New 2U at 2:02 April 27, 2018: Would you add Walker Hayes “Craig” to your personal playlist?
This new single from Walker Hayes was never supposed to be on his album. He wrote it as a tribute for a man, named Craig, who inspired it by lifting him up with an incredible act of kindness that came at a crucial moment in Hayes’ life.
He had lost a record and publishing deal and his minivan had been repossessed. That left one car for he and his wife and six children…and that meant that there weren’t enough seat belts for everyone. Walker remembers feeling he was at the lowest point in his life when Craig, a friend from church, surprised him at one of his son’s baseball games by signing over his Chrysler Town and Country Van to him on the spot.
The act of kindness eventually came full circle as he explained to Taste Of Country, when he finally played the song to the man who inspired it.
“He tells the story of him hearing it as he was having a couple of bad weeks and was really down and dark,” Hayes says. “I just sent it to him, out of the blue. I sent it to him and his wife and just said, ‘Thanks. I always wanted to just say thanks.’ It crushed him. 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.”
“I got goosebumps right now telling you that, because I just imagine him … I just wanted him to feel appreciated with that song,” Hayes says. “But he will not play it for people … His wife will be like, ‘Y’all come and listen, he doesn’t want to play you this song.'”