Country Singer Holds Onto the Moment That ‘Made the Knee Bow’

Published: February 9, 2026

By Michaela Gordoni

Artist Walker Hayes had a hard road to faith, and now that he has it, he’s never letting go.

“If you were like, ‘Hey, you’re going to heaven. Grab one thing,’ I’m leaving Nashville. I’m leaving my house. I mean, no offense, kids and wife, but I’m leaving,” he explained on “The Upload with Brooke and Taylor” podcast.

“I’m bringing what made the knee bow ‘cause that’s where I needed to get, you know?” he continued. “That’s where I was born to be, on both knees, face down in front of the Messiah, you know, and… I think there’s a lot of people who probably hear that and they’re like, ‘This dude is insane,’ but… I’m grabbing that moment because that’s when we knew our savior.”

Hayes recalled one of his lowest moments after he had just moved to Nashville for music but was working at Costco and having car troubles. A new friend, a pastor named Craig, reached out to him. Walker was a firm atheist, but he knew he didn’t have all the answers.

“I was very like, ‘Don’t let them see your inquisitive side… [and] stand up against this movement,’” he said. “So for me to like slip up and go, ‘I don’t get it. Why can he love me like this?’ Like I was like, ‘What’s the catch?’”

But God gave him Craig so that he could feel his love from example.

“It’s like of all people, it’s this bivocational preacher guy, you know, named Craig who gave us a Chrysler, you know. It’s awesome, but Craig adopted me basically. And that’s what God does,” he explained.

View this post on Instagram

“I think I probably tried to push Craig away, you know, and he didn’t go anywhere. That’s hard… That again, that’s why it’s so rare… He knew me and he loved me,” Hayes said.

Craig gifted the Hayes family a vehicle when they desperately needed one. Even though Hayes hadn’t become a believer yet, he wrote a song about Craig and his kindness and sent it to him.

“And in his despair, I mean, he was on a date with his wife pouring out his inadequacy and she said, ‘I think we need to listen to this.’ And the song, ‘Craig,’ came on in the car, which is basically saying, ‘Man, I don’t know anything about this dude, but I know he knows I know he might know Jesus.’”

That song was exactly what Craig needed in that moment.

Hayes told Taste of Country, “He listened to it in the parking lot of a theater, and his wife texted me and said, ‘He heard it, he can’t speak. He can’t text you right now.’ I think he was just losing it, crying.”

“That was cool,” Hayes recalled. “Like that was a whole… testimony going on at the same time that I didn’t even know and of course Craig’s got to be going, God, you’re using an atheist to love on me.’ This is bonkers.”

Now, Hayes is a servant of God who’s no longer struggling as an artist. He and Craig wrote a book about their experience and God’s love and even started a fund to gift other families cars.

The man behind the song, Craig Cooper, said Hayes’ transformation has been “remarkable to watch, and it couldn’t happen to someone better. It’s neat to have him be able to share his testimony and his story with a larger audience. That’s where he gets really excited – to be able to reach more and more people with his story.”

Questions or comments? Please write to us here.