Walker Hayes opened up about his journey with sobriety and why it’s important to him to discuss “as much as I can.”

The “Fancy Like” hitmaker appeared on TODAY with Hoda & Jenna on Thursday morning (May 2), where he caught up with hosts Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager about his sobriety, his new project titled Sober Thoughts, and his new non-alcoholic beer. Hayes, 44, said he’s nearly a decade sober now.

“Everybody loves a drinking song,” Hayes said on TODAY with Hoda & Jenna, acknowledging that many songs are about alcohol in the country music genre. “But I’m 8 years sober, and I want to share that as much as I can. I think most recovering alcoholics feel the same way. Sobriety is so amazing that you love to pass it along. It’s a great option we have in life, and there is freedom from addiction. And so, I’m always thinking about it. I feel like I like to make the world my audience, my accountability partner. That’s how I go about it. I’m not very anonymous. I love to just share, ‘hey, it’s a struggle. I’m weak in that area. Help. We can help each other.’ …I’m so grateful. We just got to do this project [Sober Thoughts] recently.”

Hayes went on to explain that he made the decision to be sober when he was 36. He was working a night job stocking produce while balancing performances at that time, and his wife, Laney Hayes, had just welcomed the couple’s sixth child. The country star said he woke up on a Saturday morning and knew, “if I do it one more day, I might die.” His album Sober Thoughts, is a collection of songs that focus on his recovery.

“One song is called ‘Same Drunk.’ …It really just calls out all our coping mechanisms that we have,” Hayes said during his appearance on the show. “It’s just about how a lot of our life is, we just bounce from coping mechanism to coping mechanism. Like coffee, for instance. I’m so addicted to coffee. But, you know, it doesn’t destroy my life.”

Sober Thoughts also includes “Beat The Bottle,” “Beer In The Fridge,” “AA” and “Drinking Songs.” Hayes released it last month, writing in a caption on Instagram that he “ used to drink 24/7 so I didn’t have to have ‘sober thoughts.’ Nothing but grateful to be celebrating 8 years of sobriety,” with his music and his headlining “Same Drunk Tour,” kicking off this month. The tour includes Kylie Morgan, Matt Schuster, Tigirlily Gold and Tenille Arts.

Hayes is also part of the star-studded lineup of the 2024 iHeartCountry Festival Presented by Capital One, which returns on May 4 to Moody Center in Austin, Texas. other artists taking the stage include Jason Aldean, Jelly Roll, Old Dominion, Lady A, Riley Green, Ashley McBryde, Brothers Osborne, and Keith Urban. It’s all hosted again by iHeartRadio’s Bobby Bones. Fans across the country can tune in and stream the 2024 iHeartCountry Festival, as iHeartRadio Country music stations across the country will broadcast the event in their local markets, as well as on the free iHeartRadio app and iHeartRadio.com, on Saturday, May 4th at 8pm ET/5pm PT (7pm CT). Tickets are available to the general public now. For more information visit iHeartRadio.com/countryfestival.

Tim Palmer

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