Walker Hayes Talks New Single “Don’t Let Her” [Interview]
Monument Records artist Walker Hayes‘ new single, “Don’t Let Her,” is a cute and uplifting but devastatingly honest song that chronicles a conversation between Walker and a hypothetical man taking his place in the life of the woman he loves, if something were to happen to him.
Written by Hayes, with Andrew DeRoberts and Shane McAnally, and produced by McAnally and DeRoberts, “Don’t Let Her” has been showing potential to become a new fan-favorite, like that of “Halloween.”
MusicRow: I loved Halloween, but I think I might actually love this one more.
Hayes: Damn, thank you. I appreciate it. I love that because, you know, I thought I would never outdo “Halloween.” The song people are obsessed with that song. And I love hearing people say that they love [“Don’t Let Her”] even more than that.
MR: This song is a little dark. What prompted you to write “Don’t Let Her”?
Hayes: So, Laney, my wife, she would laugh at when she tells you this but it’s so true, I’m the emotionally dramatic one. I’m the high feeler of our relationship. And she talks me off of those over-romanticizing ledges and she allows me to communicate all of my feelings all the time. And I was in the UK and had been away from her and the kids for 10, 11 days plus. So this was like a 16-day trip, I was going very dark places in my head. They are where I recharge my batteries, and so I had just had enough of the road. I’m very much a homebody, so that’s weird that I travel for a living, but I miss them. And I just began to write this love song to Laney.
And it wasn’t to her immediately. And honestly, when I began the song, I didn’t know that it was to anyone. I just was talking about her and I was listing specifics about her because, to me, the most endearing form of flattery is when you can tell somebody, “Hey, when you smile like that, I know it means this.” And, “When you fix your coffee, I know you’re going to dump that honey for four seconds, you know, and then you’re going to put in coffee next.” I just thought it was sweet to say, “Hey, I noticed these things about you.” And then the last line, I completely out of the accident wrote, “And if she misses me…” You know, at first I was going to say, “Show her this picture, or Play her this song.” Then I was like, no, you know, if she misses me, I don’t want her to be sad. And then that opened the road to a song to whoever might take my place if something were to happen to me.
Laney and I’ve always, since we were in 11th grade, we’ve always played the game. of, “What would you do if something happened to me?” We’ve always asked that and we’ve always answered it with these like elaborate, “I would never love again, you’re irreplaceable. You’re so funny. You’re so cute.” We’ve always done that.
It was kind of a miraculous coming together of many things and many emotions, and I love where it landed. I’m so proud. You mentioned “Halloween” and these are examples—”Don’t Let Her” and “Halloween”—that’s how I love to write love songs. I feel like they’re very true and they’re honest about the, maybe the darker, the harder, the uglier side of love, but also the most beautiful part I love is to me the unconditional part. And to me that’s what “Don’t Let Her” speaks to, if you will.
MR: You mentioned the ‘Honey in her coffee’ and you have lines about her ‘Hating glitter’ and you ‘Watching your grammar’ around her. How do you put those specific qualities in a song and still try to keep the song universally relatable?
Hayes: Well, a guy told me—and I kinda did this in my music before this person told me this—but they told me that personal is actually universal. A lot of songs are hits that are very vague and generic, but I personally feel like the most important thing in songs are the details, the personal artifacts that you place in a song because that allows a listener to put themselves within that story. A lot of people have said when they watch the lyric video of “Don’t Let Her” that they see themselves in high school, they see themselves getting married, they see themselves at the beach. And to me that’s what the personal pieces of a song do for people. If it’s all vague, you may never grab someone and bring in their story, they may just listen to a song and never insert their own life. I think when you get someone to insert themselves inside a story, that’s when they become a fan.
I mean, I’ve always loved songs that did that. Kenny Chesney’s “There Goes My Life,” you know, with the American Express line, the “She covers up the refrigerator,” and going up the stairs with bouncing curls. You just picture a standard house with a refrigerator and I just love lines that grab you like that and kind of take you inside the room.
MR: What was Laney’s reaction to “Don’t Let Her”?
Hayes: Oh, she loved it. I mean, Laney is the sweetest human on the planet, but I think when you’ve listened to songs from somebody for 15 years, you’re rarely blown away, especially by the love songs. And this one, this one really got her. Usually, and in the case of this song, the way she hears music first is I text her a line or two or I’ll text her a chorus. I did that with this song and she was like, “I get teared up just reading this.” So, yeah, she really loved it. And it’s a love letter to her and it’s what I would say to her at home if nobody ever heard it. I think she really has an appreciation for this song, like “Halloween.” She’s always loved “Halloween,” and I think she loves this one even more.
MR: You’re doing a new video series with Laney called ‘The Hayes Of Our Lives.’ Tell me about that.
Hayes: So that’s been fun. The song has been fun to promote because it’s not as much of a lonely song to promote. You know, it’s about Laney. It’s about our life together and our kids. And so many people ask me, “What was it like doing this?” You know, “What was it like being at Costco and still writing?” and I’m always like I wish more people would ask Laney because she was there for everything. And so that’s been fun to include her. And I mean, my fans are crazy about Laney. They love her and they’re so sweet about her and they just think she’s a rock star.
And, you know, we don’t have this famous elaborate life. And I think people love seeing the holes and sheet rock on our walls and they love seeing our broken stove and they love seeing us in our pajamas, and I feel like including her and just the reality of our life is soothing to the public. And I’ve always said I felt like people need to meet Laney because she’s very, there’s things that she just doesn’t care about that I feel like other women knowing that she doesn’t, it inspires them to not care. Anyway, I’ve loved sharing her with the world and obviously, I love when people love her as much as I do. I’m so proud, those ‘Hayes of Our Lives’ [episodes], I watched them like it’s not even us. Like they’re funny to me. They make me laugh.
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