How a TikTok with His Daughter Launched Christian Country Star’s Career
By Movieguide® Contributor
Country music star Walker Hayes recalled how a TikTok with his daughter launched his career.
“With every song I was releasing, [my daughter and I] did a TikTok,” Hayes told TODAY’s Hoda Kotb. “Now, we might get a thousand views, but when we did that dance, I mean a million [views] that night. Honestly, I was a little bit afraid. I had never had that many eyes on something I had done before.”
Since becoming known on the national stage, Hayes has continued to make his career a family affair. In May 2023, he and his family embarked on a year of “trick shots” which they would post on social media once they were achieved. After a while, however, it became more of a grind as they spent hours frustrated before landing a shot.
“I just thought, hey, it’s easy to post,” Hayes told PEOPLE last May. “Everybody likes it. The boys were so excited. It was kind of early summer, and the weather was really nice. So yeah, it just made sense. Let’s do an entire year.”
READ MORE: COUNTRY STAR WALKER HAYES TALKS SOBRIETY, FINDING JESUS: ‘WORTH SHARING’
“Determined to persist, all eight family members hunkered down, devising new tricks of varying difficulty and complexity, which they then pulled off everywhere they went: at their lake house south of Nashville and the construction site nearby of their new home, on the tour bus they all share, backstage in the arenas where Hayes was performing, in store aisles, hotel rooms, mall food courts, public parks, workout facilities, restaurants, airports, swimming pools, school gymnasiums, even on their mission trip earlier this year to Rwanda,” PEOPLE reported.
Despite the long hours, Hayes and his wife found this practice to be extremely valuable as it taught their kids the importance of persistence.
“I truly feel like colleges or high schools should do a trick-shot class,” Hayes said. “It taught my family — and Laney would agree — more than any class we’ve ever taken. It’s a metaphor for everything beautiful and meaningful to me in life,” says Hayes. “Anything that’s incredible — like marriage, having children, chasing a dream, my relationship with the Lord — none of it comes in just eternal bliss. Most of it is a lot of struggle.”
READ MORE: WALKER HAYES: ‘GOD MADE US CREATIVE’ DESPITE GROWING AI CAPABILITIES
Faith is everything to the country star.
“Honestly, I don’t care about sharing anything else,” he said, per Taste of Country. “To be quite frank with you, I don’t think there’s anything [more] worth sharing than what Jesus has done with me and the redemption I’ve experienced here on earth, and will continue to experience from knowing Him. That’s it. That’s why I wanna share my story.”
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