Current:Home > NewsWalker Hayes confronts America's divisive ideals with a beer and a smile in 'Good With Me'-Angel Dreamer Wealth Society D1 Reviews & Insights
Walker Hayes confronts America's divisive ideals with a beer and a smile in 'Good With Me'
View Date:2024-12-24 08:19:09
Like just about everyone in America in 2023, Walker Hayes has friends whose sociopolitical beliefs differ wildly.
Since 2020, Hayes has, via his two No. 1 hits "Fancy Like" and "AA" and 10 million singles sold, become a one-stop shop for a positive spin on humanity's common denominator.
Now, at a time when staunch conservatism has counterbalanced surges in reparational equity in America, Hayes' new single, "Good With Me," out Friday, provides a 2½-minute reckoning on hotly discussed topics in America.
He's hopeful the reckoning is accompanied by just enough laughter to ease the tensions denying the conversations that can reunite the ties that ideally bind.
"This song is a lighthearted look at the walls and doors we've erected around each other and how that's harming our social condition," Hayes told The Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY Network.
The divisive topics the song covers include:
- Organized religion's logic.
- Homosexuality's link to brands of light beer.
- The fairness of college athletes being compensated for their name, image and likeness.
- COVID-19's link to Chinese scientists.
- The R&B-to-mainstream qualities of Hayes' own music lampooning the legacy of Hank Williams and other traditional country icons.
- The U.S. border with Mexico.
- Many Americans' confusion with gender identities that exist beyond the conventional binary.
- His own daughter's exorbitant spending habits.
- The U.S. government taking liberties with civil rights via the deregulation of cellular technology.
- Progressive views on marijuana legalization.
- Hayes' belief that his own label, Monument Records, fears he'll be canceled for making broad statements about all of the above issues.
To Hayes, those ties are best celebrated while sitting on his dock, fishing with his wife, listening to country music and drinking a cold beer.
Living in a house on a lake in a small town between Tullahoma and Winchester, Tennessee, he's an hour closer to Alabama than Nashville's Music Row.
The 120-mile span from mainstream country's hub to areas near Hayes' front door provides the best perspective for the breadth and depth of opinions that inspire his latest song.
Hayes describes the song "spilling out" of himself after a rare day home during his just-completed nationwide Duck Buck tour.
'This crushed me':What Walker Hayes learned from his difficult relationship with his dad
Hayes described an episode at the gym when close friends got "loud, bowed up and passionate about one of his opinions on a socially relevant topic in today's world."
"I don't have the time to get fatigued about having opinions on that topic − or any topic," Hayes said, sighing while discussing the conversation that inspired "Good With Me."
"I am a husband and country music songwriter with six kids and three dogs," he said. "I have enough occupations to fill my mental capacity each day adequately. I don't think I can also absorb the news and have the ability to argue my opinions about that news on top of everything else I have going on in my life.
"We all need to sit and take a moment to drink a beer and keep it real. Putting someone's divisive, polarizing opinions ahead of their humanity can lead to us dangerously dehumanizing them. It's important that − whether it's beer, coffee, playing catch, religion, work, or something − we discover ways to re-create face-to-face relationships with each other."
Hayes is keenly aware that the song's extension of his frank yet joking demeanor into topics much more serious than anything he has discussed in his explosion of mainstream acclaim places him at yet another career crossroads.
"Very few people have heard this song," he said. "And when I play it, I've braced myself for the worst. I mean, I played it for my in-laws, Pam and Doug, who are referenced in the first two lines.
In depth:Walker Hayes on his countrified, hip-hop and faith driven 'magical' musical community
"However, those who have heard this song, regardless of where their ideologies fall along the spectrum, have smiled when they hear about themselves, their beliefs and the presentation of an opposing opinion," he said.
"The exhaustive public expression of my life has allowed the world to witness me as an alcoholic and sober, an atheist and believer, poor and wealthy. I'm not trying to heal the world with fairy tales, but I know I'm genuinely at a place where I feel I'm best as an arm around people's shoulder if they need it."
veryGood! (186)
Related
- Too Hot to Handle’s Francesca Farago Gives Birth, Welcomes Twins With Jesse Sullivan
- Planet Money Records Vol. 3: Making a hit
- Shipping Looks to Hydrogen as It Seeks to Ditch Bunker Fuel
- The SEC charges Lindsay Lohan, Jake Paul and others with illegally promoting crypto
- Man gets a life sentence in the shotgun death of a New Mexico police officer
- Why are Hollywood actors on strike?
- The Hollywood x Sugarfina Limited-Edition Candy Collection Will Inspire You To Take a Bite Out of Summer
- Inside Clean Energy: Denmark Makes the Most of its Brief Moment at the Climate Summit
- Medical King recalls 222,000 adult bed assistance rails after one reported death
- Penalty pain: Players converted just 4 of the first 8 penalty kicks at the Women’s World Cup
Ranking
- NFL coaches diversity report 2024: Gains at head coach, setbacks at offensive coordinator
- Ex-Florida lawmaker behind the 'Don't Say Gay' law pleads guilty to COVID relief fraud
- Cardi B Calls Out Offset's Stupid Cheating Allegations
- Recent Megafire Smoke Columns Have Reached the Stratosphere, Threatening Earth’s Ozone Shield
- Artem Chigvintsev Returns to Dancing With the Stars Ballroom Amid Nikki Garcia Divorce
- Legal dispute facing Texan ‘Sassy Trucker’ in Dubai shows the limits of speech in UAE
- Yes, You Can Stay at Barbie's Malibu DreamHouse Because Life in Plastic Is Fantastic
- Have you been audited by the IRS? Tell us about it
Recommendation
-
Blake Shelton Announces New Singing Competition Show After Leaving The Voice
-
Derek Chauvin to ask U.S. Supreme Court to review his conviction in murder of George Floyd
-
Los Angeles investigating after trees used for shade by SAG-AFTRA strikers were trimmed by NBCUniversal
-
Bills RB Nyheim Hines will miss the season after being hit by a jet ski, AP source says
-
Infowars auction could determine whether Alex Jones is kicked off its platforms
-
One killed after gunfire erupts in Florida Walmart
-
New York Community Bank agrees to buy a large portion of Signature Bank
-
Special counsel's office cited 3 federal laws in Trump target letter