Quotes from Walker Hayes

For 12 years, I was playing writer's rounds.

What keeps you in this business is the thought that maybe tomorrow will be different.

People might get mad at my style or my delivery and say it's not country. But the country music that brought me to Nashville? Man, I will always have that on a pedestal.

I didn't want a pickup with mud tires. I wanted an old blazer with as many speakers in the back as I could afford. I would even steal them out of my brother's car and pack them in there. I remember sitting in a parking lot and turning my radio up and walking down the street to see how far you could feel it.

I have some lofty goals. I want 'You Broke Up With Me' to go Number One.

Back home, the Iron Bowl isn't just a football game, it's a phenomenon.

I'm not mad at anybody for that, but when I lost my deal at Capitol, things got rough.

Growing up, all I cared about in a song, before I really listened to lyrics, was that beat.

I'm pretty chill, but once birth starts, I go the opposite of chill.

I'm so honored to have so many supporters - from my peers to the industry to country radio - on this crazy journey with me. You all have absolutely changed my life.

I love clever lyrics.

I love lyrics that are not too clever.

I always just wanted to write a love song to my wife that wasn't cliche.

My parents once caught me conducting Beethoven's 'Fifth Symphony.'

That's one of the reasons I got into country music: because of the craft of that lyric and how much you could put into three minutes.

For me, a good show is not a perfect show; it's just one where you connected. It's a show where the fans got to know you, and they realize that you're human, but they also think you're a star and that you're talented and all that good stuff.

I had a lot of wrong preconceived notions about church-y folks, and I'm bad at judging the messenger, not the message.

I will go down on my deathbed telling my kids to find songs like 'Don't Take the Girl.'

When I'm in the studio, I'm very cautious about it because if there's one thing that can destroy music being made, it's any sort of agenda, expectation and/or schedule, or any of that.

Taylor Swift - I don't ever hear anything of hers where I'm like, 'Oh, so-and-so could've cut that.'

I want to be something that the listeners might not know that they needed but that I fill a lane and that they enjoy it for a while.

I play a little bit of everything. I beat on the walls. I whistle. I scream. I go outside and scream because it sounds cool when it's recorded. I play drums on a chair. I snap, clap... just anything to build the track and make it feel like I want it to.

I think every couple should find an artist that they dig together.

Things that you might be embarrassed to tell a group about yourself - honestly, that's probably what the majority of the group is experiencing are those things that you keep quiet in your heart.