.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Baby news. Hayley Bieber showed off her baby bump at
a party. She was with her hubby Justin Bieber, and
they also showed a video online. They are so cute together.
Speaking of baby news, you know Dan and Shay well
Shaye Mooney and his wife Hannah, they're expecting baby number four.
Don't know anything else about it. They just kind of
(03:18):
went to Instagram and said, hey, baby number four is
on the way, so I don't know how far she is.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Thank the Almighty for allowing me to be here tonight.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
This was very cool Monday night.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
The sky in Nashville who lit up with more stars
than usual, and it was all to honor the late
great Toby Keith. The event was filmed for a two
hour television special It's going to air Wednesday, August twenty
eighth on NBC, and Landy Wilson rode in on a
horse singing beer for My horses, Toby's daughter Crystal saying
(03:48):
don't let the old man in, and an emotional rendition
of American soldier from Trace Atkins, who also spoke about
Toby's profound patriotism.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Again. That's going to air August twenty eighth on NBC.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Never in my wildest dreams thought that my life would become.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
When it has.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Lady Gaga not fooling around when she introduced Michael Polanski
as her fiance.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
It's true.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Allegedly they've been engaged since March. Check now, if you
watch The Real Housewives, well, the Real Housewives of Atlanta,
Kenya Moore got fired, She's no longer there. Thedra Parks
is returning after sixteen years of absence. Real Housewives of
New Jersey. It was so toxic that Andy Cohen has
confirmed it's getting a reboot. We have no idea who's
(04:34):
gonna stay, who's gonna go.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Best of my ability, so help me, God don't know.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
This just shows you.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
It's a great testament to the ability to turn your
life around. During a visit to the Genesee County Jail
in Michigan on Saturday, jelly Roll was sworn in as
a deputy county sheriff. Jelly Roll struggled with drug addiction
and has a helleny conviction on his record, but got
his life in order. He's exploded into stardom and now
he is a deputy sheriff. Finally, Wesley Snipes revealed how
(05:04):
Ryan Reynolds got him to reprise his role as Blade
for a smash hit Deadpool and Wolverine.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
You get a call from Ryan Reynolds out of the blue,
after the twenty years.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
You go, okay, I gotta take this call.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
There you go, quick, look of Denise's dirt. Now let's
get to this great interview. He is such a kind guy.
Puts God in his family. First, Walker Hayes, Denise, how
you doing, Hey, Walker, how you doing?
Speaker 1 (05:27):
I'm good? You okay?
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Today I am doing a fabulous. I'm talking to Walker Hayes.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Come on now, woo, I'm talking to.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
Denise because I'm fancy, like, ooh, don't make me start
get it.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Do the dance and everything.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
I did do the dance, I tagged you too. I
did it with Kesha and you, all three of us together.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Let's go. That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
You'll have to look back for that one.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
That was deep.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Okay, yeah, that was a while ago. But you have
a lot going on.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
I was cheering you on last night on Celebrity Family Feud.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Denise, hands down, I mean that might. We do a
lot of exciting things. You know, we're in a phase
of life where each day it's so different and you
just never know what opportunities life will bring. But sharing
family Feud, well one, just standing next to my wife
(06:19):
on TV with Steve, just doing that show with her
was incredible because she doesn't my wife, Lanny isn't like
she doesn't want the spotlight. She you know, when you
turn the camera on, usually she turns around and I'm like, hey, no, no, no, no,
let's let's be on camera together. You know, so us
sharing that moment was really really special. I mean, not
(06:43):
just fun, it was special and we'll have that forever.
And then my manager, Rob and Marissa, my managers, they
were both on there with me, so we go. I
mean they've managed me since I was working at Costco,
so to be to be together on family few. And
then my producer and mentor basically you know, the person
(07:06):
I look up to in this industry, Shane McAnally was
on my team as well, and we won big bucks
for a nonprofit we're both We're all just very passionate about.
It's called Hope International, and it was just an absolute blast.
Steve Harvey was amazing. Team Rachel Bilson was incredible. We
(07:29):
got to hang with them a lot of the other
teams backstage, we spent time with the crowd was phenomenal, phenomenal,
and the crew of the show was incredible. It was
hands down one of the most fun days of our
lives together. We will remember it forever. Thanks for watching it.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
Oh yeah, absolutely, and it was fun too. And you
mentioned your wife. I adore her and I've been married
to my husband since i've been well, I've been with
them since I've been nineteen, so thirty three years. Yeah,
and I know you go back to high school sweethearts.
And my husband's the same way. He's shy, he doesn't
like to be on camera. But there was another thing
(08:09):
that I saw. You just celebrated twenty years and you
asked her twenty questions, and I thought it was just
so sweet the relationship that you two have, salt of
the earth kind of people.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
This fame has not bothered you at all.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Well, I mean, honestly, the Lord has really fought for us.
Fame and success has been a it is definitely this
doesn't quite describe it, but it has been challenging to
just the normalcy and simplicity of our relationship and our family,
(08:45):
and God has really kept us grounded together with our kids,
and he continues to fight for that because this is
an interesting it's a very interesting bid that you can
get swallowed up in, you know, and you can lose
some of those values that you started out with. But yeah,
we we met in nineteen ninety seven and she's my
(09:07):
best friend. I mean, we we we mess it up,
you know, every now and then. We have challenging, challenging weeks.
I mean we're we're we're still we're still pretty vollidi.
I mean we were we were crazy in high school
we were on and off again, and there's there's just
still some of that fire, you know, even now today.
(09:28):
But Laney is just she's it. I mean, she's she's
she's she's the best. She's my best friend in this life.
And and I love her. I love her so much,
and you know, you know, would we would. Yeah, we
celebrated twenty years of marriage, and but that's.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
What makes us strong marriage. Walker is yeah, yes, yeah, yeah,
You've got to.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Have the little points in the fight. You got to
fight for your marriage because you love each wire.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Right, I will tell you. And one one thing God
has blessed me with in my marriage is there's there's
rarely any indifference. I mean we always care enough to
get to get pissed, you know, and and to fight.
Like you said, but we man, I love, I love
my family. I'm trying my best. Lannie's trying her best.
(10:17):
It's a lot, you know, six six kids, there's always
there's always somebody to, for lack of a better term,
try to kind of repair and and improve upon parenting them.
We have four dogs.
Speaker 4 (10:31):
We have a life.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Our life is it's kind of weird, like we're we're
always on a bus. You know, I'm always on a stage. Uh,
it's we're always in the we're always on camera. You know,
there's always there's always people around. But I mean, Lanny
is She's amazing, and I'm so grateful, as I know,
you know you can relate with this. I'm just so
(10:54):
grateful I met her young. Uh, there's that I wouldn't
even want to explore. My life would have been like
for another year without her. You know, I'm just so
glad I found her young when we were when we
were little, you know, little kids. So yeah, she's amazing,
and that was that was so spontaneous, and I enjoyed
(11:15):
those twenty those twenty questions. I mean I could talk
to her. Last night we had it was date night
and we went to Sonic and uh and we just
sat you know, we just sat there and you know
how you do. You know, date nights are amazing because
you always both go, oh man, I remember, like I
(11:38):
love this, like you're you're I remember why I like you? You know,
you just do those things because life can be so
busy when you're just kind of teammates yep, and roommates,
you know, and your your boats just there's always something
to be done in the house with a kid, with
a dog, with a job, and so yeah, everybody listening.
(11:58):
I mean I think day night it's are magical. I
mean they may not seem like that, but they truly are.
When you just get in the quiet and you can go, Okay,
look where's your where's your brain? Like what do you
what do you think about all the time now? And
you know what is, what's what's bugging you and what's
what's awesome?
Speaker 2 (12:17):
And you get to know each other again.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Yes, yeah, And honestly we got at family feud. We
got to do that because they didn't allow kids, and
so Landy and I kind of had a trip to
La for ourself. But I can't speak highly enough about Lanny.
I mean I truly think she's the most beautiful human
(12:40):
uh on on the planet. I mean, I have no
idea how I got to have her, and she she
makes me so mad, and I know I make her
just as mad. But it's because we have that that connection.
It is because I care, you know, I want you know,
I just love her.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
I like you even more now because you're so transparent.
You're not like, oh, we have the perfect life and
we can manage six kids, and you know, we never
have you.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
I love that you're all so transparent.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Yeah, I think you know that's the That is a
That's a very unfortunate thing about socials, is it. It
cannot it cannot describe those moments because that's not what
it's for. Socials and publicity are typically for you show
and tell, you know, and so you know, unfortunately I
(13:33):
don't pick up the phone when Landy and I are
in a fight and go hey, let's go live, you know,
let's fight on Instagram or and and that is a
I think that's one of the big just dilemmas of
the social world. And I will man, everybody listening, if
you get anything from this, we are completely amiss. I
(13:53):
mean you should hear some of the stupid fights we have.
And sometimes they're just because we're tied, or we're exhausted,
or we were selfish, you know. We we we just
have our agendas and life and things we want to
get done and so both. But we are we're trying
to figure it out together, you know, and we always
(14:14):
one of us always has to say hey, hey, hey, hey,
step let's step back. You know, can you look at
this well? I'll look at this, if you look at
this and then and then we argue about no, it's
not that's not forgiveness, that's not mercy. It's not conditional,
you know, and we do silent treatments. Uh, there's doors slam.
I mean we are we are an absolute met just
(14:37):
I invite eBoy, come come hang with us a week,
and you'll.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
Be like, Wow, I think you're normal, Walker. Don't be
too hard on yourself. I think that happens in every relationship.
You're just transparent enough and down to earth enough that
you're going to say, we go through it too.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Yeah. Yeah, And I think a lot of I mean,
we all do it. You know, you get on socials
and you go you begin to compare, and it's never
I just love. I love talking to husbands because a
lot of husbands that I meet out on the road,
you know, they'll go, you know, you your family looks
so tight. You know, y'all are always laughing and play
(15:15):
and I'm like, man, don't subscribe to even one moment. Think,
I mean, that's thirty seven seconds. You just solve my life, right,
You didn't You didn't see me begging the kids like
we have to do a trick shot today. You didn't
see me arguing with my wife saying no, no, no,
do twenty questions. You know, you know what I mean.
(15:36):
It's just they don't you know, you don't. There's a
lot of behind the scene, and like you said, that
is that is normal, I mean, and that is the
that's the tug of war of the beautiful thing called marriage.
It's just it is to me, marriages endless forgiveness. It's
basically adopting each other and forever learning why the other
(15:59):
one is like they are, you know. I mean, I'm
forty five and I still wake up and Lanny goes, wow,
I remember you know that problem you're having. And I
feel like your dad was kind of like that, you know,
and I'm like, shut up, I'm not like my dad.
And she's like no, no, no, She's like but but
you know, I see, I see where you get like that.
(16:20):
It all makes sense now and I'm like, wow, you
know I figured we would have already. We've already thrown
some through all those Now.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
You're constantly growing and evolving as as you get older.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
That's what I've learned.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Anyways, and you mentioned something also about the trick shots
that you do with your boys. So is that every
single day for an entire year you do those?
Speaker 1 (16:42):
We did, so yeah, we just we finished about two
months ago. We finished an entire year of trick shots
and it I'm telling you, I mean it was hard.
I mean that when we were well, we were about
two hundred and fifty. We almost quit like seven times.
(17:04):
And there were fight you know you talk about arguments.
I mean there was there was one night where Lanny
and I were in a hotel together in La This
was this is when we were filming Family Feud, and
I shot up out of bed and I said, we
didn't get a trick shot today. So I had to
get Lannie out of bed, and we had to design
one in the hotel room. And I'm telling you, we
(17:26):
could not make one. It just like the trick shot.
Gods were against us. But we finally we finally did
it and she had the film and but it challenged us.
It challenged our relationships in the house, It challenged us
as a team. You know, it takes you through a
vast amount of emotions. You try one and you're like, okay,
(17:49):
this is doable, and then you the excitement dwindles. You know,
as you don't make it fifty times, one hundred times,
one hundred and fifty times, and then the excitement when
when you finally make it and the team just goes ballistic,
and then you argue, you know, yeah, who's got to
clean it up? But it was an eventful year to
(18:09):
say the least. But we are all grateful. There are
many times where we look at each other and say,
praise God, Yes we don't have a trick shot today.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
I don't know you could take this for what it's worth.
But my husband and I when we got married, we
were young and we had no money none, I mean zero.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
So we drove from.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
Lake Havasu to California, not Sperry Farm was our honeymoon,
and our brakes went out in the car, so we
were in a really bad spot in California. And he
drove up to a mechanic shop and he asked to
borrow a couple of tools so he could get on
the ground and change them himself, because we couldn't afford
to have him paid for right, And I took a picture.
(18:52):
He was so mad, and I said, honey, one day,
we're going to look back at this and we're going
to laugh and appreciate it, and now we do. So
all those challenges that you've went through this past year
with your kids, when they get older, they're going to
go do you remember that?
Speaker 2 (19:06):
And remember?
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Oh? Yeah, you know.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
So it's those are the ones that really make it
in life, and you're building memories with your kids.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
We absolutely and I tell I tell my kids that's
kind of that kind of was my sermon for the
entire year. It was like, trust me, the fact that
we're getting every single one of these on on video.
You will have these for the rest of your life,
like you and your kids. Your kids will probably go, hey, dad,
(19:35):
you know, where do I find? Where do I find
those three hundred and sixty six trick shots that y'all
did you know? And and then you can just go
through them. I mean, they're incredible and uh but yeah,
there was a lot. There was a lot gained and
I honestly, I just decided to do it on a whim.
But it taught us so many life lessons that you
(19:58):
want to teach your kids. But there's no book, you know,
there's no manual that says, hey, you know, this is
how you teach your kids about persistence or you know,
this is this is an example of something you can
do every day. I challenge everybody, with your family or
your spouse, do something. We'll do something every day for
a year with somebody and it will change your life.
(20:21):
It truly will.
Speaker 4 (20:22):
You will.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
You will be bonded in ways that you didn't know
you can. You can be bonded.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
That's a good lesson.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
And you know, we talk about social media and how
people only show the good and but there was that
fancy like dance that you and your daughter came up with,
and that kind of changed the whole trajectory of your career.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
What a life life been like after fancy like?
Speaker 1 (20:48):
I mean, I've had work, you know, I mean because
of that that I mean honestly, I mean that's simple. Uh.
You know, all I ever wanted to do was make music,
and I you know, I didn't. I don't know. I'm
not the I'm not a business minded human. You know,
(21:10):
I'm just not one of those people who are I'm
never going to start a company, you know, I'm just
not that that kind of guy. But you know, as
I need, I needed to provide for my family and
I always wished that it that it could be by
making music. And that's that's indeed what that video did.
I mean, I'm talking about twenty seven, twenty eight second
(21:33):
life changing video that no one could have predicted. No,
no music around that song said you know, hey, this
song is about to pop off. I don't think anybody
in the country space had really had really utilized TikTok,
(21:54):
you know in that way, you know, still kind of
early in the game. So but again, none of that
was none of that was on purpose. No, I mean,
we just my daughter and I. I just put out
the song. I came home from church, my daughter said, hey, dad,
you know, fancy like needs a dance. So really that
day I was kind of just being a dad, you know.
(22:17):
I had no ambitions of you know, blowing up the
internet or having a having a number one pop song,
you know. I just I just loved the song and
was glad we were putting out music. Did it well.
My future was really really uncertain at that point as
far as music was concerned. So I mean, I see that,
(22:39):
I see that video and I watched it even now,
and there's some intangible quality it possesses that I can
I can watch and I can understand its viral nature.
It's I don't know if I could, I could never
duplicate it. But there's something about that video that just
it has a spark and a purity and a simplicity.
(23:05):
You know, it's just very pure. It doesn't it breeds
everything we were feeling that day, we were just having
fun together. I had to for you know, I was like, Laney,
can you stop what you're doing right now and can
you just video us do this dance for a second,
you know. And it was a very a very insignificant moment,
and I really kind of precious, simple normal life that
(23:28):
got documented, and the power of it was amazing. And
in our life is I mean, I can I completely
Our life has is one hundred percent changed. I mean
we still have we still have whiplash, meaning Laney and
my kids and I still kind of circle up and
look at each other and kind of go like last night,
(23:52):
you know, Laney and I are sitting at Sonic and
we're like, our kids are at home watching us on
family feud. Right now, you know what is what in
the world is happening? You know this this is crazy,
but hey, we'll take it.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
Yeah, Well, you have put God in the center of
your family and that's the most important thing. And you
also had a real big change a moment in your life,
and I know you talk about it, so I want
to talk about it now.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
Your sobriety. You're very open about it.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Yeah. Yeah, I'm open about my sobriety, and I'm wide
open also about we lost our seventh child. Yes, And
so when I quit drinking eight years ago, and it
was phenomenal for me, it absolutely changed my life. And
that if there's anybody listening who's struggling, or is maybe
(24:48):
inside struggling but outwardly kind of in denial, just please
just take it for what it's worth. It was one
of the most pivotal, gri greatest decisions I ever made
to just try to quit. And by the grace of God,
I'm almost nine years sober, and I say that, you know,
(25:10):
it doesn't matter how high that number goes. I think
I will always still have moments where sadly I go, hey,
I'm alone tonight. No one would know or you know,
you know, it's just uh. I still remember the escape,
and I still sometimes look back and and and have
those moments you know, where I need camaraderie and I need,
(25:34):
you know, my wife to kind of walk me off
those ledges every now and then. But yeah, I'm sober,
and I we we went. I think one of the
another pivotal moment in our life as a family was
when we lost, you know, when we held and I
mean I don't, I don't, I can't adequately describe what
(25:55):
happened to us, but we we we lost. My wife
had a stillborn She carried our seventh child, Oakley, longer
than any child, and then Oakley died during childbirth. And
holding a lifeless child will indeed rearrange your priorities, change
(26:16):
your perspective, change the way you look at the kids
you have that are living, change the way you look
at your your wife, your husband. I mean it now,
it it It's catastrophic. I mean, it's a bomb that
goes off in your life. And so you don't you know,
it takes a minute to get out of shock and
(26:37):
to observe from like a thirty thousand foot view once
you get past the sadness or the anger, the but
going through that sober for me and my wife, it
just changed the way we indeed looked at life. And honestly,
it just showed us the brevity of it and the
(26:59):
control we don't have. And I think God was merciful
in that tragedy. I think God blessed us beyond our
wildest dreams with some of the lessons we learned, especially
pre fame. I'm not there's there's no telling if I had,
(27:21):
if I had continued to drink, and if we had
and it had, you know Oakley and then become famous,
I'm not sure we would have handled it so well.
You know, I think I think the things of earth
wouldn't be strangely dim. I think we would really clean
to some of the lies the world tries to teach
(27:42):
you and and and try to tell you that matter.
And so, yeah, it's just been a it's been such
an adventure, and that loss was devastating for us. But
the you know, Oakley's life that honestly never even happened,
has had more impact on people in front of us
than any of our lives combined. And uh, and again
(28:04):
the perspective that that gave us, it has really really
helped us in this material world we live in, just
kind of in the culture of plenty, you know, this
this this land of entitlement, you know that we live
in that we can easily just get gobbled up by.
It has helped, It has given us ammunition, you know,
(28:26):
to fight for what really matters. And like you said,
I mean it's all I mean, it's just all about
the Lord. I mean, you know, you know there's this
reality that we just can't see, you know, and and
that reality is that this life is any bitty I'm
talking about. I mean, all these things you know that
my eighteen year old wakes up that are so important
(28:48):
and me too, you know, I wake up and I'm like,
I want to do how we do this?
Speaker 4 (28:52):
We gotta do this, run this way, do this, achieve this,
grab that chase, that dream, make this, you know, all
these all these things, they're so heavy on our souls.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
They're just not eternal, and they're not you know, life ends.
It's just in a snap, and it's beautiful to me.
That makes it even more beautiful, but especially what becomes
more beautiful through my lens, our relationships, relationships, relationships, just
(29:23):
who God puts in your life on a daily basis,
And thank goodness, that's what I've that's what we gathered
from from the loss of my dad, from the loss
of Oakley from me quiting drinking, you know, And that's
kind of what we try to focus on with this
fing with this lifestyle. It's it's really beautiful the amount
(29:44):
of people that they they are in our reach, you know,
on a daily basis. And Laney really helps me, helps
me remember that God bless Lanny. Every night when we
leave a venue, she is the last person to get
on the and I'll tell you why. It's because she's
usually hanging with a security guard or some woman and
(30:06):
catering or some stage hand, and she is always finding
out about their lives, just asking them questions. And she
gets on she gets on the bus and I'm like,
what were you doing? You know, what were you doing
in there? What were you doing in there? And she
and she says, you know, all that was Susie, you know.
And she has she has three kids and they're not
(30:27):
close by, and they have grandkids, et cetera, et cetera.
And she really helps me put relationships forward.
Speaker 3 (30:34):
Walker, I admire you and Lane so much sharing that story.
You know, it would have been easy for you to
use alcohol as a coping mechanism to help get rid
of the pain and the hurt of losing a child,
but instead you had each other and God, and I
just admire you both so much. And I hope I
get to meet Lannie one day. I really do, because
(30:55):
she sounds like a fantastic human being.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
She's amazing and I understand.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
And you know, you have your new album, Sober Thoughts, right,
and you're coming to Colorado Springs the same drunk tour
with Kyle Morgan and to the ol Arts. It's going
to be August seventeenth, So let's talk quickly about your
album and what we can expect at your concert too.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
Yeah. So my show is I mean, I think every
artist would probably I hear a lot of artists say,
you know this, this show is the is the best
one I've ever done, and it honestly, this is this
is it. You know, we continue to evolve year by year,
and our show is a vast, vast range of emotion.
(31:38):
You're guaranteed you will cry. Everybody will cry at some point.
And they'll cry because my daughters do a beautiful job
of They sing a song with me called father Time,
and I usually cry and it's not the tears are
not a performance. It's just when I'm singing this song
father time. I'm looking, you know, at my youngest daughters
(32:03):
every night, and no matter how hard I try to
just perform the song, I get swallowed up with the emotional,
you know, thoughts of how fast they're growing up and
how sweet these times are. And then on the other
end of the spectrum of the show, I mean, there's
cry oh, there's lights going nuts. I would say, there's
(32:24):
a song called nineties Country that we sing and when
the crowd joins me in screaming nineties country and the
you know, the fireworks are going off and the lights
and every single person on stage is actually jumping as
high as we can, that's the height of just the excitement.
(32:45):
And so it's just a it's a very diverse group
of emotions that you will feel at my show. But
it's a family affair and it's very unique. I mean,
from what I've been told been I haven't been to
a lot of country shows because we're always we're always
doing one. But I do hear people frequently say, you know,
(33:05):
it's a very unique show in that respect that my
you know, my daughter, it was one of the dancers
and you know, lady's side stage. I got her out
there for her birthday. The other night we saying happy
birthday to her. That was special. But it's a family affair.
I mean, our four dogs are running around and it's
it's just honestly, I'm really proud of the show. And
(33:28):
we take a lot of we don't take for granted
that we get to do this. And so every night,
you know, our our genuine prayer, I mean it becomes
it starts to sound rehearse because we pray it before
every every show, but we really mean it. I mean,
we really hope to bring something unique and special, and
(33:52):
and we asked, we asked the Lord, you know, to
just to just smile at somebody or or or speak
to somebody out in the crowd with our our gifts
and talents and just kind of get us out the
way and I don't know, just warm up the crowd,
you know, in a cold in a cold world, you know,
I mean, we really we do. We desire that most
(34:17):
of all. So yeah, it's a special show.
Speaker 3 (34:20):
Well, I cannot wait to see you Colorado Springs August seventeenth,
And I am so happy I got a chance to
talk to you and learn more about you and your life.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
And I love how you.
Speaker 3 (34:32):
Put God first and is the center of your family,
and your family comes before your career and how much
you love them.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
I just admire you.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
I appreciate you hanging with you asked awful, meaningful question,
So I appreciate you for just letting us, letting us
wander there in our conversation. That's the most important to me.
So thank you, of course.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
And we got to give a shout out to j C. Penny.
You got your own clothing line.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
Now we did a lit clothing line with them. That's
pretty cool. It's pretty funny to walk through j C.
Fenny and see, you know, the Father's Day line that
we made together, the men's line. I'd say there's like
ten to fifteen items that we collaborated on. And one
of the items is a blue jean jacket that they
(35:20):
that they minicked with My Dad's one of my dad's
jackets that I stole from him that I have that
I wear frequently. But they there's some jackets, there's some
there's some more casual items like almost as leisure items.
And there's an amazing hat baseball cap that they sell
(35:40):
with the duck buck on it that is my logo.
But yeah, it's it's it's awesome stuff. It's really multi use.
I mean you can wear it. You wear it to work,
and wear it to work out, you wear the church
if you want. I mean, it's it's it's nice looking stuff,
but most of all, it's just really comfortable. Because so,
I mean, when we created it, that's that was my
(36:03):
first priority was like I'm not I don't even reach
for it in my closet unless I know it feels good, right,
And so that they took that in the they took
that in mind, and they were they were just so
they're amazing to work with. I bet my my mom.
I grew up at J. C. Penny's, you know that.
I Mean that's where each year when my when my
(36:24):
pants got above my ankles, that's where we went.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
Me too, and I bought my veil grow shoes there.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
It was, Yeah, it was funny. It was just special
to be like, man, it's crazy. I even told my mom.
I was like, Mom, you gotta go. You wouldn't believe.
I was like, I got clothes and JAC Penny they
got my picture up.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
That's awesome.
Speaker 3 (36:42):
I'm going to buy that hat. So I'm expecting an autograph.
You have to sign that hat for me so I
can keep it.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
Oh yeah, no, I got you. I've signed whatever you want.
Speaker 3 (36:51):
Also, I I want to mention that you have a
beer that's non alcoholic too.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
I do, Yeah, we have. We. So I'm a huge
fan of a company called Athletic Brewing, and it has
been a dream of mine to create a non alcoholic
beer because I absolutely love the taste of beer. Obviously
as a as we're covering alcoholic I do. I don't
(37:18):
desire the alcohol part. I just love the experience of
cracking a coal one, you know, around a fire, on
a boat or you know everything. Beer goes with everything awesome.
I mean I love, I love the atmosphere that beer
is usually synonymous with, and I still do. And so
(37:39):
you know, I wanted to make with them. I just
wanted to make a simple beer. Now they have, they
have their bases covered. I mean, they had an Athletic
light and then they have a lot of these fancier
like I pas and things like that. Now I am,
I'm as just vanilla as it gets. I mean, I
love fast food restaurants. I live at the Dollar General.
(38:02):
I mean, I just wanted to make with them a classic.
You're small town guy, just you're a good old boy,
normal beer, you know, And so we did and they
we called it fancy like and they can. I mean,
the can is beautiful. We actually sold out this year.
They made ten thousand cases and we're out. I mean,
(38:25):
I don't even know. I don't even know if you
can get it. You can't get it online anymore. There
may be some stores where there's a few cases left
so people could try. I know there's a place called
Total Wine that bought quite a bit of it. But
it's been amazing and we're working on next year's bats immediately.
(38:46):
So yeah, we're we are. We're very, very proud of that.
I can't wait to see in ten years what happens
with that. I mean, I think I think they corner it.
Just the market of that, just the way that beer
tastes and it's classicness. I think I think in ten
(39:07):
years it will be just it will be your go
to non alcoholic beer for sure.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
Well I'm gonna find it. I'm going to try it out.
Speaker 3 (39:14):
In the meantime, you take care of yourself, your family.
We'll see you here Sunset Amphitheater August seventeenth for the
same drunk tour.
Speaker 1 (39:22):
Thank you Walker, good to talk to you today. I
appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
You bet take care and God bless all right by
the needs.
Speaker 1 (39:28):
Have a good one.
Do Do Do Do Do. Hey, y'all, it's Denise's podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Hey, Hey, Happy Tuesday.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
I have such a great interview lined up for you,
Walker Hayes. Out of the thirty three plus years of
working radio and TV, this is one of the most
transparent interviews I've ever had. He talks about the loss
of a child, He talks about sobriety, his family, how
(00:31):
he puts God first, the challenges he has with his family.
Although you know social media makes everything look perfect, No,
you have to work for a marriage. He was just
so open and honest and I can't wait for you
to hear it. He's coming to Colorado August seventeenth. Yes,
(00:51):
we'll have more tickets listen to one oh six seven
the Bowl. But I want you to log on right
now and buy those tickets for Saturday, August seventeenth, the
same Drunk Tour. It's going to be at the Ford Amphitheater,
Colorado Springs. Go to AXS dot com to buy those tickets.
But before I get to this incredible interview, I got
a quick look at pop culture for you Denise's Dirt.
(01:12):
I'll make it a quick one because I want to
get to the interview with Walker Hayes.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Wow, we were.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Supposed to talk for five minutes. We ended up talking
for like forty minutes. Walker Hayes is just amazing. Now,
this is breaking. It just came across Angelina Jolie and
Brad Pitt's son, packs Jolie. Pitt was rushed to the
hospital after sustaining a head injury following a crash in
Los Angeles yesterday. According to law enforcement, he was driving
down Las fe Lies Boulevard around five pm on an
(01:38):
electric bike and he crashed into a back of a car.
He was not wearing a helmet at the time of
the crash. He was transported to a nearby hospital. He
was complaining about his head injury and his hip following
the impact. They were concerned of maybe a minor brain bleed. Now,
as far as we know, there wasn't any serious injuries
(02:01):
and he's supposed to be discharged a little bit later today.
Like I said, that just came across and I just
found out about it now. Simone Biles, Yeah, he Simone Biles.
She's done it again. She earned her fifth Olympic gold.
USA women win gold medal in the team final. Gosh,
they're such a talented team.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
It was amazing.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
The room was filled with a lists lebs just cheering
on Team USA. Do you ever wonder what's in that
mysterious box at the Olympic medal winners get when they're
standing on the podium. Well, here's the rumor. This is
what I found out. They of course get their medals,
but they also get a slim, mysterious box, and inside
that box is the twenty twenty four Paris Olympic poster.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
It's pretty cool.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Yeah. They also get like a little French plush toy,
which is the twenty twenty four Paris Olympics mascot.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
It's called Freeji. So now you know.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Baby news. Hayley Bieber showed off her baby bump at
a party. She was with her hubby Justin Bieber, and
they also showed a video online. They are so cute together.
Speaking of baby news, you know Dan and Shay well
Shaye Mooney and his wife Hannah, they're expecting baby number four.
Don't know anything else about it. They just kind of
(03:18):
went to Instagram and said, hey, baby number four is
on the way, so I don't know how far she is.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Thank the Almighty for allowing me to be here tonight.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
This was very cool Monday night.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
The sky in Nashville who lit up with more stars
than usual, and it was all to honor the late
great Toby Keith. The event was filmed for a two
hour television special It's going to air Wednesday, August twenty
eighth on NBC, and Landy Wilson rode in on a
horse singing beer for My horses, Toby's daughter Crystal saying
(03:48):
don't let the old man in, and an emotional rendition
of American soldier from Trace Atkins, who also spoke about
Toby's profound patriotism.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Again. That's going to air August twenty eighth on NBC.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Never in my wildest dreams thought that my life would become.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
When it has.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Lady Gaga not fooling around when she introduced Michael Polanski
as her fiance.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
It's true.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Allegedly they've been engaged since March. Check now, if you
watch The Real Housewives, well, the Real Housewives of Atlanta,
Kenya Moore got fired, She's no longer there. Thedra Parks
is returning after sixteen years of absence. Real Housewives of
New Jersey. It was so toxic that Andy Cohen has
confirmed it's getting a reboot. We have no idea who's
(04:34):
gonna stay, who's gonna go.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Best of my ability, so help me, God don't know.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
This just shows you.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
It's a great testament to the ability to turn your
life around. During a visit to the Genesee County Jail
in Michigan on Saturday, jelly Roll was sworn in as
a deputy county sheriff. Jelly Roll struggled with drug addiction
and has a helleny conviction on his record, but got
his life in order. He's exploded into stardom and now
he is a deputy sheriff. Finally, Wesley Snipes revealed how
(05:04):
Ryan Reynolds got him to reprise his role as Blade
for a smash hit Deadpool and Wolverine.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
You get a call from Ryan Reynolds out of the blue,
after the twenty years.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
You go, okay, I gotta take this call.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
There you go, quick, look of Denise's dirt. Now let's
get to this great interview. He is such a kind guy.
Puts God in his family. First, Walker Hayes, Denise, how
you doing, Hey, Walker, how you doing?
Speaker 1 (05:27):
I'm good? You okay?
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Today I am doing a fabulous. I'm talking to Walker Hayes.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Come on now, woo, I'm talking to.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
Denise because I'm fancy, like, ooh, don't make me start
get it.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Do the dance and everything.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
I did do the dance, I tagged you too. I
did it with Kesha and you, all three of us together.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Let's go. That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
You'll have to look back for that one.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
That was deep.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Okay, yeah, that was a while ago. But you have
a lot going on.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
I was cheering you on last night on Celebrity Family Feud.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Denise, hands down, I mean that might. We do a
lot of exciting things. You know, we're in a phase
of life where each day it's so different and you
just never know what opportunities life will bring. But sharing
family Feud, well one, just standing next to my wife
(06:19):
on TV with Steve, just doing that show with her
was incredible because she doesn't my wife, Lanny isn't like
she doesn't want the spotlight. She you know, when you
turn the camera on, usually she turns around and I'm like, hey, no, no, no, no,
let's let's be on camera together. You know, so us
sharing that moment was really really special. I mean, not
(06:43):
just fun, it was special and we'll have that forever.
And then my manager, Rob and Marissa, my managers, they
were both on there with me, so we go. I
mean they've managed me since I was working at Costco,
so to be to be together on family few. And
then my producer and mentor basically you know, the person
(07:06):
I look up to in this industry, Shane McAnally was
on my team as well, and we won big bucks
for a nonprofit we're both We're all just very passionate about.
It's called Hope International, and it was just an absolute blast.
Steve Harvey was amazing. Team Rachel Bilson was incredible. We
(07:29):
got to hang with them a lot of the other
teams backstage, we spent time with the crowd was phenomenal, phenomenal,
and the crew of the show was incredible. It was
hands down one of the most fun days of our
lives together. We will remember it forever. Thanks for watching it.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
Oh yeah, absolutely, and it was fun too. And you
mentioned your wife. I adore her and I've been married
to my husband since i've been well, I've been with
them since I've been nineteen, so thirty three years. Yeah,
and I know you go back to high school sweethearts.
And my husband's the same way. He's shy, he doesn't
like to be on camera. But there was another thing
(08:09):
that I saw. You just celebrated twenty years and you
asked her twenty questions, and I thought it was just
so sweet the relationship that you two have, salt of
the earth kind of people.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
This fame has not bothered you at all.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Well, I mean, honestly, the Lord has really fought for us.
Fame and success has been a it is definitely this
doesn't quite describe it, but it has been challenging to
just the normalcy and simplicity of our relationship and our family,
(08:45):
and God has really kept us grounded together with our kids,
and he continues to fight for that because this is
an interesting it's a very interesting bid that you can
get swallowed up in, you know, and you can lose
some of those values that you started out with. But yeah,
we we met in nineteen ninety seven and she's my
(09:07):
best friend. I mean, we we we mess it up,
you know, every now and then. We have challenging, challenging weeks.
I mean we're we're we're still we're still pretty vollidi.
I mean we were we were crazy in high school
we were on and off again, and there's there's just
still some of that fire, you know, even now today.
(09:28):
But Laney is just she's it. I mean, she's she's
she's she's the best. She's my best friend in this life.
And and I love her. I love her so much,
and you know, you know, would we would. Yeah, we
celebrated twenty years of marriage, and but that's.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
What makes us strong marriage. Walker is yeah, yes, yeah, yeah,
You've got to.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Have the little points in the fight. You got to
fight for your marriage because you love each wire.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Right, I will tell you. And one one thing God
has blessed me with in my marriage is there's there's
rarely any indifference. I mean we always care enough to
get to get pissed, you know, and and to fight.
Like you said, but we man, I love, I love
my family. I'm trying my best. Lannie's trying her best.
(10:17):
It's a lot, you know, six six kids, there's always
there's always somebody to, for lack of a better term,
try to kind of repair and and improve upon parenting them.
We have four dogs.
Speaker 4 (10:31):
We have a life.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Our life is it's kind of weird, like we're we're
always on a bus. You know, I'm always on a stage. Uh,
it's we're always in the we're always on camera. You know,
there's always there's always people around. But I mean, Lanny
is She's amazing, and I'm so grateful, as I know,
you know you can relate with this. I'm just so
(10:54):
grateful I met her young. Uh, there's that I wouldn't
even want to explore. My life would have been like
for another year without her. You know, I'm just so
glad I found her young when we were when we
were little, you know, little kids. So yeah, she's amazing,
and that was that was so spontaneous, and I enjoyed
(11:15):
those twenty those twenty questions. I mean I could talk
to her. Last night we had it was date night
and we went to Sonic and uh and we just
sat you know, we just sat there and you know
how you do. You know, date nights are amazing because
you always both go, oh man, I remember, like I
(11:38):
love this, like you're you're I remember why I like you? You know,
you just do those things because life can be so
busy when you're just kind of teammates yep, and roommates,
you know, and your your boats just there's always something
to be done in the house with a kid, with
a dog, with a job, and so yeah, everybody listening.
(11:58):
I mean I think day night it's are magical. I
mean they may not seem like that, but they truly are.
When you just get in the quiet and you can go, Okay,
look where's your where's your brain? Like what do you
what do you think about all the time now? And
you know what is, what's what's bugging you and what's
what's awesome?
Speaker 2 (12:17):
And you get to know each other again.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Yes, yeah, And honestly we got at family feud. We
got to do that because they didn't allow kids, and
so Landy and I kind of had a trip to
La for ourself. But I can't speak highly enough about Lanny.
I mean I truly think she's the most beautiful human
(12:40):
uh on on the planet. I mean, I have no
idea how I got to have her, and she she
makes me so mad, and I know I make her
just as mad. But it's because we have that that connection.
It is because I care, you know, I want you know,
I just love her.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
I like you even more now because you're so transparent.
You're not like, oh, we have the perfect life and
we can manage six kids, and you know, we never
have you.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
I love that you're all so transparent.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Yeah, I think you know that's the That is a
That's a very unfortunate thing about socials, is it. It
cannot it cannot describe those moments because that's not what
it's for. Socials and publicity are typically for you show
and tell, you know, and so you know, unfortunately I
(13:33):
don't pick up the phone when Landy and I are
in a fight and go hey, let's go live, you know,
let's fight on Instagram or and and that is a
I think that's one of the big just dilemmas of
the social world. And I will man, everybody listening, if
you get anything from this, we are completely amiss. I
(13:53):
mean you should hear some of the stupid fights we have.
And sometimes they're just because we're tied, or we're exhausted,
or we were selfish, you know. We we we just
have our agendas and life and things we want to
get done and so both. But we are we're trying
to figure it out together, you know, and we always
(14:14):
one of us always has to say hey, hey, hey, hey,
step let's step back. You know, can you look at
this well? I'll look at this, if you look at
this and then and then we argue about no, it's
not that's not forgiveness, that's not mercy. It's not conditional,
you know, and we do silent treatments. Uh, there's doors slam.
I mean we are we are an absolute met just
(14:37):
I invite eBoy, come come hang with us a week,
and you'll.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
Be like, Wow, I think you're normal, Walker. Don't be
too hard on yourself. I think that happens in every relationship.
You're just transparent enough and down to earth enough that
you're going to say, we go through it too.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Yeah. Yeah, And I think a lot of I mean,
we all do it. You know, you get on socials
and you go you begin to compare, and it's never
I just love. I love talking to husbands because a
lot of husbands that I meet out on the road,
you know, they'll go, you know, you your family looks
so tight. You know, y'all are always laughing and play
(15:15):
and I'm like, man, don't subscribe to even one moment. Think,
I mean, that's thirty seven seconds. You just solve my life, right,
You didn't You didn't see me begging the kids like
we have to do a trick shot today. You didn't
see me arguing with my wife saying no, no, no,
do twenty questions. You know, you know what I mean.
(15:36):
It's just they don't you know, you don't. There's a
lot of behind the scene, and like you said, that
is that is normal, I mean, and that is the
that's the tug of war of the beautiful thing called marriage.
It's just it is to me, marriages endless forgiveness. It's
basically adopting each other and forever learning why the other
(15:59):
one is like they are, you know. I mean, I'm
forty five and I still wake up and Lanny goes, wow,
I remember you know that problem you're having. And I
feel like your dad was kind of like that, you know,
and I'm like, shut up, I'm not like my dad.
And she's like no, no, no, She's like but but
you know, I see, I see where you get like that.
(16:20):
It all makes sense now and I'm like, wow, you
know I figured we would have already. We've already thrown
some through all those Now.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
You're constantly growing and evolving as as you get older.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
That's what I've learned.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Anyways, and you mentioned something also about the trick shots
that you do with your boys. So is that every
single day for an entire year you do those?
Speaker 1 (16:42):
We did, so yeah, we just we finished about two
months ago. We finished an entire year of trick shots
and it I'm telling you, I mean it was hard.
I mean that when we were well, we were about
two hundred and fifty. We almost quit like seven times.
(17:04):
And there were fight you know you talk about arguments.
I mean there was there was one night where Lanny
and I were in a hotel together in La This
was this is when we were filming Family Feud, and
I shot up out of bed and I said, we
didn't get a trick shot today. So I had to
get Lannie out of bed, and we had to design
one in the hotel room. And I'm telling you, we
(17:26):
could not make one. It just like the trick shot.
Gods were against us. But we finally we finally did
it and she had the film and but it challenged us.
It challenged our relationships in the house, It challenged us
as a team. You know, it takes you through a
vast amount of emotions. You try one and you're like, okay,
(17:49):
this is doable, and then you the excitement dwindles. You know,
as you don't make it fifty times, one hundred times,
one hundred and fifty times, and then the excitement when
when you finally make it and the team just goes ballistic,
and then you argue, you know, yeah, who's got to
clean it up? But it was an eventful year to
(18:09):
say the least. But we are all grateful. There are
many times where we look at each other and say,
praise God, Yes we don't have a trick shot today.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
I don't know you could take this for what it's worth.
But my husband and I when we got married, we
were young and we had no money none, I mean zero.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
So we drove from.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
Lake Havasu to California, not Sperry Farm was our honeymoon,
and our brakes went out in the car, so we
were in a really bad spot in California. And he
drove up to a mechanic shop and he asked to
borrow a couple of tools so he could get on
the ground and change them himself, because we couldn't afford
to have him paid for right, And I took a picture.
(18:52):
He was so mad, and I said, honey, one day,
we're going to look back at this and we're going
to laugh and appreciate it, and now we do. So
all those challenges that you've went through this past year
with your kids, when they get older, they're going to
go do you remember that?
Speaker 2 (19:06):
And remember?
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Oh? Yeah, you know.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
So it's those are the ones that really make it
in life, and you're building memories with your kids.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
We absolutely and I tell I tell my kids that's
kind of that kind of was my sermon for the
entire year. It was like, trust me, the fact that
we're getting every single one of these on on video.
You will have these for the rest of your life,
like you and your kids. Your kids will probably go, hey, dad,
(19:35):
you know, where do I find? Where do I find
those three hundred and sixty six trick shots that y'all
did you know? And and then you can just go
through them. I mean, they're incredible and uh but yeah,
there was a lot. There was a lot gained and
I honestly, I just decided to do it on a whim.
But it taught us so many life lessons that you
(19:58):
want to teach your kids. But there's no book, you know,
there's no manual that says, hey, you know, this is
how you teach your kids about persistence or you know,
this is this is an example of something you can
do every day. I challenge everybody, with your family or
your spouse, do something. We'll do something every day for
a year with somebody and it will change your life.
(20:21):
It truly will.
Speaker 4 (20:22):
You will.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
You will be bonded in ways that you didn't know
you can. You can be bonded.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
That's a good lesson.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
And you know, we talk about social media and how
people only show the good and but there was that
fancy like dance that you and your daughter came up with,
and that kind of changed the whole trajectory of your career.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
What a life life been like after fancy like?
Speaker 1 (20:48):
I mean, I've had work, you know, I mean because
of that that I mean honestly, I mean that's simple. Uh.
You know, all I ever wanted to do was make music,
and I you know, I didn't. I don't know. I'm
not the I'm not a business minded human. You know,
(21:10):
I'm just not one of those people who are I'm
never going to start a company, you know, I'm just
not that that kind of guy. But you know, as
I need, I needed to provide for my family and
I always wished that it that it could be by
making music. And that's that's indeed what that video did.
I mean, I'm talking about twenty seven, twenty eight second
(21:33):
life changing video that no one could have predicted. No,
no music around that song said you know, hey, this
song is about to pop off. I don't think anybody
in the country space had really had really utilized TikTok,
(21:54):
you know in that way, you know, still kind of
early in the game. So but again, none of that
was none of that was on purpose. No, I mean,
we just my daughter and I. I just put out
the song. I came home from church, my daughter said, hey, dad,
you know, fancy like needs a dance. So really that
day I was kind of just being a dad, you know.
(22:17):
I had no ambitions of you know, blowing up the
internet or having a having a number one pop song,
you know. I just I just loved the song and
was glad we were putting out music. Did it well.
My future was really really uncertain at that point as
far as music was concerned. So I mean, I see that,
(22:39):
I see that video and I watched it even now,
and there's some intangible quality it possesses that I can
I can watch and I can understand its viral nature.
It's I don't know if I could, I could never
duplicate it. But there's something about that video that just
it has a spark and a purity and a simplicity.
(23:05):
You know, it's just very pure. It doesn't it breeds
everything we were feeling that day, we were just having
fun together. I had to for you know, I was like, Laney,
can you stop what you're doing right now and can
you just video us do this dance for a second,
you know. And it was a very a very insignificant moment,
and I really kind of precious, simple normal life that
(23:28):
got documented, and the power of it was amazing. And
in our life is I mean, I can I completely
Our life has is one hundred percent changed. I mean
we still have we still have whiplash, meaning Laney and
my kids and I still kind of circle up and
look at each other and kind of go like last night,
(23:52):
you know, Laney and I are sitting at Sonic and
we're like, our kids are at home watching us on
family feud. Right now, you know what is what in
the world is happening? You know this this is crazy,
but hey, we'll take it.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
Yeah, Well, you have put God in the center of
your family and that's the most important thing. And you
also had a real big change a moment in your life,
and I know you talk about it, so I want
to talk about it now.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
Your sobriety. You're very open about it.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Yeah. Yeah, I'm open about my sobriety, and I'm wide
open also about we lost our seventh child. Yes, And
so when I quit drinking eight years ago, and it
was phenomenal for me, it absolutely changed my life. And
that if there's anybody listening who's struggling, or is maybe
(24:48):
inside struggling but outwardly kind of in denial, just please
just take it for what it's worth. It was one
of the most pivotal, gri greatest decisions I ever made
to just try to quit. And by the grace of God,
I'm almost nine years sober, and I say that, you know,
(25:10):
it doesn't matter how high that number goes. I think
I will always still have moments where sadly I go, hey,
I'm alone tonight. No one would know or you know,
you know, it's just uh. I still remember the escape,
and I still sometimes look back and and and have
those moments you know, where I need camaraderie and I need,
(25:34):
you know, my wife to kind of walk me off
those ledges every now and then. But yeah, I'm sober,
and I we we went. I think one of the
another pivotal moment in our life as a family was
when we lost, you know, when we held and I
mean I don't, I don't, I can't adequately describe what
(25:55):
happened to us, but we we we lost. My wife
had a stillborn She carried our seventh child, Oakley, longer
than any child, and then Oakley died during childbirth. And
holding a lifeless child will indeed rearrange your priorities, change
(26:16):
your perspective, change the way you look at the kids
you have that are living, change the way you look
at your your wife, your husband. I mean it now,
it it It's catastrophic. I mean, it's a bomb that
goes off in your life. And so you don't you know,
it takes a minute to get out of shock and
(26:37):
to observe from like a thirty thousand foot view once
you get past the sadness or the anger, the but
going through that sober for me and my wife, it
just changed the way we indeed looked at life. And honestly,
it just showed us the brevity of it and the
(26:59):
control we don't have. And I think God was merciful
in that tragedy. I think God blessed us beyond our
wildest dreams with some of the lessons we learned, especially
pre fame. I'm not there's there's no telling if I had,
(27:21):
if I had continued to drink, and if we had
and it had, you know Oakley and then become famous,
I'm not sure we would have handled it so well.
You know, I think I think the things of earth
wouldn't be strangely dim. I think we would really clean
to some of the lies the world tries to teach
(27:42):
you and and and try to tell you that matter.
And so, yeah, it's just been a it's been such
an adventure, and that loss was devastating for us. But
the you know, Oakley's life that honestly never even happened,
has had more impact on people in front of us
than any of our lives combined. And uh, and again
(28:04):
the perspective that that gave us, it has really really
helped us in this material world we live in, just
kind of in the culture of plenty, you know, this
this this land of entitlement, you know that we live
in that we can easily just get gobbled up by.
It has helped, It has given us ammunition, you know,
(28:26):
to fight for what really matters. And like you said,
I mean it's all I mean, it's just all about
the Lord. I mean, you know, you know there's this
reality that we just can't see, you know, and and
that reality is that this life is any bitty I'm
talking about. I mean, all these things you know that
my eighteen year old wakes up that are so important
(28:48):
and me too, you know, I wake up and I'm like,
I want to do how we do this?
Speaker 4 (28:52):
We gotta do this, run this way, do this, achieve this,
grab that chase, that dream, make this, you know, all
these all these things, they're so heavy on our souls.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
They're just not eternal, and they're not you know, life ends.
It's just in a snap, and it's beautiful to me.
That makes it even more beautiful, but especially what becomes
more beautiful through my lens, our relationships, relationships, relationships, just
(29:23):
who God puts in your life on a daily basis,
And thank goodness, that's what I've that's what we gathered
from from the loss of my dad, from the loss
of Oakley from me quiting drinking, you know, And that's
kind of what we try to focus on with this
fing with this lifestyle. It's it's really beautiful the amount
(29:44):
of people that they they are in our reach, you know,
on a daily basis. And Laney really helps me, helps
me remember that God bless Lanny. Every night when we
leave a venue, she is the last person to get
on the and I'll tell you why. It's because she's
usually hanging with a security guard or some woman and
(30:06):
catering or some stage hand, and she is always finding
out about their lives, just asking them questions. And she
gets on she gets on the bus and I'm like,
what were you doing? You know, what were you doing
in there? What were you doing in there? And she
and she says, you know, all that was Susie, you know.
And she has she has three kids and they're not
(30:27):
close by, and they have grandkids, et cetera, et cetera.
And she really helps me put relationships forward.
Speaker 3 (30:34):
Walker, I admire you and Lane so much sharing that story.
You know, it would have been easy for you to
use alcohol as a coping mechanism to help get rid
of the pain and the hurt of losing a child,
but instead you had each other and God, and I
just admire you both so much. And I hope I
get to meet Lannie one day. I really do, because
(30:55):
she sounds like a fantastic human being.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
She's amazing and I understand.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
And you know, you have your new album, Sober Thoughts, right,
and you're coming to Colorado Springs the same drunk tour
with Kyle Morgan and to the ol Arts. It's going
to be August seventeenth, So let's talk quickly about your
album and what we can expect at your concert too.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
Yeah. So my show is I mean, I think every
artist would probably I hear a lot of artists say,
you know this, this show is the is the best
one I've ever done, and it honestly, this is this
is it. You know, we continue to evolve year by year,
and our show is a vast, vast range of emotion.
(31:38):
You're guaranteed you will cry. Everybody will cry at some point.
And they'll cry because my daughters do a beautiful job
of They sing a song with me called father Time,
and I usually cry and it's not the tears are
not a performance. It's just when I'm singing this song
father time. I'm looking, you know, at my youngest daughters
(32:03):
every night, and no matter how hard I try to
just perform the song, I get swallowed up with the emotional,
you know, thoughts of how fast they're growing up and
how sweet these times are. And then on the other
end of the spectrum of the show, I mean, there's
cry oh, there's lights going nuts. I would say, there's
(32:24):
a song called nineties Country that we sing and when
the crowd joins me in screaming nineties country and the
you know, the fireworks are going off and the lights
and every single person on stage is actually jumping as
high as we can, that's the height of just the excitement.
(32:45):
And so it's just a it's a very diverse group
of emotions that you will feel at my show. But
it's a family affair and it's very unique. I mean,
from what I've been told been I haven't been to
a lot of country shows because we're always we're always
doing one. But I do hear people frequently say, you know,
(33:05):
it's a very unique show in that respect that my
you know, my daughter, it was one of the dancers
and you know, lady's side stage. I got her out
there for her birthday. The other night we saying happy
birthday to her. That was special. But it's a family affair.
I mean, our four dogs are running around and it's
it's just honestly, I'm really proud of the show. And
(33:28):
we take a lot of we don't take for granted
that we get to do this. And so every night,
you know, our our genuine prayer, I mean it becomes
it starts to sound rehearse because we pray it before
every every show, but we really mean it. I mean,
we really hope to bring something unique and special, and
(33:52):
and we asked, we asked the Lord, you know, to
just to just smile at somebody or or or speak
to somebody out in the crowd with our our gifts
and talents and just kind of get us out the
way and I don't know, just warm up the crowd,
you know, in a cold in a cold world, you know,
I mean, we really we do. We desire that most
(34:17):
of all. So yeah, it's a special show.
Speaker 3 (34:20):
Well, I cannot wait to see you Colorado Springs August seventeenth,
And I am so happy I got a chance to
talk to you and learn more about you and your life.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
And I love how you.
Speaker 3 (34:32):
Put God first and is the center of your family,
and your family comes before your career and how much
you love them.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
I just admire you.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
I appreciate you hanging with you asked awful, meaningful question,
So I appreciate you for just letting us, letting us
wander there in our conversation. That's the most important to me.
So thank you, of course.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
And we got to give a shout out to j C. Penny.
You got your own clothing line.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
Now we did a lit clothing line with them. That's
pretty cool. It's pretty funny to walk through j C.
Fenny and see, you know, the Father's Day line that
we made together, the men's line. I'd say there's like
ten to fifteen items that we collaborated on. And one
of the items is a blue jean jacket that they
(35:20):
that they minicked with My Dad's one of my dad's
jackets that I stole from him that I have that
I wear frequently. But they there's some jackets, there's some
there's some more casual items like almost as leisure items.
And there's an amazing hat baseball cap that they sell
(35:40):
with the duck buck on it that is my logo.
But yeah, it's it's it's awesome stuff. It's really multi use.
I mean you can wear it. You wear it to work,
and wear it to work out, you wear the church
if you want. I mean, it's it's it's nice looking stuff,
but most of all, it's just really comfortable. Because so,
I mean, when we created it, that's that was my
(36:03):
first priority was like I'm not I don't even reach
for it in my closet unless I know it feels good, right,
And so that they took that in the they took
that in mind, and they were they were just so
they're amazing to work with. I bet my my mom.
I grew up at J. C. Penny's, you know that.
I Mean that's where each year when my when my
(36:24):
pants got above my ankles, that's where we went.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
Me too, and I bought my veil grow shoes there.
Speaker 1 (36:29):
It was, Yeah, it was funny. It was just special
to be like, man, it's crazy. I even told my mom.
I was like, Mom, you gotta go. You wouldn't believe.
I was like, I got clothes and JAC Penny they
got my picture up.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
That's awesome.
Speaker 3 (36:42):
I'm going to buy that hat. So I'm expecting an autograph.
You have to sign that hat for me so I
can keep it.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
Oh yeah, no, I got you. I've signed whatever you want.
Speaker 3 (36:51):
Also, I I want to mention that you have a
beer that's non alcoholic too.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
I do, Yeah, we have. We. So I'm a huge
fan of a company called Athletic Brewing, and it has
been a dream of mine to create a non alcoholic
beer because I absolutely love the taste of beer. Obviously
as a as we're covering alcoholic I do. I don't
(37:18):
desire the alcohol part. I just love the experience of
cracking a coal one, you know, around a fire, on
a boat or you know everything. Beer goes with everything awesome.
I mean I love, I love the atmosphere that beer
is usually synonymous with, and I still do. And so
(37:39):
you know, I wanted to make with them. I just
wanted to make a simple beer. Now they have, they
have their bases covered. I mean, they had an Athletic
light and then they have a lot of these fancier
like I pas and things like that. Now I am,
I'm as just vanilla as it gets. I mean, I
love fast food restaurants. I live at the Dollar General.
(38:02):
I mean, I just wanted to make with them a classic.
You're small town guy, just you're a good old boy,
normal beer, you know, And so we did and they
we called it fancy like and they can. I mean,
the can is beautiful. We actually sold out this year.
They made ten thousand cases and we're out. I mean,
(38:25):
I don't even know. I don't even know if you
can get it. You can't get it online anymore. There
may be some stores where there's a few cases left
so people could try. I know there's a place called
Total Wine that bought quite a bit of it. But
it's been amazing and we're working on next year's bats immediately.
(38:46):
So yeah, we're we are. We're very, very proud of that.
I can't wait to see in ten years what happens
with that. I mean, I think I think they corner it.
Just the market of that, just the way that beer
tastes and it's classicness. I think I think in ten
(39:07):
years it will be just it will be your go
to non alcoholic beer for sure.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
Well I'm gonna find it. I'm going to try it out.
Speaker 3 (39:14):
In the meantime, you take care of yourself, your family.
We'll see you here Sunset Amphitheater August seventeenth for the
same drunk tour.
Speaker 1 (39:22):
Thank you Walker, good to talk to you today. I
appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
You bet take care and God bless all right by
the needs.
Speaker 1 (39:28):
Have a good one.
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