Walker Hayes and Craig Allen Cooper join ‘4 Things’ this week to chat with Amy about their new book: ‘Glad You’re Here.’ Walker talks about being an alcoholic atheist when he first met Craig, and how the things he's experienced over the last few years have completely changed his life. The unlikely friends and next-door neighbors turned BFFs, Walker and Craig, are now telling their amazing story to the world in their new book and we are here for it! This is such a fun episode...full of ALL THE FEELS and we hope you love it...especially the sing-a-long at the end!
Purchase Walker & Craig’s new book “Glad You’re Here”
Walker’s “Glad You’re Here” Tour kicks off this fall. Tickets are on sale now!
PIMPINJOY Merch (with 100% of proceeds always going towards spreading joy)
‘Joy Like Judy’ (PIMPINJOY theme song & music video) by Walker Hayes HERE!
The last time Walker was on '4 Things' was with his wife Laney back in 2019. You can listen to that episode HERE.
FUN FACT:
Walker is the writer & singer of Amy's theme song for this podcast! Be kind. Choose Joy. Laugh A lot. Eat Cake!!!! :)
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Okay, cass up a little food for you. So life.
Oh it's pretty Bay, It's pretty beautiful. Thankful that for
a little moth kicking four. Okay, I don't always do
(00:33):
an intro, but today I am because I want to
do a little giveaway here. And Walker Hayes will always
have a special place in my heart. If you've been
a long time listener, you know that if you are
new here, you will hear in the interview coming up
why Walker plays an important role in my life, my
family's life, in Pimp and Joy and then obviously his
friend Craig. They just have a powerful story together. And
(00:56):
in our chat I had all the fields. I got
goose bumps multip full times. There was a moment where
Walker was tearing up talking about when you knew we
needed to get sober, and just watching their friendship with
Super Special and the highs and lows of life. And
then at the end we do a little sing along.
So I think you'll feel a lot of different emotions.
But I'm so glad that they came on to talk
(01:17):
about their book and what I want to do here
in this little intro is giveaway four signed copies of
their book and include a pimp and Enjoy item with
each book. So if you are interested in this little
four Things giveaway, go to four Things with Amy Brown
at gmail dot com and in the subject section, make
sure you like I don't know, use all caps, get
my attention, and be like glad you're here, pimp and joy,
(01:39):
I love Walker, I love Craig. Whatever it looks like.
I will randomly select four emails and I will send
four different people assigned a copy of their book Glad
You're here and a pimp and Enjoy item. So just
a fun little giveaway I wanted to do before we
get into our talk. So yeah, let's go ahead and
do that without further ado. Here is my sit down
(02:00):
with Walker Hayes and Craig Allen Cooper. Happy Thursday, Welcome
to Four Things. I'm Amy and I'm sitting across from
Walker Hayes and Craig Cooper. What a boys. So, Craig,
your first time on the podcast, but Walker, you were
(02:21):
on a couple of years ago with your wife Laney,
and it was such a good, meaningful conversation. So I'm
excited to have you back. I mean, for one, because
I've been a fan of yours for a very long time,
but to old listeners know you have a special place
in my heart always like forever you my whole family,
we hold Walker Hayes near and dear to our hearts.
And also you're the theme song of my podcast So
(02:46):
and I actually just pulled up on my phone. This
must have been a voice memo that you sent me
in two thousand and seventeen or eighteen, and you were
in the UK and I just re being like, I'm
wandering the streets of I don't know London or wherever
you were, and you sent me kind of like a
(03:06):
rough voice memo of the four Things theme song. It's like, so,
I'm just going to hit it raw from my phone
and play like I haven't pulled this up and I'm
surprised it's still on my phone quite honestly. But here
you go, Castle Road, Things, A little food for you,
So Things. He's mouthing, you know, it's pretty Bay, It's
pretty beautiful thing laugh a little more things, Yea, And
(03:40):
it's amazing. I think you're still going Amy Brown and
you titled it. I just looked at the title as
his voice memo Amy bricks Down. Maybe maybe that was
take but you were just free flowing that and it
evolved into I think all you said right there was
(04:00):
like eat cake or something, but we ended up doing
be kind, choose joy, leve a lot eat cake, which
in our four Things line of products, we call that
our joy Seeker mine because those are things that if
you do, we'll we'll bring you, bring you joy. And
so this conversation today, sitting down with y'all, that is
(04:21):
something that is bringing me joy currently and I hope
will bring a lot of joy to our listeners. And
it feels funny because I know y'all, but some people
may not know, like the backstory of Walker and Craig
and where that came from. And I printed out this,
it's like I could do this no pronoun. I know
y'all both, and I know the story and I know whatever.
But when I was like reading over like the bio,
(04:43):
it's like when Craig Cooper and Walker has met. Walker
was an alcoholic atheist reeling from the backlash of a
failed music career. I never saw you a failure, Walker, Walker,
right here right, this could be a movie. Yes, yeah,
glad you're here. Name of the book could be a
new new HBO. Max streaming now I could see it.
But yes, and then uh, through their unlikely friendship, Craig's
(05:06):
life demonstrated the love of Christ in a way that
shattered Walker's misconceptions of Christianity, ultimately leading him down the
path to a dramatic conversation. So let's start with that conversation.
What was that? Ah, shoot, I don't I don't even
know what dramatic conversation that little movie trailer thing he's
talking about. Honestly, when I heard dramatic conversation, I just
(05:29):
kind of thinking my encounter with Jesus and just kind
of falling on my knees and needing him, you know,
once and for all, and trusting him and believing in him.
But it was a long road, exactly like that over
dramatic paragraph. Now, it's really not over dramatic. It's pretty true.
I mean, that's exactly who I was when I met Craig.
I was an alcoholic atheists, and I was kind of proud.
(05:51):
I mean, I was pretty well read and in some atheism,
you know, and I thought I was pretty smart, and
I thought I didn't need God, And boy, life taught
me different over the next couple of years and praise
the Lord. You know. I was able to see Christ
through a friend like Craig and it it started with
just meeting him in church, and then our relationship grew,
(06:12):
and then he gave us a van, and that obviously
blew my mind because I wrote a song about it,
which that's what I do, is I write songs about
things that blow my mind. Kind of like your mom,
you know. All I heard was she talks to people
in elevators, and I was like, I love this woman.
We need more people like that, you know. And that's
kind of how I felt about Craig when he gave
us the van. I just want to thank him. I'm
(06:34):
not good at at at thanking people for stuff and
just be I'm not I'm not good at being serious.
My coping mechanism for life is let's be funny and lighthearted.
And so I never really thanked Craig. So I thanked
him in a song. In the song. When I wrote
the song, I was not a believer. I was so
clever I thought to not say the name of Jesus
(06:54):
Christ in the song. I was like, but Christians are
gonna love it, you know, But I think Craig, and
I said it, and at what I said was honest.
I said, look, I don't know, you know, this dude
can walk on water, but he legit might know someone
who does. And I was being honest, you know. And
then you know, over the next few years, you know,
Laney and I went through some troubles. My career has
(07:15):
been up and down, but you know, boy, I learned
that I needed a savior. You know, the story of
Jesus was always cool to me. I was always like, man,
if that's true, it's really awesome that this guy just
comes down from his throne. It to to be a
dude for a little while, and it just dies for
my my past president and future since whoa you know, like,
(07:38):
you know, that's better than giving me a van. And
so yeah, I just kind of came to that place,
and I had a friend to kind of walk with
me through that. Craig was one of the first believing
Christians beside Laney, my wife that I told that I
believed in Jesus. And I remember telling him in a restaurant.
That was a dramatic conversation and homeboy broke my ribs
(08:01):
and me so and uh, and then he went to
the bathroom and praise God. But we have we have
the most miraculous relationship. And each day that we add,
I feel like God's just continually telling his story through us.
Just two broken dudes trying to figure out how to
do life, you know. But we are unlikely friends and
(08:23):
now we're neighbors. And we ripped the friends out and
that was so indicative of what Christ done in our lives,
us ripping that fence between our yards, and that's what
he does. And now we got a book. Yes, so
you'all literally live next door to each other and there
is no fence there. Well, they got some dogs and
their dogs are huge and their poop is huge. So
(08:44):
so we were like, let's put that fence back. It
was down for the better part of a year, and
then we felt bad. We kept sitting our kids over there,
like you gotta go clean up their yard, y'all, because
our dogs felt like that was their spot over there.
So we just put it back, but it was we
did rip it down like right when, right when they
moved in, and it was it was amazing because we
(09:06):
were just trying to create a path where the kids
and everybody could walk back and forth and go in
and out of our you know, back decks into the
house and whatnot. And then afterwards we realized as we're
talking through it, like, man, this is what God has
done in our lives, where he just ripped down all
the you know, dividing walls or anything that would separate
(09:29):
and he just you know, brought us each to himself
and then to each other and this bond that is
just incredible. What do you remember about the first time
meeting Walker. It was a Saturday, this is in January
often and we were at an upward basketball thing off
the Hillsboro Road and the families were there together. We
(09:52):
were there to see our son Joshua play basketball, and
then you know, Walk was there with his family and
their kids were playing basketball. It was a very brief interaction,
and really what happened is Laura, you know, my wife
recognized Laney Walker's wife and they had met before in
a neighborhood like get together gathering thing. I think it
(10:15):
was like a Tara you know, essential Oils type of deal,
and Laura's like, hey, I know you and they started talking.
Walker would have been holding Locksley at the time, and
we would have had like a super short interaction, but
Laura invited Laney and the family to church that night.
And we had started a church. We had moved from
(10:37):
East Tennessee to the Nashville area, and we were meeting
on Saturday nights in this like rented facility with maybe
less than thirty people there out in the boonies, and
you know, people will say, yeah, I'll come, and you know,
you don't know if they're going to come or not.
And they had said they we're gonna come to church,
and they came that night, and so this would have
(10:58):
been the moment where we really really met. So they
he walks in and I he would say the first
words that I said up my mouth, glad you're here,
like and and he felt it. And I know for me,
I thought, at that moment, man, this is an answer prayer.
Like dude came and their family came, and you know
who does that? And it was really encouraging. And we
(11:21):
ended up going out to dinner together that night after church,
and honestly, it just developed this amazing friendship where we
started spending tons of time together in each other's homes
and at restaurants, and you know, we'd go here and
play at puckets fifteen to twenty people there, and I'd
always be thinking, everybody be quiet, this dude can sing,
(11:41):
like listen, yeah, I mean and for people, yeah. Not
In Nashville, Puckets is a place where artists starting out
or just I mean, there's tons of restaurants around town,
the Puckets is a well known one where it's like
you booked there that night you play, maybe some people
are listening, maybe some people aren't, and so you could
see early on his talent and you're like cheer ring
him on, like yeah, I remember standing in the parking
(12:02):
lot with walk after you know, one night, just looking
at him really amazed. I was senter thing and I
can't believe you're playing in this setting because you know,
I told him, dude, you will pack stadiums and I
believed it. I meant it. And I think that was
indicative of our friendship too. Every time I was with him,
(12:24):
you know, he would encourage me, Like if I preached
on a Sunday, he would come back, you know, Saturday
night from wherever he was and come in and uh listening.
He would stand there and really encourage me. And I
really encouraged him anytime I heard him play and it
just that was the way our friendship was. It's always
been really strengthening for me to hang, you know with Walker,
(12:49):
and so now it's it's like, Wow, what God has
done in his life? He is packing stadiums? Yeah, yeah, yes,
what has that been like for you? Walker? This shift?
And you know, having people, certainly not just Craig, give
a whole family and then some core fan base that
they've seen what you're capable of from the beginning. But
(13:11):
it probably took the shift. I mean, I think it's
interesting to think about the what you had to do
in your personal life to now be here, because the
road you were on that trajectory back in two thousand
and fourteen had it not pivoted a little bit, And
it's hard to be like, oh, well what if but
you were I mean, you admitted drinking, like there had
(13:31):
to be some major life changes and decisions, and it's
like some of that probably is scary for people listening
right now. That's like, oh what if I can't give
this up? This is how I survived the day. But
then once you broke free from some of that and
entered into this new space, and look how things have
just started to unfold and evolve. It's taken time. But
(13:52):
while look where you are now. Yeah, and I don't
I mean, honestly, success isn't like it's not amazing. I
just want to all listen, nurse to know like that
circumstance in my life is is I mean, it's not meaningless.
I think the reason I'm succeeding or God has has
shown favor on my career is just so I can
share this story. I mean, the stadiums are awesome, but
(14:14):
I really look forward every night to to play the
song Craig and just sharing my testimony. But you know,
I mean, quitting drinking was scary. I remember, I remember
I played this my first show sober, was at Gray's
on Maine in downtown Franklin, and it was terrible. I mean,
my fingers didn't work, my voice was shaky, I mean
every it's it literally felt like I was thirteen singing
(14:37):
in front of people for the first time. And I
remember getting in the car and talking to Laney and
being like, I don't know if I can, if I
can do this, you know, And I remember I remember
thinking that in the writer's room, just being up in
my own head thinking I'm not. I'm not a good
writer sober. You know. That took me some time. But
you know, one one of the things from that time
(14:57):
until now that I am so grateful to have from
the Lord is just I don't like to be known
like it's funny as a as a very vulnerable artist
or singer. No one realized. Everybody's like, are You're really
vulnerable and you talk about stuff. But what they don't
realize is like I can control that. I have the mic,
you don't. You know, you can applaud my vulnerability, but
(15:19):
I can stop at a point and I control that area.
And what was nice about having a friend like Craig
is the minute he said glad you're here, he knew
I was drunk, he knew I didn't believe anything that
he believed, and he began to know me like he
knew me when he said I'm glad you're here. And
then for some reason we have always had a relationship
(15:41):
where I have been known, And that is that's what
Christ does to U. He know, he knows, and he
loves and that's a tough place, dangerous place to be.
And so that's that's what I'm excited about over this.
But again, the circumstances they're crazy, you know, honestly, Like
you say, we packed out stadiums. I mean we opened
(16:02):
for Kane Brown a weekend ago, and there were lights around,
you know, the place was full full of flashlights. When
I was singing Craig, and it was a truly I
felt God singing over me. I was like, what in
the what is going on right now? And it was, yeah,
it was amazing. It was amazing. And and and it
(16:22):
was like, man, Lord, you're you're you're talking to twenty
thousand people tonight, you know. And where it started was
so tiny, you know, just at this little church in
the woods. And I didn't even have a I didn't
have a label, I don't have anything, you know. And
then now again there's this book, and I can only
imagine that the Lord kind of propped up this stage
(16:45):
for this book to just stand in the center of absolutely.
I'm holding the book now, and as I look at
the back cover, there's a line from the song Craig,
which Chalker You've already alluded to. But um, in the song,
you say, I met Craig at a church called Redeeming Grace.
It's like he understood my I don't want to be
here face. I fell out of place and I smelled
(17:06):
like beer, but he just shook my hand and said,
I'm glad you're here. And I think that that's such
a powerful line for sure, But yeah, that just kind
of sums up that encounter and for people that are
listening right now that don't know the fullback story, and
you just shared it. But yes, Craig met you, but
he met you right where you were with no judgment.
(17:26):
And yeah, you've showed up with your family that night,
which Craig said his answered prayer, but you showed up
drunk and Craig didn't care. And I think of what
you've been able to do once you did pivot, and
I'm sure you ultimately grew out of that. And I'm
sure now you see like, oh wow, I'm probably my
clear mind, my sober brain. You're probably I hope, more
(17:48):
creative than than you've ever been. And you can see
the gifts and the talents that the Lord has blessed
you with. But like even in those hard times too,
you were still blessing people. The Lord was still using
you because you know early on I mentioned and again,
I just some people have been listening to podcast or
the Bobby Bones Show forever. Some people are listening right
now and they're like, I've never listened to this four
things podcasts. Who are these people and why do they
(18:09):
have what's the backstory? But like it was two thousand
and fourteen that you met Craig, but then it was
two thousand and fourteen that you emailed the Bobby Bones
Show the song that you wrote about my mom joy
like Judy, which we've talked about. But I think about
where you were in that time, and I didn't know
any of this about you, Like I would think a
song like that coming and so caring if you would
(18:29):
think on this person is probably there's some faith in
them involved, but like not at that point, you weren't kind.
You weren't there yet. But in my mind, I'm like
the Lord was already using you when you sent it
into the Bobby Bones Show. She was still alive and
what you wrote it just touched us. Like I said,
but I went to my mom and I said, Mom,
there's this singer songwriter and Nashville Walker Hazy wrote a
(18:52):
song about you and we want to make a music video.
And she is like, I know what I and you know,
we made the music video probably in March or so,
and she passed away in October. And so what's cool
is that now there's this joy like Judy Pimp and
Joy music video on YouTube that my sister gets to
(19:16):
show her four kids, that I get to show my
two adopted kids from Haiti that never got to meet
my mom. And it's like, hey, yeah, that's your grandma
and that this is her signature dance move and yeah
her she had to go through the very difficult struggle
with cancer, but the overall theme and motto was joy.
And she would be the first to say, like she
(19:37):
always wanted to be me to be clear on the
Bobby Bone Show that she wasn't just like flippantly like
twose joy and blah blah, Like She's like, make it
clear that I have really crappy days and sucks. And
we all did. And yes, some days like it was miserable.
So we didn't just stuffed down any pain or suffering
and you know, wrap it up in a joy bow.
But we we lived through it. But she said, an,
(20:00):
I want to be clear that where my joy comes from,
and I want people to know it's from the Lord.
I remember one time she gave me like a written
out thing for the Bobby Bone Ship to read because
she didn't feel I was presenting her story accurately enough
because I would just like paraphrase things and keep it vague.
And she's like, nope, I'm gonna go and write this
out because I would be clear. The joy of the
(20:20):
Lord is my strength, and that is where my joy
comes from. And I want I want people to know.
And but one of her prayers in the chapel was
used this cancer for good, not heal me, not anything else,
use this for good. And from that I truly believe
pimp and Joy and then your song and all like
the gift that you've been and that music video and
every time pimpen Joy something is sold or supported or
(20:43):
donations made, that is continue to answer prayer. So you
are a major part of that puzzle. And it's wild
to me that you were being used and you didn't
even know it well. And that's that's one thing I
(21:10):
loved about, or maybe noticed early on in our relationship,
My relationship with Craig and the power of Christ through him,
is that I was never his project. I didn't know this,
but when I gave that song to Craig. It collided
in a place where he needed I was completely oblivious,
and I often as a believer, now look at the
(21:31):
Lord and I'm like, God, will you please use me
like you did when before I believe and Laney and
I just have we just have a life where there's
evidence where the Lord has used some really bad stuff
in mighty, mighty ways. And so that's I'm definly I
agree with your your mom. The whole Gosh used this cancer.
What a prayer. I mean, that's that's such a great, yeah, prayer.
(21:55):
God really used Walker in my life way before he
was a believer. I mean when he sent me that song.
Just imagine receiving the song Craig, and you know, I'm
sitting in my car. It was a date night with
my wife where I was trying to tell her how
I discouraged. I was about my life and my ministry
(22:17):
and in I had taken a walk that day in
downtown Franklin, and I had just gotten back that weekend
from a ministry retreat. I sent an email to the
pastors saying, I don't know if I if I can
continue in this. I didn't see any fruit and I
took a walk and stopped in the middle of it
and just said, God, you know that I try to
(22:37):
encourage other people, I really need you to encourage me
right now. Is my life making a difference in anybody's
life around me? And that night, sitting in the car
in Cool Springs and Franklin and trying to tell Laura
how discouraged I was, and in her phone buzzes and
it's a text from Laney Walker's wife, and um, it's
(23:00):
got my name on an MP three. And we were
used to getting you know, songs from him, he would
send him when he was working on him, and I'd
always said, dude, this is amazing, and uh, you know,
I can't wait to hear another radio and all all
that stuff, but not one with my name on it.
And I remember being a little agitated that Laura was
looking at her phone when I was trying to tell her,
(23:23):
you know, share my burdens with her and everything, and
I was like, who is it? And she says Laney,
And I said, um man, can you just you know,
talk to her? Later she said, well, it's got an
MP three on it, and it's got your name on it.
I think we need to play it, and I was like, oh,
let's do that later, and she said, well, I think
it might help. And that's when I heard the song
Craig through the speakers and I felt God's singing over
(23:47):
me in that moment. And there's a part in in
the in the Bible that talks about the Lord doing that,
you know, in zef and I. It's like the Lord,
your God is in your midst, the mighty one who
will save. He will rejoice over you, withess. He'll quiet
you with his love, he will exult over you with
loud singing. And that's what happened, I think for me
in that moment, I heard through an unbelieving friend who
(24:13):
would not say the name Jesus because you're clever. Again,
you're smart guy. So in the lyrics, you thought, wow,
isn't amazing, go ahead and just just speak the chorus
about how you know you kind of alluded to Jesus.
I was like, I'm not gonna say Jesus, you know,
because I mean, honestly, part of me was like I
don't want to like pander too much, like I just
want to tell I'm honestly just want to tell the
(24:34):
story without saying the name of Jesus because I didn't
believe in Jesus, and it just says, I know, he
sounds cool, right, not gypical kid from Sunday School. Right.
I still don't figured out church yet. But Craig, I
get so now he can't walk on water, turn a
Napa Valley, red buddy, just my be tight with him? Man?
(24:56):
That did so, you know, just a little clever ways. Yeah,
but I'm gonna cut over Craig now because that's the song. Like, people,
listen when you get done with this podcast, go listen
to the song, Craig, listen to every single word. But
like you were on a date night with your wife
and trying to share this low you said, there's where's
(25:17):
the fruit to my labor? And then you're gifted this
this almost like answer from above of like whoa Boa, whoa?
You said you wanted to just make a difference in
one person's life, anybody's like blue, and then you get
this song from Walker And so what what was the
next thing that happened? Oh my goodness, I mean I
was absolutely dumbfounded. I was stunned. I was obviously. I
(25:42):
mean I sat there just weeping in the car and
I remember looking up going, okay, I get it, like
you have me where you want me, and I felt comforted.
I felt God singing over me through Walker, and also
was so encouraging to me because he literally was like
my best friend and what I wanted most for him
(26:04):
was for him to have a relationship with the Lord.
And there was this inkling all right, God is doing
something in my buddy's life. And also, wow, what just happened.
What happened after that was, you know, we kept it quiet.
And you know this because you guys reached out and
the Bobby Bones Show reached out to say, hey, would
you come and talk together about the song? And at
(26:27):
that point I was just keeping it completely confidential, very quiet.
I remember talking to Robert, you know, Walker's manager at
the time, called me and said, you know, hey, so
we got this invitation, you know, from the Bybones Show,
and what do you think about this? I know you
don't really want to share it with anybody and I
and I said, would you know, would that help Walker?
(26:50):
And he was like, I really think it would, bro
And I was like, okay, can we do it without
my last name, no pictures, and because and I'm gonna interject,
and you can to me if I'm wrong. But what
I think was important to you was because that's you're out.
You're out it in the song as being the one
that gifted the van, and it's not like you weren't
(27:12):
doing it for any recognition, and you didn't want that
to be misunderstood, and that this was a very special,
sacred relationship for you and you just didn't want to
be you know, I don't know, I'm just no, that's
exactly right. What's crazy. It's like us giving them the van.
I think it's around And then the song he sent
it was around twenty seventeen, so I mean it was
(27:34):
a while later, you know, when that's a very public
way to say, this is what happened to me, and
this is what this this person did for me. And yeah, yeah,
and so we I mean even after I heard the
song in the car that night, Lauren I talked about it.
We didn't share it with our kids and we and
we were used to sharing, you know, all the song
and we put it on the loud speakers. We you know,
(27:55):
everybody would dance around anything he had written. And then
later like Walker and the family, they were together with
us and somebody must have mentioned, you know, I think
one of their kids, have you talked to Joshua and
my son, you know, have you heard that song about
your dad? And so Joshua came to me and he
was like, hey, is there a song that Walker wrote?
(28:15):
And they started asking me, and then so I remember
bringing them up into the you know, upstairs bonus room
and just telling everybody, look, guys, I'm gonna play this
for you, but we're not. I don't want you to
share it with anybody. We're not going to talk about
it because the Bible says whenever you give, you know,
don't let your right hand on what your left hand
is doing. Let your giving me in secret, and you know,
(28:36):
and then the father who sees what's done in secret,
he'll rewards you. And so I was trying really hard
to kind of keep that tight based off of of
that in scripture. And so, you know, we shared it
with the kids and then I remember, you know, walk saying, hey,
they want to put this on the album boo. Just
so everybody knows too, that was not a I didn't
(28:57):
write that for an album, right. I wrote that to
say thank you. That's just the only way, like your
mom's are. I mean sometimes I just wait, hold on,
you're telling me you didn't write that for an album? Yeah, yeah, No,
I mean I just writing to me, Praise the Lord.
It's just what it's. I'm not a very good processor,
(29:19):
but I can on on a page with a guitar
and a pen, you know. And so I just did
that for that And Shane and Rob heard that song
the day, Yeah, the day we were finishing that album. Rob. Yeah,
only think about whenever we talk about Rob back in
the day on Instagram, Walker and Rob would like just
feed goofing off in a hotel room or something like
(29:41):
late at night, and I'd be like, so whenever I
see Rob, I don't ever say this fit in my head.
I'm going wrong. Okay, Shane heard it. It's to me.
It's just fun to reflect on how this story just
won't be denied. And then you know that was the
first album and now here it is on another album.
(30:02):
Would mercy me on it? And the only reason it's
on there is because I met Bart and when I
walked in and there were tears in his eyes and
he said, what is the deal with this song? Craig?
And I was like, oh, that's that's an older but
a goodie, right, And he was like, not enough people
in the world have heard this. And you guys, that
was six months before Fancy Like was even written, so
(30:24):
you weren't even the the TikTok sensations hadn't I didn't
even know how to hit a woe yet. When I
became a believer, I was like, I'm about to move
to a wanda. I'm gonna sell my belongings and I'm
gonna sing nothing but the name of Jesus. I mean,
I went hardcore, you know. And then I started meeting
(30:44):
some Christian artists and I was like, let's go I
want to write about Jesus. Let's do this. And nothing
happened to any of that music. And then I wrote
this song about Applebe and it was mayhem. It was
just like literally out of nowhere. It was the first
country song I'd written and I don't know how long,
(31:05):
and it was like goo boom. And then Bart caused
me from mercy me and he goes, hey, you still
want to redo, Craig, and I was like a slutely
and then and so he thinks it's so funny that
Fancy Like. And then the new version of Craigor right
next to each other on the album. But we started
this book. When we started this, we could have sold
(31:26):
twelve copies, Like nobody would have bought that. Y'all were
going to do it no matter what. I was like,
you know, I said, let's go, and uh, you know,
Craig started it and I was supposed to write the
forward and then it turned into you know, us sharing
the whole story. But yeah, my favorite thing about the
(31:46):
book is how Craig and Laura walked with us through
the loss of Oakley and our our little girl. And
just there's a picture on them in the back of
the book that I I truly, I've looked at it
once and I can't look at it again. And to me,
you could sum up that picture and it could be
a chapter in the gospel, you know, just you could
(32:10):
hear about a family walking with another family through the loss.
But I'm so grateful for how this story won't go away.
And even Craig, like he didn't tell anybody, and I
think it's funny now I'm like everybody knows. I was
just like, okay, so Creig, so now we know your
name is Craig Cooper and you live at let me
know everything about you. But it had to unfold organically,
(32:35):
and you knew you would had to be in the
right time, and what obviously I don't even think then
you would you knew what was even going to happen,
but you just like the next, one day at a time,
next right step, you're just showing up authentically as you
and all of this has unfolded. And yeah, now I'm
standing here or sitting here with y'all holding a copy
(32:55):
of Glad You're here. It's just amazing that that's the
title of the book. And it was almost like the
first exchange had and it's it's almost like for anybody
picking up the book, no matter where you are in life,
no matter what you have going on, no matter what
shame you're carrying, or if you're high or low, like
I mean, glad you're here, Like you're welcome, there's no judgment,
(33:18):
we see you, We're here to meet you. I think
that's Jesus heart for us. You know, he meets us
right where we are. I mean, you come as you're
as you are, or you don't come to Jesus at all,
because he meets us in the mess and in the brokenness,
and we really related on that. You know, my past
is broken, you know my present, you know it's broken.
(33:41):
And I think Walker and I found just like with
companionship in a broken world. And it's just been amazing
to see what God has done. And the story won't
go away. It's what Walker just said, I mean, it won't.
You know, God wants to tell this and I had
to get to that point Amy where I'm going, Okay, Lord,
you want to do this. And so what I love
(34:03):
about the book is we get to shine the light
on I mean, the dedication is, you know, dedicated to
the one who walked on water and turned it an
app a valley red. It's like a collective thank you
note to Jesus from both of us, and that is sick. Okay,
And I want to talk over the titles of the chapters,
because what this is. You know, we got a dream
(34:25):
chapter one. Then this is all the chapters in a row,
A dream, a church, a dog, a Wednesday, a bar,
a van, a song, a baby, a friend, a path. Yep,
Walker came up with all that. I remember sitting on
our back deck and he's like, what if it's just
this that that that. Yeah, I'm kind of curious about
a Wednesday Wednesday Wednesday that's puckets. Yeah, Wednesday night was
(34:57):
just a it was funny. It was like you started it?
Did I start? I started just a drinking thing on Monday?
And I remember Lanny would be like where are you?
And I was like, can't get mad. I'm drinking with
the people from church. I was like, it's a win,
you know. And then but you were were you really drinking?
Oh totally? When did you get or like luckily in
(35:19):
the in this narrative because I don't think I know
exactly how it unfolded. Yeah, no, I quit drinking seven
years this October. So I quit drinking shortly after we met. Honestly,
(35:43):
it wasn't a I wouldn't have said it was a
at that time a spiritual thing at all. I thought.
I do remember, yeah, remember we had but I was hammered.
I remember being in your house and he's like, yeah,
if I could quit drinking, I believe there's a God.
And so we were all right, we're gonna pray that
(36:07):
God just takes away the desire for him to drink.
And so it was really cool watching it because it
just happened, you know, it just happened where he quit
and I reminded you that later, but he didn't remember
saying that. I mean, that's a I mean, it's pretty
miraculous because that's not everybody's story. Amy, I was gonna
say that, Like, I don't say that flippantly at all.
(36:28):
I mean, I come from a family of addictions, and
it's you know, being freed from addiction is a super natural,
miraculous thing. I mean, the odds are crazy. It's hard.
I mean, something literally just has to switch and change
that in someone's life. That's not a to me, that's
not like a willpower thing, you know, God, you know,
(36:52):
but I did. I woke up one Saturday, I went,
I had worked the day before and just you know,
I've been hammered for so long, and I woke up
and it it felt like if I pop open a
beer and smell it, I might like die. I mean,
it was just I detested. It's like I literally woke
up and detested the feel of alcohol in my body
(37:13):
and that I might injure myself. You know, if I
if I do that one more day, I don't know
if like some organ in me was dying or what.
But yeah, so I quit, you know that day. One
day turn into to turn into a week, and then
I was like, I don't want to go backwards, right,
What was it like for Laney during that time? I
(37:33):
know she's not here, and I'd love for people to
speak for themselves, if you just wouldn't mind, Like, I'm
curious about you know, there's people listening right now where
they're they're on the other side of the alcoholic whether
they're male or female, or or son or daughter, or
or mom or dad, there's somebody in their life. Was
there ever a fear of losing her or was she
committed to I just keep thinking about her during this season,
(37:57):
having to put up with you drunk drunk all the time. Yeah,
you know, she You'll have a lot of kids, y'all, homeschool,
Like the list goes on of the reasons why if
I was her, I would be just like piste off
at you all the time. I have no excuse. I'm not.
I'm not looking back saying I was a good dad
or a good husband. But Laney was patient to an extent.
(38:19):
There was a night we laugh about it. We went
to Drake's. I'm always like Lanny took me to Drake's.
We went to this restaurant called Drake's, and I thought
she was gonna pack up and drive to her parents.
And it hurt. And that was a night that we
can laugh. We we can laugh about now. I remember what.
The one thing that got me is I got on
(38:39):
a computer and I'm gonna I'm gonna start crying when
I say this, But I got on the computer in
the search history had like rehabs and I was like,
oh man, you know, and I and Latin Lanny's not
one to not like disclose that, you know, or Lanny
doesn't take our relationship outside of us a lot, you
(39:00):
know what I mean. It's gotta be dire for her
to go to a neighbor and say Walker's being an
a hole, you know what I'm saying, Like that is
not something she does often, and so that that really
got me. But honestly, I can't speak for Laney, you
know she I think she would admit she just was
like crap. I mean, she just loved me. She nagged me,
(39:20):
and we argued all the time about that. We we
fought all the time about what we were going to
teach our kids. Beliefs wise. She wasn't like, I'm out,
you don't believe in Jesus, you know what I mean.
She wasn't like, come home drunk one more time and
it's over, which maybe she should have, you know, I
don't know, but well that part ended up working itself out.
(39:42):
Everyone's situation is so different, sounds like and from you know,
what I know of her is there was a lot
of love and a lot of patients, and speaking of
fruit of the fruit of the spirits, like I had
that something I have to rattle off in my head often,
like when I'm feeling a certain way, I just pause
and like, love joy, feast, patient is kind as good
as digitalous, faithfulness, self control. I love joy, feast, pa
(40:05):
and I just say it over and over until I
don't know, one of them sticks in a moment of like.
But that's where I just I sometimes that's what I
used to reset. And Laney is amazing. She has so
many wonderful qualities. But I know during that time it
was likely very difficult and it was probably really hard
for you to see that search history and no, but
(40:27):
she was searching that stuff because she loved you. I
just want to just speaking in general to anybody right now,
that's just dealing with addiction. Like sometimes it's hard to
to know, like what boundary do you need to set
that's still going to show Hey, I love you, but
this is no longer acceptable. Yeah, yeah, and I think
honestly again, I hate speaking without Laney. But one thing
(40:48):
we've learned, just in our marriage and just in our
walk with Christ separately and together, and it's as a family,
is to me, the biggest witness I guess anyone's ever
had on to me. It's just mercy, you know what
I'm saying. And you know it's tough in a marriage,
because it's tough too. It's tough to discuss something with
somebody else and not put yourself on some righteous pedestal
(41:12):
and that they need to fix this about themselves and
immerse and and needing mercy is a very humble position
to communicate from. I mean, yeah, if that makes any sense,
And that's what I just thought of something. And Craig,
maybe you being the you can take a take the
mic and preach dress for a second, because he's you know,
(41:32):
that's your your lane for sure. But I just thought
of something that's hanging in my in laws guest bathroom.
As you're talking, I'm picturing. I'm picturing it. What color
upstairs bathroom? Pretty sure it's the wallpaper, Yeah, the wallpaper.
It's probably from early nineties. I don't know if this
is crocheted on something, but it says both grace and
(41:55):
mercy are guests from God. Grace is getting the favor
we do not deserve. Mercy is not getting the punishment
we do deserve. Have I love that. I love that.
I want to hang it on my wall. And I
know and I was thinking too about I was reading
a book yesterday, Sadie Robertson, and um, she she quoted
(42:18):
Tim Keller and a song by tarn Wells, and it said,
to be loved but not known is comforting but superficial.
To be known and not loved is our greatest fear.
But to be fully known and truly loved, well, that's
a lot like being loved by God. And that's from
(42:39):
Tim Keller that she quoted. But you know, that's what
Laney was doing with Walker, is knowing him and truly
knowing him and loving him. And it's hard, though, you know,
I don't think Laney, I think that's why I have
a difficulty talking, like trying to talk on behalf of
Laney is the last thing Laney would want to say
in a microph phone to a bunch of women in
(43:01):
her situation is just love that person perfectly and it
will all be okay because it won't and no one
can you know where and which goes back to the mercy.
It's just being able to admit, like Craig is my
best friend, but I can't know you and love you perfectly.
That's only from God. And I get sorry to interject,
(43:21):
but I just want to be careful. I just really
want to be careful when we're when I'm talking to
any listeners that there is no other solution than Jesus.
There's like list you can make, There's no I can.
Maybe I can on my search history. I can make
sure my husband sees me looking up rehabs. I won't
fix anything. Um, it really is God. Yeah right, yeah,
(43:47):
and each each and every and I'll back you up
on that, each and every person and circumstance is different.
No to people or situations are alike when you're dealing
with some thing like that, And so thank you for
being careful, um with your words around that, and even
you know, I knew it might be difficult to speaking
for Laney, but and I don't want you to. Laney
(44:14):
is the greatest human I've ever met on this earth. Now,
if you ever left me, I wouldn't even look for
another human. I would just be like, well, I screwed
the best one up. So yeah, you know I feel
like that. Craig and I always talk about socials. Like
the last one thing I ever want to do with
this book is be like, here's seven steps to reading
(44:35):
a home run getting the guy. Life is great. You
won't lose a kid, you know, that's not it. Like,
life is broken and that's just the way it is.
It's circumstantially, there's no end to the brokenness. And yeah,
we just need mercy from from Jesus and we need
to extend it. Yeah, it's so good. I love Annie
(44:58):
f Downs. Yeah we do too. She shut out, and
she wrote an endorsement on the inside, along with a
lot of other amazing people. But an incredible story of friendship, faith,
the love of Jesus, and the sovereign hand of God.
Glad You're here is a book that will bring tears
to your eyes and breath to your lungs and make
(45:19):
you see and love your neighbors just a little different
and maybe a lot better. Thank you any morning. Yeah,
and so yeah, what was y'all's purpose in putting us
out here? Because, yeah, Walker's career has skyrocketed since then.
You mentioned when y'all first decide you're going to do
a book, you probably were going to sell twelve copies,
(45:39):
and writing a book is no small feet, like it
takes a lot to pour into this, to a project
like this, So why was this so important for you
all to do? Man? I just wanted, just like Walker
wrote that song Craig as I thank you, you know,
private thank you note, you know, to me, I just
wanted to be a part of writing something collectively that
(46:04):
was just this massive thing, you knowe to to Jesus,
who is the one who walked on water turned in
Napparete Valley red the true light of the world. And
what I love is that we can draw everybody's attention
to the one who is merciful, you know, like Walker
was saying, and gracious, and you know, it doesn't treat
us as we our sins deserve. And so to me,
(46:25):
it was just wanting to deflect all the attention back
to who the attention should be going to, which is
to Jesus. Walker and I are not the heroes of
this friendship or story. Jesus is. And so what would
you say saying I mean same? I just wanted, you know,
I wanted to tell I wanted to do the opposite
of what I did, you know, with the song cracked
(46:48):
from the beginning, you know, I just wanted to proclaim
the name of Jesus. I wanted to speak to and
I do every night. I want to speak to that
hard dude. It's like I hate church, yeah, and I'm
not trying get people to go to church. I'm trying
to get people to go to Jesus. And honestly, I
got to say, when we were writing a book, I
didn't know how believers we're going to react. You know,
(47:08):
I don't know how to talked to believers. I'm not
like super well versed. I can't quote Zephania like Homeboy
over here. But you know, I have a love like
watching Annie Downs react to the pastoral side of this story.
She wasn't here, I mean she It's like she needed
to to hear that encouragement, and so I kind of
come about it as I want to speak to that guy,
(47:30):
I want to speak to that woman. I want to
speak to that broken person who would never take a
left into that church parking lot or you know, just
let their guard down. And Craig talks a lot about
how it's the difference between table and tablet connect connection,
and we just want to you know, I hope somebody
puts the book down and has a little longer conversation
(47:52):
with somebody explain table and tablet. Yeah. I mean, I
feel like we can put it together, but I want
to hear from Yeah. I think you know, we're very
connected society, very very connected world, but a lot of
that connection is tablet connection, you know, iPhone, iPad, computer,
all of that, and I think what you get in
(48:12):
in our story is really more table connection, where it's
you know, heart to heart, eye to eye, sold the
soul person to person across the table, whether that's at
a restaurant or in your own house or at their house,
and just relating as human beings in a real vulnerable way,
(48:34):
transparent way, opening up about your life and then listening
and meeting people right where they are. So that's what
I That's what I mean by that, the difference between
table connection and tablet connection. Crazy thing about this book,
I mean, and so much. I'm sitting here just thinking
we didn't plan any of this. We we just kind
(48:56):
of just documented what God has already done in both
of our lives. We were literally on chapter five writing
when Fancy like hit. It's insane what what happened with that?
Because then timelines got tight and and there was there
was even stressors and everything of us trying to get
(49:17):
it all together. But we just look back now and
and see God is wanting to tell this story right
when you when you say yeah, I mean and yes
now y'all are everywhere, Like I'm so thankful that we
got to have this, you know, almost hour together, like
just to sit down with y'all, and I feel so
encouraged and just would tell people glad you're here. I'm
(49:38):
gonna put the link in the bio of this episode
or the show notes, I guess is what's technically called.
But I'm just super proud of y'all. And it's so
cool to turn on the TV and see you all
on the Today Show like no big deal or doing
all the you know, it's part of it. Press tour
comes along with it. For Greig over here a few
years ago, didn't even want people to know his name.
(50:00):
Know What's what's crazy? And I have to tell you
this story real quick is I was freaking out about
what do you wear on the Today Show? Right? And
what are we gonna do for that? So Lauren I
go to the mall. We're you know, we're in Nashville,
and I was overwhelmed, and then you know, she said,
I'm gonna get a guy to help or whatever. And
then I'm flipping through shirts and stuff and I look
(50:21):
up and there's Bobby Bones, like right right across from me,
right And I said Bobby Bones and he was like hey,
And I was like, hey, Craig, you know you had
us on the show, you know, a long time ago,
and his wife sat there and helped us pick out
an outfit Today Show. Isn't that crazy? That for like
(50:43):
half an hour? And I felt like, you know, God
just going, hey, I got you, I got you. Like
you're gonna look sharp on TV. Look good. You're gonna
look good. Luckily, Caitlin was with it. Yeah, Caitlin, this
is so kind and that was Yeah. No, I mean
he's well obviously because he's kind of I just mean,
like the fashion part, he's got it down from a
(51:04):
guy part. But I feel like just having like that
approval of like probably your wife and Caitlin being like, Okay,
got golden and you're good. Well the pants he picked
our too too long, and he's like, call this guy.
You know, he's a tailor and everything and he can cover.
Well he paid, he paid for it. The he paid
for that, which was really cool and I was anyway,
I that was another moment I actually felt God's care
(51:26):
because it was full circle. We were trying to remain
completely anonymous. Before Walker was a believer and when that
song first came out, now he's a believer. There's another
version of the song he sings it. The first one
was very contemplated. This one's more like celebratory. And then
you know, right before we go on the Today Show,
Bobby was the first person in the first interview that
(51:48):
we had had you know, with you and Bobby on
on My Bone Show, and it was just y'all were
so kind and anyway, full circle and now we're sitting
with you and it's just a well in Walker when
I I cranks talking and I thinking about him, you know,
being you're one of your biggest cheerleaders the last utmost
decade or so, and yes, I love that you'll have
(52:11):
that relationship. And you know, whenever I hear you know
your latest song that's on the radio right now, which
is a but there's a line where you're like, I
don't know the exact word, but I could probably get
their home, let me get there, trying to cut my
daughter's off the phone, and the son's trying to get
(52:34):
don't just figure it out and she way down and
so local country station just that's it. We got, Okay,
(53:00):
the line, the line I was looking for. I was
trying to write a song that my local country play
like when I'm driving along. And maybe it's just because
I work in radio and I've been doing those for gosh,
I've been doing the Bobby Bones Show for sixteen years,
and like playing music and just knowing how it works
(53:22):
and the ins and outs and program directors and music
selection and getting your song on the radio. Times are changing, obviously,
but sixteen years ago when I started, it was like, yeah,
you need to get that song on the radio. And
now there's just so many different ways. I mean, think
about obviously fancy like growing up on TikTok and taking
off from there and the Applebee's and then commercials and
people are exposed to it all kinds of ways. But
(53:44):
like whenever I hear you singing that line of like
because for years you've been grinding it out. I was
trying to freaking write a song that the radio stations play,
and I'm like that, what's up? Yes? And not only
am I listening into it on the local Nashville station
shout out Big ninety eight like when I'm driving, but
(54:04):
I'm like, do you know how many people in different
cities are driving around like listening to their local station
and they're listening to Walker sing and now and it's
it's the second one that's now blowing up on the radio.
I just think it's a testament to you know, you
never gave up, and you're going to continue to write
songs that I hope the local country stations trying to
(54:28):
stay out of it well. And then that's not to mention,
probably on the Christian station, Craig being played, um the
Mercy Me version. I Yeah, right, isn't it. I've heard
it on a few I feel like I've heard it.
We listened to there's like two different ones that we
bounced back and forth, so I can't say for sure
which one, but I know I've been driving along and
I like, turn it up. I'm like, yes, we control
(54:48):
what we can, which is barely anything. But I'm so grateful.
Trust me, when I hear when I hear my songs
on the radio, I said, we celebrate the houses. Is
this a long time you know, trying to hear that?
I mean, shoot, even fancy like when I when I
still hear that banging on the radio, I'm I'm Jack.
(55:09):
So we're we're excited. But yeah, the Glad We're I
don't know if you knew this, but we're going on
a tour in the fall. We're playing arenas, not stadiums,
but it's called the Glad You're Here Tour. So yeah,
isn't that crazy? Yeah? When did tickets go on sale?
They're they're out tickets. I mean, I saw you announce
that on Instagram, but I just didn't know sometimes that
(55:30):
we did the pre salekang like that. But it's sounding good.
We're routing the spring now, but yeah, they're glad you're
here tour and this is crazy, Amy, So Walker Hayes
dot com. Yeah, I just went people know and then um,
you can go there's a little tabs I'm clicking tour
Oh upcoming dates. Oh, and then you can just go
(55:53):
pick your pick a sitting near you. I see the
cane brown stuff. And then if I scrolled down show
all day. I mean, this is so fun to see
all these dates are you're kidding me? And I love
that you take the whole fam on the road always. Yeah,
that was you know, two months into it, Amy, I
was like, well, I guess everybody's going to get paid
now so I can peace out. And they were like, no,
(56:14):
we'll get the family out with Walker. I mean, I'm
looking at it. You're but like, all the way you
have dates till November twelve, there's crazy, I know. I
mean you're all I mean, California, Spokane, Kentucky, Pennsylvania. I
I've never even been half these places. This is gonna
(56:36):
be no some of these I'm like, oh, you're going
to get to just Yeah, you're seeing the country with
your family and seeing your fans and most importantly doing
what now you feel completely called to do, and you're
just being that person for for anybody that needs to
feel like they don't belong, showing them like, hey, no,
actually alone, you do, You're not alone, and we're glad
(56:58):
you're here. Well, I'm glad y'all we're here with me
this talk. Thank you so much, and just thank you
for continuing to to you know, do what you do,
Walker and Craig what you do. And now that you're
you're out there. Congratulations. Yeah, no more, but you'll have
(57:19):
been a blessing to so so many people, and I
know you will continue to be so glad you're here again.
I'll put it in the show notes. It will be
linked there. And then there's the Glad You're here tour
with tickets on sale now and again that's Walker Hayes
dot com, all right, and then on Instagram you're at
Walker Hayes and then you're at Craig Allen Cooper A
L L E N A L L E N Craig
(57:40):
Allen Cooper. All right. Well, y'all are awesome. Love you,
You're awesome. Thank you so much,
Okay, cass up a little food for you. So life.
Oh it's pretty Bay, It's pretty beautiful. Thankful that for
a little moth kicking four. Okay, I don't always do
(00:33):
an intro, but today I am because I want to
do a little giveaway here. And Walker Hayes will always
have a special place in my heart. If you've been
a long time listener, you know that if you are
new here, you will hear in the interview coming up
why Walker plays an important role in my life, my
family's life, in Pimp and Joy and then obviously his
friend Craig. They just have a powerful story together. And
(00:56):
in our chat I had all the fields. I got
goose bumps multip full times. There was a moment where
Walker was tearing up talking about when you knew we
needed to get sober, and just watching their friendship with
Super Special and the highs and lows of life. And
then at the end we do a little sing along.
So I think you'll feel a lot of different emotions.
But I'm so glad that they came on to talk
(01:17):
about their book and what I want to do here
in this little intro is giveaway four signed copies of
their book and include a pimp and Enjoy item with
each book. So if you are interested in this little
four Things giveaway, go to four Things with Amy Brown
at gmail dot com and in the subject section, make
sure you like I don't know, use all caps, get
my attention, and be like glad you're here, pimp and joy,
(01:39):
I love Walker, I love Craig. Whatever it looks like.
I will randomly select four emails and I will send
four different people assigned a copy of their book Glad
You're here and a pimp and Enjoy item. So just
a fun little giveaway I wanted to do before we
get into our talk. So yeah, let's go ahead and
do that without further ado. Here is my sit down
(02:00):
with Walker Hayes and Craig Allen Cooper. Happy Thursday, Welcome
to Four Things. I'm Amy and I'm sitting across from
Walker Hayes and Craig Cooper. What a boys. So, Craig,
your first time on the podcast, but Walker, you were
(02:21):
on a couple of years ago with your wife Laney,
and it was such a good, meaningful conversation. So I'm
excited to have you back. I mean, for one, because
I've been a fan of yours for a very long time,
but to old listeners know you have a special place
in my heart always like forever you my whole family,
we hold Walker Hayes near and dear to our hearts.
And also you're the theme song of my podcast So
(02:46):
and I actually just pulled up on my phone. This
must have been a voice memo that you sent me
in two thousand and seventeen or eighteen, and you were
in the UK and I just re being like, I'm
wandering the streets of I don't know London or wherever
you were, and you sent me kind of like a
(03:06):
rough voice memo of the four Things theme song. It's like, so,
I'm just going to hit it raw from my phone
and play like I haven't pulled this up and I'm
surprised it's still on my phone quite honestly. But here
you go, Castle Road, Things, A little food for you,
So Things. He's mouthing, you know, it's pretty Bay, It's
pretty beautiful thing laugh a little more things, Yea, And
(03:40):
it's amazing. I think you're still going Amy Brown and
you titled it. I just looked at the title as
his voice memo Amy bricks Down. Maybe maybe that was
take but you were just free flowing that and it
evolved into I think all you said right there was
(04:00):
like eat cake or something, but we ended up doing
be kind, choose joy, leve a lot eat cake, which
in our four Things line of products, we call that
our joy Seeker mine because those are things that if
you do, we'll we'll bring you, bring you joy. And
so this conversation today, sitting down with y'all, that is
(04:21):
something that is bringing me joy currently and I hope
will bring a lot of joy to our listeners. And
it feels funny because I know y'all, but some people
may not know, like the backstory of Walker and Craig
and where that came from. And I printed out this,
it's like I could do this no pronoun. I know
y'all both, and I know the story and I know whatever.
But when I was like reading over like the bio,
(04:43):
it's like when Craig Cooper and Walker has met. Walker
was an alcoholic atheist reeling from the backlash of a
failed music career. I never saw you a failure, Walker, Walker,
right here right, this could be a movie. Yes, yeah,
glad you're here. Name of the book could be a
new new HBO. Max streaming now I could see it.
But yes, and then uh, through their unlikely friendship, Craig's
(05:06):
life demonstrated the love of Christ in a way that
shattered Walker's misconceptions of Christianity, ultimately leading him down the
path to a dramatic conversation. So let's start with that conversation.
What was that? Ah, shoot, I don't I don't even
know what dramatic conversation that little movie trailer thing he's
talking about. Honestly, when I heard dramatic conversation, I just
(05:29):
kind of thinking my encounter with Jesus and just kind
of falling on my knees and needing him, you know,
once and for all, and trusting him and believing in him.
But it was a long road, exactly like that over
dramatic paragraph. Now, it's really not over dramatic. It's pretty true.
I mean, that's exactly who I was when I met Craig.
I was an alcoholic atheists, and I was kind of proud.
(05:51):
I mean, I was pretty well read and in some atheism,
you know, and I thought I was pretty smart, and
I thought I didn't need God, And boy, life taught
me different over the next couple of years and praise
the Lord. You know. I was able to see Christ
through a friend like Craig and it it started with
just meeting him in church, and then our relationship grew,
(06:12):
and then he gave us a van, and that obviously
blew my mind because I wrote a song about it,
which that's what I do, is I write songs about
things that blow my mind. Kind of like your mom,
you know. All I heard was she talks to people
in elevators, and I was like, I love this woman.
We need more people like that, you know. And that's
kind of how I felt about Craig when he gave
us the van. I just want to thank him. I'm
(06:34):
not good at at at thanking people for stuff and
just be I'm not I'm not good at being serious.
My coping mechanism for life is let's be funny and lighthearted.
And so I never really thanked Craig. So I thanked
him in a song. In the song. When I wrote
the song, I was not a believer. I was so
clever I thought to not say the name of Jesus
(06:54):
Christ in the song. I was like, but Christians are
gonna love it, you know, But I think Craig, and
I said it, and at what I said was honest.
I said, look, I don't know, you know, this dude
can walk on water, but he legit might know someone
who does. And I was being honest, you know. And
then you know, over the next few years, you know,
Laney and I went through some troubles. My career has
(07:15):
been up and down, but you know, boy, I learned
that I needed a savior. You know, the story of
Jesus was always cool to me. I was always like, man,
if that's true, it's really awesome that this guy just
comes down from his throne. It to to be a
dude for a little while, and it just dies for
my my past president and future since whoa you know, like,
(07:38):
you know, that's better than giving me a van. And
so yeah, I just kind of came to that place,
and I had a friend to kind of walk with
me through that. Craig was one of the first believing
Christians beside Laney, my wife that I told that I
believed in Jesus. And I remember telling him in a restaurant.
That was a dramatic conversation and homeboy broke my ribs
(08:01):
and me so and uh, and then he went to
the bathroom and praise God. But we have we have
the most miraculous relationship. And each day that we add,
I feel like God's just continually telling his story through us.
Just two broken dudes trying to figure out how to
do life, you know. But we are unlikely friends and
(08:23):
now we're neighbors. And we ripped the friends out and
that was so indicative of what Christ done in our lives,
us ripping that fence between our yards, and that's what
he does. And now we got a book. Yes, so
you'all literally live next door to each other and there
is no fence there. Well, they got some dogs and
their dogs are huge and their poop is huge. So
(08:44):
so we were like, let's put that fence back. It
was down for the better part of a year, and
then we felt bad. We kept sitting our kids over there,
like you gotta go clean up their yard, y'all, because
our dogs felt like that was their spot over there.
So we just put it back, but it was we
did rip it down like right when, right when they
moved in, and it was it was amazing because we
(09:06):
were just trying to create a path where the kids
and everybody could walk back and forth and go in
and out of our you know, back decks into the
house and whatnot. And then afterwards we realized as we're
talking through it, like, man, this is what God has
done in our lives, where he just ripped down all
the you know, dividing walls or anything that would separate
(09:29):
and he just you know, brought us each to himself
and then to each other and this bond that is
just incredible. What do you remember about the first time
meeting Walker. It was a Saturday, this is in January
often and we were at an upward basketball thing off
the Hillsboro Road and the families were there together. We
(09:52):
were there to see our son Joshua play basketball, and
then you know, Walk was there with his family and
their kids were playing basketball. It was a very brief interaction,
and really what happened is Laura, you know, my wife
recognized Laney Walker's wife and they had met before in
a neighborhood like get together gathering thing. I think it
(10:15):
was like a Tara you know, essential Oils type of deal,
and Laura's like, hey, I know you and they started talking.
Walker would have been holding Locksley at the time, and
we would have had like a super short interaction, but
Laura invited Laney and the family to church that night.
And we had started a church. We had moved from
(10:37):
East Tennessee to the Nashville area, and we were meeting
on Saturday nights in this like rented facility with maybe
less than thirty people there out in the boonies, and
you know, people will say, yeah, I'll come, and you know,
you don't know if they're going to come or not.
And they had said they we're gonna come to church,
and they came that night, and so this would have
(10:58):
been the moment where we really really met. So they
he walks in and I he would say the first
words that I said up my mouth, glad you're here,
like and and he felt it. And I know for me,
I thought, at that moment, man, this is an answer prayer.
Like dude came and their family came, and you know
who does that? And it was really encouraging. And we
(11:21):
ended up going out to dinner together that night after church,
and honestly, it just developed this amazing friendship where we
started spending tons of time together in each other's homes
and at restaurants, and you know, we'd go here and
play at puckets fifteen to twenty people there, and I'd
always be thinking, everybody be quiet, this dude can sing,
(11:41):
like listen, yeah, I mean and for people, yeah. Not
In Nashville, Puckets is a place where artists starting out
or just I mean, there's tons of restaurants around town,
the Puckets is a well known one where it's like
you booked there that night you play, maybe some people
are listening, maybe some people aren't, and so you could
see early on his talent and you're like cheer ring
him on, like yeah, I remember standing in the parking
(12:02):
lot with walk after you know, one night, just looking
at him really amazed. I was senter thing and I
can't believe you're playing in this setting because you know,
I told him, dude, you will pack stadiums and I
believed it. I meant it. And I think that was
indicative of our friendship too. Every time I was with him,
(12:24):
you know, he would encourage me, Like if I preached
on a Sunday, he would come back, you know, Saturday
night from wherever he was and come in and uh listening.
He would stand there and really encourage me. And I
really encouraged him anytime I heard him play and it
just that was the way our friendship was. It's always
been really strengthening for me to hang, you know with Walker,
(12:49):
and so now it's it's like, Wow, what God has
done in his life? He is packing stadiums? Yeah, yeah, yes,
what has that been like for you? Walker? This shift?
And you know, having people, certainly not just Craig, give
a whole family and then some core fan base that
they've seen what you're capable of from the beginning. But
(13:11):
it probably took the shift. I mean, I think it's
interesting to think about the what you had to do
in your personal life to now be here, because the
road you were on that trajectory back in two thousand
and fourteen had it not pivoted a little bit, And
it's hard to be like, oh, well what if but
you were I mean, you admitted drinking, like there had
(13:31):
to be some major life changes and decisions, and it's
like some of that probably is scary for people listening
right now. That's like, oh what if I can't give
this up? This is how I survived the day. But
then once you broke free from some of that and
entered into this new space, and look how things have
just started to unfold and evolve. It's taken time. But
(13:52):
while look where you are now. Yeah, and I don't
I mean, honestly, success isn't like it's not amazing. I
just want to all listen, nurse to know like that
circumstance in my life is is I mean, it's not meaningless.
I think the reason I'm succeeding or God has has
shown favor on my career is just so I can
share this story. I mean, the stadiums are awesome, but
(14:14):
I really look forward every night to to play the
song Craig and just sharing my testimony. But you know,
I mean, quitting drinking was scary. I remember, I remember
I played this my first show sober, was at Gray's
on Maine in downtown Franklin, and it was terrible. I mean,
my fingers didn't work, my voice was shaky, I mean
every it's it literally felt like I was thirteen singing
(14:37):
in front of people for the first time. And I
remember getting in the car and talking to Laney and
being like, I don't know if I can, if I
can do this, you know, And I remember I remember
thinking that in the writer's room, just being up in
my own head thinking I'm not. I'm not a good
writer sober. You know. That took me some time. But
you know, one one of the things from that time
(14:57):
until now that I am so grateful to have from
the Lord is just I don't like to be known
like it's funny as a as a very vulnerable artist
or singer. No one realized. Everybody's like, are You're really
vulnerable and you talk about stuff. But what they don't
realize is like I can control that. I have the mic,
you don't. You know, you can applaud my vulnerability, but
(15:19):
I can stop at a point and I control that area.
And what was nice about having a friend like Craig
is the minute he said glad you're here, he knew
I was drunk, he knew I didn't believe anything that
he believed, and he began to know me like he
knew me when he said I'm glad you're here. And
then for some reason we have always had a relationship
(15:41):
where I have been known, And that is that's what
Christ does to U. He know, he knows, and he
loves and that's a tough place, dangerous place to be.
And so that's that's what I'm excited about over this.
But again, the circumstances they're crazy, you know, honestly, Like
you say, we packed out stadiums. I mean we opened
(16:02):
for Kane Brown a weekend ago, and there were lights around,
you know, the place was full full of flashlights. When
I was singing Craig, and it was a truly I
felt God singing over me. I was like, what in
the what is going on right now? And it was, yeah,
it was amazing. It was amazing. And and and it
(16:22):
was like, man, Lord, you're you're you're talking to twenty
thousand people tonight, you know. And where it started was
so tiny, you know, just at this little church in
the woods. And I didn't even have a I didn't
have a label, I don't have anything, you know. And
then now again there's this book, and I can only
imagine that the Lord kind of propped up this stage
(16:45):
for this book to just stand in the center of absolutely.
I'm holding the book now, and as I look at
the back cover, there's a line from the song Craig,
which Chalker You've already alluded to. But um, in the song,
you say, I met Craig at a church called Redeeming Grace.
It's like he understood my I don't want to be
here face. I fell out of place and I smelled
(17:06):
like beer, but he just shook my hand and said,
I'm glad you're here. And I think that that's such
a powerful line for sure, But yeah, that just kind
of sums up that encounter and for people that are
listening right now that don't know the fullback story, and
you just shared it. But yes, Craig met you, but
he met you right where you were with no judgment.
(17:26):
And yeah, you've showed up with your family that night,
which Craig said his answered prayer, but you showed up
drunk and Craig didn't care. And I think of what
you've been able to do once you did pivot, and
I'm sure you ultimately grew out of that. And I'm
sure now you see like, oh wow, I'm probably my
clear mind, my sober brain. You're probably I hope, more
(17:48):
creative than than you've ever been. And you can see
the gifts and the talents that the Lord has blessed
you with. But like even in those hard times too,
you were still blessing people. The Lord was still using
you because you know early on I mentioned and again,
I just some people have been listening to podcast or
the Bobby Bones Show forever. Some people are listening right
now and they're like, I've never listened to this four
things podcasts. Who are these people and why do they
(18:09):
have what's the backstory? But like it was two thousand
and fourteen that you met Craig, but then it was
two thousand and fourteen that you emailed the Bobby Bones
Show the song that you wrote about my mom joy
like Judy, which we've talked about. But I think about
where you were in that time, and I didn't know
any of this about you, Like I would think a
song like that coming and so caring if you would
(18:29):
think on this person is probably there's some faith in
them involved, but like not at that point, you weren't kind.
You weren't there yet. But in my mind, I'm like
the Lord was already using you when you sent it
into the Bobby Bones Show. She was still alive and
what you wrote it just touched us. Like I said,
but I went to my mom and I said, Mom,
there's this singer songwriter and Nashville Walker Hazy wrote a
(18:52):
song about you and we want to make a music video.
And she is like, I know what I and you know,
we made the music video probably in March or so,
and she passed away in October. And so what's cool
is that now there's this joy like Judy Pimp and
Joy music video on YouTube that my sister gets to
(19:16):
show her four kids, that I get to show my
two adopted kids from Haiti that never got to meet
my mom. And it's like, hey, yeah, that's your grandma
and that this is her signature dance move and yeah
her she had to go through the very difficult struggle
with cancer, but the overall theme and motto was joy.
And she would be the first to say, like she
(19:37):
always wanted to be me to be clear on the
Bobby Bone Show that she wasn't just like flippantly like
twose joy and blah blah, Like She's like, make it
clear that I have really crappy days and sucks. And
we all did. And yes, some days like it was miserable.
So we didn't just stuffed down any pain or suffering
and you know, wrap it up in a joy bow.
But we we lived through it. But she said, an,
(20:00):
I want to be clear that where my joy comes from,
and I want people to know it's from the Lord.
I remember one time she gave me like a written
out thing for the Bobby Bone Ship to read because
she didn't feel I was presenting her story accurately enough
because I would just like paraphrase things and keep it vague.
And she's like, nope, I'm gonna go and write this
out because I would be clear. The joy of the
(20:20):
Lord is my strength, and that is where my joy
comes from. And I want I want people to know.
And but one of her prayers in the chapel was
used this cancer for good, not heal me, not anything else,
use this for good. And from that I truly believe
pimp and Joy and then your song and all like
the gift that you've been and that music video and
every time pimpen Joy something is sold or supported or
(20:43):
donations made, that is continue to answer prayer. So you
are a major part of that puzzle. And it's wild
to me that you were being used and you didn't
even know it well. And that's that's one thing I
(21:10):
loved about, or maybe noticed early on in our relationship,
My relationship with Craig and the power of Christ through him,
is that I was never his project. I didn't know this,
but when I gave that song to Craig. It collided
in a place where he needed I was completely oblivious,
and I often as a believer, now look at the
(21:31):
Lord and I'm like, God, will you please use me
like you did when before I believe and Laney and
I just have we just have a life where there's
evidence where the Lord has used some really bad stuff
in mighty, mighty ways. And so that's I'm definly I
agree with your your mom. The whole Gosh used this cancer.
What a prayer. I mean, that's that's such a great, yeah, prayer.
(21:55):
God really used Walker in my life way before he
was a believer. I mean when he sent me that song.
Just imagine receiving the song Craig, and you know, I'm
sitting in my car. It was a date night with
my wife where I was trying to tell her how
I discouraged. I was about my life and my ministry
(22:17):
and in I had taken a walk that day in
downtown Franklin, and I had just gotten back that weekend
from a ministry retreat. I sent an email to the
pastors saying, I don't know if I if I can
continue in this. I didn't see any fruit and I
took a walk and stopped in the middle of it
and just said, God, you know that I try to
(22:37):
encourage other people, I really need you to encourage me
right now. Is my life making a difference in anybody's
life around me? And that night, sitting in the car
in Cool Springs and Franklin and trying to tell Laura
how discouraged I was, and in her phone buzzes and
it's a text from Laney Walker's wife, and um, it's
(23:00):
got my name on an MP three. And we were
used to getting you know, songs from him, he would
send him when he was working on him, and I'd
always said, dude, this is amazing, and uh, you know,
I can't wait to hear another radio and all all
that stuff, but not one with my name on it.
And I remember being a little agitated that Laura was
looking at her phone when I was trying to tell her,
(23:23):
you know, share my burdens with her and everything, and
I was like, who is it? And she says Laney,
And I said, um man, can you just you know,
talk to her? Later she said, well, it's got an
MP three on it, and it's got your name on it.
I think we need to play it, and I was like, oh,
let's do that later, and she said, well, I think
it might help. And that's when I heard the song
Craig through the speakers and I felt God's singing over
(23:47):
me in that moment. And there's a part in in
the in the Bible that talks about the Lord doing that,
you know, in zef and I. It's like the Lord,
your God is in your midst, the mighty one who
will save. He will rejoice over you, withess. He'll quiet
you with his love, he will exult over you with
loud singing. And that's what happened, I think for me
in that moment, I heard through an unbelieving friend who
(24:13):
would not say the name Jesus because you're clever. Again,
you're smart guy. So in the lyrics, you thought, wow,
isn't amazing, go ahead and just just speak the chorus
about how you know you kind of alluded to Jesus.
I was like, I'm not gonna say Jesus, you know,
because I mean, honestly, part of me was like I
don't want to like pander too much, like I just
want to tell I'm honestly just want to tell the
(24:34):
story without saying the name of Jesus because I didn't
believe in Jesus, and it just says, I know, he
sounds cool, right, not gypical kid from Sunday School. Right.
I still don't figured out church yet. But Craig, I
get so now he can't walk on water, turn a
Napa Valley, red buddy, just my be tight with him? Man?
(24:56):
That did so, you know, just a little clever ways. Yeah,
but I'm gonna cut over Craig now because that's the song. Like, people,
listen when you get done with this podcast, go listen
to the song, Craig, listen to every single word. But
like you were on a date night with your wife
and trying to share this low you said, there's where's
(25:17):
the fruit to my labor? And then you're gifted this
this almost like answer from above of like whoa Boa, whoa?
You said you wanted to just make a difference in
one person's life, anybody's like blue, and then you get
this song from Walker And so what what was the
next thing that happened? Oh my goodness, I mean I
was absolutely dumbfounded. I was stunned. I was obviously. I
(25:42):
mean I sat there just weeping in the car and
I remember looking up going, okay, I get it, like
you have me where you want me, and I felt comforted.
I felt God singing over me through Walker, and also
was so encouraging to me because he literally was like
my best friend and what I wanted most for him
(26:04):
was for him to have a relationship with the Lord.
And there was this inkling all right, God is doing
something in my buddy's life. And also, wow, what just happened.
What happened after that was, you know, we kept it quiet.
And you know this because you guys reached out and
the Bobby Bones Show reached out to say, hey, would
you come and talk together about the song? And at
(26:27):
that point I was just keeping it completely confidential, very quiet.
I remember talking to Robert, you know, Walker's manager at
the time, called me and said, you know, hey, so
we got this invitation, you know, from the Bybones Show,
and what do you think about this? I know you
don't really want to share it with anybody and I
and I said, would you know, would that help Walker?
(26:50):
And he was like, I really think it would, bro
And I was like, okay, can we do it without
my last name, no pictures, and because and I'm gonna interject,
and you can to me if I'm wrong. But what
I think was important to you was because that's you're out.
You're out it in the song as being the one
that gifted the van, and it's not like you weren't
(27:12):
doing it for any recognition, and you didn't want that
to be misunderstood, and that this was a very special,
sacred relationship for you and you just didn't want to
be you know, I don't know, I'm just no, that's
exactly right. What's crazy. It's like us giving them the van.
I think it's around And then the song he sent
it was around twenty seventeen, so I mean it was
(27:34):
a while later, you know, when that's a very public
way to say, this is what happened to me, and
this is what this this person did for me. And yeah, yeah,
and so we I mean even after I heard the
song in the car that night, Lauren I talked about it.
We didn't share it with our kids and we and
we were used to sharing, you know, all the song
and we put it on the loud speakers. We you know,
(27:55):
everybody would dance around anything he had written. And then
later like Walker and the family, they were together with
us and somebody must have mentioned, you know, I think
one of their kids, have you talked to Joshua and
my son, you know, have you heard that song about
your dad? And so Joshua came to me and he
was like, hey, is there a song that Walker wrote?
(28:15):
And they started asking me, and then so I remember
bringing them up into the you know, upstairs bonus room
and just telling everybody, look, guys, I'm gonna play this
for you, but we're not. I don't want you to
share it with anybody. We're not going to talk about
it because the Bible says whenever you give, you know,
don't let your right hand on what your left hand
is doing. Let your giving me in secret, and you know,
(28:36):
and then the father who sees what's done in secret,
he'll rewards you. And so I was trying really hard
to kind of keep that tight based off of of
that in scripture. And so, you know, we shared it
with the kids and then I remember, you know, walk saying, hey,
they want to put this on the album boo. Just
so everybody knows too, that was not a I didn't
(28:57):
write that for an album, right. I wrote that to
say thank you. That's just the only way, like your
mom's are. I mean sometimes I just wait, hold on,
you're telling me you didn't write that for an album? Yeah, yeah, No,
I mean I just writing to me, Praise the Lord.
It's just what it's. I'm not a very good processor,
(29:19):
but I can on on a page with a guitar
and a pen, you know. And so I just did
that for that And Shane and Rob heard that song
the day, Yeah, the day we were finishing that album. Rob. Yeah,
only think about whenever we talk about Rob back in
the day on Instagram, Walker and Rob would like just
feed goofing off in a hotel room or something like
(29:41):
late at night, and I'd be like, so whenever I
see Rob, I don't ever say this fit in my head.
I'm going wrong. Okay, Shane heard it. It's to me.
It's just fun to reflect on how this story just
won't be denied. And then you know that was the
first album and now here it is on another album.
(30:02):
Would mercy me on it? And the only reason it's
on there is because I met Bart and when I
walked in and there were tears in his eyes and
he said, what is the deal with this song? Craig?
And I was like, oh, that's that's an older but
a goodie, right, And he was like, not enough people
in the world have heard this. And you guys, that
was six months before Fancy Like was even written, so
(30:24):
you weren't even the the TikTok sensations hadn't I didn't
even know how to hit a woe yet. When I
became a believer, I was like, I'm about to move
to a wanda. I'm gonna sell my belongings and I'm
gonna sing nothing but the name of Jesus. I mean,
I went hardcore, you know. And then I started meeting
(30:44):
some Christian artists and I was like, let's go I
want to write about Jesus. Let's do this. And nothing
happened to any of that music. And then I wrote
this song about Applebe and it was mayhem. It was
just like literally out of nowhere. It was the first
country song I'd written and I don't know how long,
(31:05):
and it was like goo boom. And then Bart caused
me from mercy me and he goes, hey, you still
want to redo, Craig, and I was like a slutely
and then and so he thinks it's so funny that
Fancy Like. And then the new version of Craigor right
next to each other on the album. But we started
this book. When we started this, we could have sold
(31:26):
twelve copies, Like nobody would have bought that. Y'all were
going to do it no matter what. I was like,
you know, I said, let's go, and uh, you know,
Craig started it and I was supposed to write the
forward and then it turned into you know, us sharing
the whole story. But yeah, my favorite thing about the
(31:46):
book is how Craig and Laura walked with us through
the loss of Oakley and our our little girl. And
just there's a picture on them in the back of
the book that I I truly, I've looked at it
once and I can't look at it again. And to me,
you could sum up that picture and it could be
a chapter in the gospel, you know, just you could
(32:10):
hear about a family walking with another family through the loss.
But I'm so grateful for how this story won't go away.
And even Craig, like he didn't tell anybody, and I
think it's funny now I'm like everybody knows. I was
just like, okay, so Creig, so now we know your
name is Craig Cooper and you live at let me
know everything about you. But it had to unfold organically,
(32:35):
and you knew you would had to be in the
right time, and what obviously I don't even think then
you would you knew what was even going to happen,
but you just like the next, one day at a time,
next right step, you're just showing up authentically as you
and all of this has unfolded. And yeah, now I'm
standing here or sitting here with y'all holding a copy
(32:55):
of Glad You're here. It's just amazing that that's the
title of the book. And it was almost like the
first exchange had and it's it's almost like for anybody
picking up the book, no matter where you are in life,
no matter what you have going on, no matter what
shame you're carrying, or if you're high or low, like
I mean, glad you're here, Like you're welcome, there's no judgment,
(33:18):
we see you, We're here to meet you. I think
that's Jesus heart for us. You know, he meets us
right where we are. I mean, you come as you're
as you are, or you don't come to Jesus at all,
because he meets us in the mess and in the brokenness,
and we really related on that. You know, my past
is broken, you know my present, you know it's broken.
(33:41):
And I think Walker and I found just like with
companionship in a broken world. And it's just been amazing
to see what God has done. And the story won't
go away. It's what Walker just said, I mean, it won't.
You know, God wants to tell this and I had
to get to that point Amy where I'm going, Okay, Lord,
you want to do this. And so what I love
(34:03):
about the book is we get to shine the light
on I mean, the dedication is, you know, dedicated to
the one who walked on water and turned it an
app a valley red. It's like a collective thank you
note to Jesus from both of us, and that is sick. Okay,
And I want to talk over the titles of the chapters,
because what this is. You know, we got a dream
(34:25):
chapter one. Then this is all the chapters in a row,
A dream, a church, a dog, a Wednesday, a bar,
a van, a song, a baby, a friend, a path. Yep,
Walker came up with all that. I remember sitting on
our back deck and he's like, what if it's just
this that that that. Yeah, I'm kind of curious about
a Wednesday Wednesday Wednesday that's puckets. Yeah, Wednesday night was
(34:57):
just a it was funny. It was like you started it?
Did I start? I started just a drinking thing on Monday?
And I remember Lanny would be like where are you?
And I was like, can't get mad. I'm drinking with
the people from church. I was like, it's a win,
you know. And then but you were were you really drinking?
Oh totally? When did you get or like luckily in
(35:19):
the in this narrative because I don't think I know
exactly how it unfolded. Yeah, no, I quit drinking seven
years this October. So I quit drinking shortly after we met. Honestly,
(35:43):
it wasn't a I wouldn't have said it was a
at that time a spiritual thing at all. I thought.
I do remember, yeah, remember we had but I was hammered.
I remember being in your house and he's like, yeah,
if I could quit drinking, I believe there's a God.
And so we were all right, we're gonna pray that
(36:07):
God just takes away the desire for him to drink.
And so it was really cool watching it because it
just happened, you know, it just happened where he quit
and I reminded you that later, but he didn't remember
saying that. I mean, that's a I mean, it's pretty
miraculous because that's not everybody's story. Amy, I was gonna
say that, Like, I don't say that flippantly at all.
(36:28):
I mean, I come from a family of addictions, and
it's you know, being freed from addiction is a super natural,
miraculous thing. I mean, the odds are crazy. It's hard.
I mean, something literally just has to switch and change
that in someone's life. That's not a to me, that's
not like a willpower thing, you know, God, you know,
(36:52):
but I did. I woke up one Saturday, I went,
I had worked the day before and just you know,
I've been hammered for so long, and I woke up
and it it felt like if I pop open a
beer and smell it, I might like die. I mean,
it was just I detested. It's like I literally woke
up and detested the feel of alcohol in my body
(37:13):
and that I might injure myself. You know, if I
if I do that one more day, I don't know
if like some organ in me was dying or what.
But yeah, so I quit, you know that day. One
day turn into to turn into a week, and then
I was like, I don't want to go backwards, right,
What was it like for Laney during that time? I
(37:33):
know she's not here, and I'd love for people to
speak for themselves, if you just wouldn't mind, Like, I'm
curious about you know, there's people listening right now where
they're they're on the other side of the alcoholic whether
they're male or female, or or son or daughter, or
or mom or dad, there's somebody in their life. Was
there ever a fear of losing her or was she
committed to I just keep thinking about her during this season,
(37:57):
having to put up with you drunk drunk all the time. Yeah,
you know, she You'll have a lot of kids, y'all, homeschool,
Like the list goes on of the reasons why if
I was her, I would be just like piste off
at you all the time. I have no excuse. I'm not.
I'm not looking back saying I was a good dad
or a good husband. But Laney was patient to an extent.
(38:19):
There was a night we laugh about it. We went
to Drake's. I'm always like Lanny took me to Drake's.
We went to this restaurant called Drake's, and I thought
she was gonna pack up and drive to her parents.
And it hurt. And that was a night that we
can laugh. We we can laugh about now. I remember what.
The one thing that got me is I got on
(38:39):
a computer and I'm gonna I'm gonna start crying when
I say this, But I got on the computer in
the search history had like rehabs and I was like,
oh man, you know, and I and Latin Lanny's not
one to not like disclose that, you know, or Lanny
doesn't take our relationship outside of us a lot, you
(39:00):
know what I mean. It's gotta be dire for her
to go to a neighbor and say Walker's being an
a hole, you know what I'm saying, Like that is
not something she does often, and so that that really
got me. But honestly, I can't speak for Laney, you
know she I think she would admit she just was
like crap. I mean, she just loved me. She nagged me,
(39:20):
and we argued all the time about that. We we
fought all the time about what we were going to
teach our kids. Beliefs wise. She wasn't like, I'm out,
you don't believe in Jesus, you know what I mean.
She wasn't like, come home drunk one more time and
it's over, which maybe she should have, you know, I
don't know, but well that part ended up working itself out.
(39:42):
Everyone's situation is so different, sounds like and from you know,
what I know of her is there was a lot
of love and a lot of patients, and speaking of
fruit of the fruit of the spirits, like I had
that something I have to rattle off in my head often,
like when I'm feeling a certain way, I just pause
and like, love joy, feast, patient is kind as good
as digitalous, faithfulness, self control. I love joy, feast, pa
(40:05):
and I just say it over and over until I
don't know, one of them sticks in a moment of like.
But that's where I just I sometimes that's what I
used to reset. And Laney is amazing. She has so
many wonderful qualities. But I know during that time it
was likely very difficult and it was probably really hard
for you to see that search history and no, but
(40:27):
she was searching that stuff because she loved you. I
just want to just speaking in general to anybody right now,
that's just dealing with addiction. Like sometimes it's hard to
to know, like what boundary do you need to set
that's still going to show Hey, I love you, but
this is no longer acceptable. Yeah, yeah, and I think
honestly again, I hate speaking without Laney. But one thing
(40:48):
we've learned, just in our marriage and just in our
walk with Christ separately and together, and it's as a family,
is to me, the biggest witness I guess anyone's ever
had on to me. It's just mercy, you know what
I'm saying. And you know it's tough in a marriage,
because it's tough too. It's tough to discuss something with
somebody else and not put yourself on some righteous pedestal
(41:12):
and that they need to fix this about themselves and
immerse and and needing mercy is a very humble position
to communicate from. I mean, yeah, if that makes any sense,
And that's what I just thought of something. And Craig,
maybe you being the you can take a take the
mic and preach dress for a second, because he's you know,
(41:32):
that's your your lane for sure. But I just thought
of something that's hanging in my in laws guest bathroom.
As you're talking, I'm picturing. I'm picturing it. What color
upstairs bathroom? Pretty sure it's the wallpaper, Yeah, the wallpaper.
It's probably from early nineties. I don't know if this
is crocheted on something, but it says both grace and
(41:55):
mercy are guests from God. Grace is getting the favor
we do not deserve. Mercy is not getting the punishment
we do deserve. Have I love that. I love that.
I want to hang it on my wall. And I
know and I was thinking too about I was reading
a book yesterday, Sadie Robertson, and um, she she quoted
(42:18):
Tim Keller and a song by tarn Wells, and it said,
to be loved but not known is comforting but superficial.
To be known and not loved is our greatest fear.
But to be fully known and truly loved, well, that's
a lot like being loved by God. And that's from
(42:39):
Tim Keller that she quoted. But you know, that's what
Laney was doing with Walker, is knowing him and truly
knowing him and loving him. And it's hard, though, you know,
I don't think Laney, I think that's why I have
a difficulty talking, like trying to talk on behalf of
Laney is the last thing Laney would want to say
in a microph phone to a bunch of women in
(43:01):
her situation is just love that person perfectly and it
will all be okay because it won't and no one
can you know where and which goes back to the mercy.
It's just being able to admit, like Craig is my
best friend, but I can't know you and love you perfectly.
That's only from God. And I get sorry to interject,
(43:21):
but I just want to be careful. I just really
want to be careful when we're when I'm talking to
any listeners that there is no other solution than Jesus.
There's like list you can make, There's no I can.
Maybe I can on my search history. I can make
sure my husband sees me looking up rehabs. I won't
fix anything. Um, it really is God. Yeah right, yeah,
(43:47):
and each each and every and I'll back you up
on that, each and every person and circumstance is different.
No to people or situations are alike when you're dealing
with some thing like that, And so thank you for
being careful, um with your words around that, and even
you know, I knew it might be difficult to speaking
for Laney, but and I don't want you to. Laney
(44:14):
is the greatest human I've ever met on this earth. Now,
if you ever left me, I wouldn't even look for
another human. I would just be like, well, I screwed
the best one up. So yeah, you know I feel
like that. Craig and I always talk about socials. Like
the last one thing I ever want to do with
this book is be like, here's seven steps to reading
(44:35):
a home run getting the guy. Life is great. You
won't lose a kid, you know, that's not it. Like,
life is broken and that's just the way it is.
It's circumstantially, there's no end to the brokenness. And yeah,
we just need mercy from from Jesus and we need
to extend it. Yeah, it's so good. I love Annie
(44:58):
f Downs. Yeah we do too. She shut out, and
she wrote an endorsement on the inside, along with a
lot of other amazing people. But an incredible story of friendship, faith,
the love of Jesus, and the sovereign hand of God.
Glad You're here is a book that will bring tears
to your eyes and breath to your lungs and make
(45:19):
you see and love your neighbors just a little different
and maybe a lot better. Thank you any morning. Yeah,
and so yeah, what was y'all's purpose in putting us
out here? Because, yeah, Walker's career has skyrocketed since then.
You mentioned when y'all first decide you're going to do
a book, you probably were going to sell twelve copies,
(45:39):
and writing a book is no small feet, like it
takes a lot to pour into this, to a project
like this, So why was this so important for you
all to do? Man? I just wanted, just like Walker
wrote that song Craig as I thank you, you know,
private thank you note, you know, to me, I just
wanted to be a part of writing something collectively that
(46:04):
was just this massive thing, you knowe to to Jesus,
who is the one who walked on water turned in
Napparete Valley red the true light of the world. And
what I love is that we can draw everybody's attention
to the one who is merciful, you know, like Walker
was saying, and gracious, and you know, it doesn't treat
us as we our sins deserve. And so to me,
(46:25):
it was just wanting to deflect all the attention back
to who the attention should be going to, which is
to Jesus. Walker and I are not the heroes of
this friendship or story. Jesus is. And so what would
you say saying I mean same? I just wanted, you know,
I wanted to tell I wanted to do the opposite
of what I did, you know, with the song cracked
(46:48):
from the beginning, you know, I just wanted to proclaim
the name of Jesus. I wanted to speak to and
I do every night. I want to speak to that
hard dude. It's like I hate church, yeah, and I'm
not trying get people to go to church. I'm trying
to get people to go to Jesus. And honestly, I
got to say, when we were writing a book, I
didn't know how believers we're going to react. You know,
(47:08):
I don't know how to talked to believers. I'm not
like super well versed. I can't quote Zephania like Homeboy
over here. But you know, I have a love like
watching Annie Downs react to the pastoral side of this story.
She wasn't here, I mean she It's like she needed
to to hear that encouragement, and so I kind of
come about it as I want to speak to that guy,
(47:30):
I want to speak to that woman. I want to
speak to that broken person who would never take a
left into that church parking lot or you know, just
let their guard down. And Craig talks a lot about
how it's the difference between table and tablet connect connection,
and we just want to you know, I hope somebody
puts the book down and has a little longer conversation
(47:52):
with somebody explain table and tablet. Yeah. I mean, I
feel like we can put it together, but I want
to hear from Yeah. I think you know, we're very
connected society, very very connected world, but a lot of
that connection is tablet connection, you know, iPhone, iPad, computer,
all of that, and I think what you get in
(48:12):
in our story is really more table connection, where it's
you know, heart to heart, eye to eye, sold the
soul person to person across the table, whether that's at
a restaurant or in your own house or at their house,
and just relating as human beings in a real vulnerable way,
(48:34):
transparent way, opening up about your life and then listening
and meeting people right where they are. So that's what
I That's what I mean by that, the difference between
table connection and tablet connection. Crazy thing about this book,
I mean, and so much. I'm sitting here just thinking
we didn't plan any of this. We we just kind
(48:56):
of just documented what God has already done in both
of our lives. We were literally on chapter five writing
when Fancy like hit. It's insane what what happened with that?
Because then timelines got tight and and there was there
was even stressors and everything of us trying to get
(49:17):
it all together. But we just look back now and
and see God is wanting to tell this story right
when you when you say yeah, I mean and yes
now y'all are everywhere, Like I'm so thankful that we
got to have this, you know, almost hour together, like
just to sit down with y'all, and I feel so
encouraged and just would tell people glad you're here. I'm
(49:38):
gonna put the link in the bio of this episode
or the show notes, I guess is what's technically called.
But I'm just super proud of y'all. And it's so
cool to turn on the TV and see you all
on the Today Show like no big deal or doing
all the you know, it's part of it. Press tour
comes along with it. For Greig over here a few
years ago, didn't even want people to know his name.
(50:00):
Know What's what's crazy? And I have to tell you
this story real quick is I was freaking out about
what do you wear on the Today Show? Right? And
what are we gonna do for that? So Lauren I
go to the mall. We're you know, we're in Nashville,
and I was overwhelmed, and then you know, she said,
I'm gonna get a guy to help or whatever. And
then I'm flipping through shirts and stuff and I look
(50:21):
up and there's Bobby Bones, like right right across from me,
right And I said Bobby Bones and he was like hey,
And I was like, hey, Craig, you know you had
us on the show, you know, a long time ago,
and his wife sat there and helped us pick out
an outfit Today Show. Isn't that crazy? That for like
(50:43):
half an hour? And I felt like, you know, God
just going, hey, I got you, I got you. Like
you're gonna look sharp on TV. Look good. You're gonna
look good. Luckily, Caitlin was with it. Yeah, Caitlin, this
is so kind and that was Yeah. No, I mean
he's well obviously because he's kind of I just mean,
like the fashion part, he's got it down from a
(51:04):
guy part. But I feel like just having like that
approval of like probably your wife and Caitlin being like, Okay,
got golden and you're good. Well the pants he picked
our too too long, and he's like, call this guy.
You know, he's a tailor and everything and he can cover.
Well he paid, he paid for it. The he paid
for that, which was really cool and I was anyway,
I that was another moment I actually felt God's care
(51:26):
because it was full circle. We were trying to remain
completely anonymous. Before Walker was a believer and when that
song first came out, now he's a believer. There's another
version of the song he sings it. The first one
was very contemplated. This one's more like celebratory. And then
you know, right before we go on the Today Show,
Bobby was the first person in the first interview that
(51:48):
we had had you know, with you and Bobby on
on My Bone Show, and it was just y'all were
so kind and anyway, full circle and now we're sitting
with you and it's just a well in Walker when
I I cranks talking and I thinking about him, you know,
being you're one of your biggest cheerleaders the last utmost
decade or so, and yes, I love that you'll have
(52:11):
that relationship. And you know, whenever I hear you know
your latest song that's on the radio right now, which
is a but there's a line where you're like, I
don't know the exact word, but I could probably get
their home, let me get there, trying to cut my
daughter's off the phone, and the son's trying to get
(52:34):
don't just figure it out and she way down and
so local country station just that's it. We got, Okay,
(53:00):
the line, the line I was looking for. I was
trying to write a song that my local country play
like when I'm driving along. And maybe it's just because
I work in radio and I've been doing those for gosh,
I've been doing the Bobby Bones Show for sixteen years,
and like playing music and just knowing how it works
(53:22):
and the ins and outs and program directors and music
selection and getting your song on the radio. Times are changing, obviously,
but sixteen years ago when I started, it was like, yeah,
you need to get that song on the radio. And
now there's just so many different ways. I mean, think
about obviously fancy like growing up on TikTok and taking
off from there and the Applebee's and then commercials and
people are exposed to it all kinds of ways. But
(53:44):
like whenever I hear you singing that line of like
because for years you've been grinding it out. I was
trying to freaking write a song that the radio stations play,
and I'm like that, what's up? Yes? And not only
am I listening into it on the local Nashville station
shout out Big ninety eight like when I'm driving, but
(54:04):
I'm like, do you know how many people in different
cities are driving around like listening to their local station
and they're listening to Walker sing and now and it's
it's the second one that's now blowing up on the radio.
I just think it's a testament to you know, you
never gave up, and you're going to continue to write
songs that I hope the local country stations trying to
(54:28):
stay out of it well. And then that's not to mention,
probably on the Christian station, Craig being played, um the
Mercy Me version. I Yeah, right, isn't it. I've heard
it on a few I feel like I've heard it.
We listened to there's like two different ones that we
bounced back and forth, so I can't say for sure
which one, but I know I've been driving along and
I like, turn it up. I'm like, yes, we control
(54:48):
what we can, which is barely anything. But I'm so grateful.
Trust me, when I hear when I hear my songs
on the radio, I said, we celebrate the houses. Is
this a long time you know, trying to hear that?
I mean, shoot, even fancy like when I when I
still hear that banging on the radio, I'm I'm Jack.
(55:09):
So we're we're excited. But yeah, the Glad We're I
don't know if you knew this, but we're going on
a tour in the fall. We're playing arenas, not stadiums,
but it's called the Glad You're Here Tour. So yeah,
isn't that crazy? Yeah? When did tickets go on sale?
They're they're out tickets. I mean, I saw you announce
that on Instagram, but I just didn't know sometimes that
(55:30):
we did the pre salekang like that. But it's sounding good.
We're routing the spring now, but yeah, they're glad you're
here tour and this is crazy, Amy, So Walker Hayes
dot com. Yeah, I just went people know and then um,
you can go there's a little tabs I'm clicking tour
Oh upcoming dates. Oh, and then you can just go
(55:53):
pick your pick a sitting near you. I see the
cane brown stuff. And then if I scrolled down show
all day. I mean, this is so fun to see
all these dates are you're kidding me? And I love
that you take the whole fam on the road always. Yeah,
that was you know, two months into it, Amy, I
was like, well, I guess everybody's going to get paid
now so I can peace out. And they were like, no,
(56:14):
we'll get the family out with Walker. I mean, I'm
looking at it. You're but like, all the way you
have dates till November twelve, there's crazy, I know. I
mean you're all I mean, California, Spokane, Kentucky, Pennsylvania. I
I've never even been half these places. This is gonna
(56:36):
be no some of these I'm like, oh, you're going
to get to just Yeah, you're seeing the country with
your family and seeing your fans and most importantly doing
what now you feel completely called to do, and you're
just being that person for for anybody that needs to
feel like they don't belong, showing them like, hey, no,
actually alone, you do, You're not alone, and we're glad
(56:58):
you're here. Well, I'm glad y'all we're here with me
this talk. Thank you so much, and just thank you
for continuing to to you know, do what you do,
Walker and Craig what you do. And now that you're
you're out there. Congratulations. Yeah, no more, but you'll have
(57:19):
been a blessing to so so many people, and I
know you will continue to be so glad you're here again.
I'll put it in the show notes. It will be
linked there. And then there's the Glad You're here tour
with tickets on sale now and again that's Walker Hayes
dot com, all right, and then on Instagram you're at
Walker Hayes and then you're at Craig Allen Cooper A
L L E N A L L E N Craig
(57:40):
Allen Cooper. All right. Well, y'all are awesome. Love you,
You're awesome. Thank you so much,
Feeling Things with Amy & Kat News
Host
Amy Brown
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