How Sobriety and Faith Shaped This Country Star’s Life
Movieguide® Contributor
Country star Walker Hayes used to spend his days writing music and hitting the bar…until he met Craig.
“I had my first beer when I was 13, and I remember being a different person because of that in my hand,” Hayes recalled on THE 700 CLUB. “As a songwriter…no one looked at me like, ‘Hey, it’s 11 in the morning. You sure you want to go to that bar you know right now?’ I mean that’s just what we did.”
In January 2014, Hayes’s wife, Laney, met a woman named Laura Cooper, who invited their family to a Saturday night church service where her husband, Craig, pastored.
“The first thing I said to him was, ‘Glad you’re here,” Cooper recalled. “I was just grateful that they showed up.”
The Hayes and their five kids became good friends with the Coopers, but Hayes didn’t want anything to do with religion due to his experience with it.
“My dad was a former music minister before he was a real estate agent, you know,” Hayes said. “I saw a lot of hurt in that church.”
A year later, Hayes’s record company dropped him, and the bank repossessed their family van. He took on an overnight job at Costco to make ends meet.
Then the Coopers did something the Hayes never expected and gifted them their own family van.
“Their unconditional love, it was so different from what we were used to,” Hayes said.
In 2016, Hayes got a new deal with Monument Records and eventually wrote a song called “Craig.”
At the time, Craig was feeling very discouraged in his ministry. The song showed him that he made a difference and blessed him greatly.
“It’s one of the greatest expressions of kindness that I have ever received and it hit right the heart of what’s most important to me and that’s my relationship with Jesus and I felt God himself singing over me through my unbelieving friend,” Cooper said.
Then Hayes gave Cooper another surprise.
“Walker said, ‘I will believe there’s a God if I could stop drinking,’” Cooper recalled. “So we just started praying that God would take the desire for alcohol away from him and boy, he did.”
“When he quit on that Saturday, it wasn’t with the intent of ‘I’m done drinking,’” Laney said. “It just was one day he wasn’t drinking and then the next day he didn’t, and then the next day, and it’s miraculous that he stopped that way.”
Country artist Walker Hayes is celebrating eight years of sobriety after his alcohol addiction nearly killed him…
READ MORE: COUNTRY SINGER WALKER HAYES CELEBRATES 8 YEARS SOBER: ‘THERE’S FREEDOM’
In 2018, the Hayes’ seventh child, Oakley, died shortly after birth. This nearly devastated their family.
“I found myself screaming at a God that I didn’t believe was there,” he said. “I would stand out in my driveway and just yell at someone. That was a confusing point, you know, in my life.”
“I had prayed previously, ‘Lord do whatever you need to do to draw him to you,’” Craig recalled through tears, “and so… I’m like, ‘Lord, is that…what you had to do?”
“That had a lot to do with my despair, you know, “ Hayes said, “my desire for a cure for myself, you know, from the disease of me.”
So Hayes began to read the Bible and told his wife that he wanted to change.
“I went and got a Bible and just started reading and reading and reading,” Hayes said.
“The kids and I would come downstairs in the mornings; he was usually the first one up, and he’d be sitting at the end of the kitchen counter reading the Bible and it was amazing to watch the transformation…just the power of the Holy Spirit through him in that season was incredible,” Laney said.
Walker gave his life to Christ and shared the news with Craig.
“I said, ‘You believe? What do you believe?’” Craig remembered asking him. “‘Are you telling me that you believe that Jesus is the son of God and that you want to live your life for Him?’ He said, ‘That’s exactly what I’m saying.’ I was like, dude.”
The friends eventually wrote a book about their journey called I’m Glad You’re Here, which made it on the New York Times bestsellers list. They also have a “Be a Craig Fund” that raises money for families in need of vehicles. Those in need can be nominated on BeaCraig.org.
“I’m sure if you look on my Instagram right now, there’s a lot of people that say things like ‘I want a family like that,” Hayes said, “and that’s not what I want to say, and I’m sure there’s a lot of people that look at my life and say, ‘Oh, if I just keep on going, my dream will come true, and that’s not what I want to say either. I wish my life said all I ever want is just Jesus. That’s it.”
“Things are changing all the time…My only hope is Jesus. That’s my message. And I think He’s everybody’s. And to me, there’s a freeing thought that life is not the end all be all. It’s beautiful, but it’s gonna let us down continually until it’s over,” Hayes previously said to Everything Nash. “There are beautiful, beautiful things to behold in it and about it. Life isn’t the answer, but Jesus is.”
Recently, the “Fancy Like That” singer has been busy new EP for the holidays called “Christmas Vacation,” which features several originals and a cover of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.”
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