Country singer, Walker Hayes, is opening up about a painful period in his life that almost led him to lose his sobriety.
During a recent appearance on the ‘K-Love Morning Show,’ the 45-year-old singer discussed the loss of his seventh child, his daughter Oakleigh, who was born and died on the same day in June 2018.
He was two-and-a-half years sober at the time, but recalled coming home from the cemetery after her funeral, feeling ready “to just … self-destruct.”
“I drove to a bar called 55 South, and I looked through the window and there were three guys at the bar,” he continued, “And I was like, ‘I’m gonna get a little buzz and I’m going to just mess with those guys. I’m just gonna get in a fight with those guys.’”
Looking back, Hayes can admit “it makes zero sense.”
He recalled that before getting out of the car, he realized he didn’t have his wallet with him and ended up driving back home.
Upon arriving home, Hayes had a change of heart, when he looked through a window and saw his wife, Laney, sitting in their house alone.
“My wife, sadly, was just sitting by herself, on the day she’s buried her daughter. My kids are I don’t know where, and she’s just in the dark,” Hayes says. “I could literally see what I was about to do.”
“She’s gonna have to pick me up from jail the next day. We were gonna have to start the rehab process all over, you know, and go back to square one,” he continued. “That was some sin in me that I just saw clearly, and thought, ‘I need a savior.’ I need redemption from myself.”
His daughter Oakleigh died during childbirth on June 6, 2018, after his wife suffered a uterine rupture.
In addition to Oakleigh, the couple has six other children: sons Beckett, Baylor and Chapel, and daughters Everly, Loxley and Lela, all of whom are often featured on the singer’s Instagram.
The “Fancy Like” singer has been vocal about his struggles with alcoholism in the past, often writing about his experiences in his songs.
In 2024, Hayes released an album entitled “Sober Thoughts,” which included songs discussing his experience abusing alcohol.
While promoting the album, he appeared on “Today with Hoda and Jenna” and spoke with the hosts about the moment he decided to get sober after struggling with alcohol abuse for 20 years.
“I just woke up on a Saturday, and I just knew if I did this one more day, my body would be affected, some organ,” he explained. “I’m not a scientist, I’m not a doctor. I just woke up, and it felt like if I do it one more day, I might die.”
He explained that while “everybody loves a drinking song,” he loves singing about his sobriety journey, writing one song a week about his “freedom from addiction,” because of how grateful he is.
“Sobriety, when you’ve been drunk that long, you get addicted to it — the clarity, the pep in your step,” he said on the show. “You go to the gym and you’re like, ‘I feel like I’m 17.’”
