Walker Hayes released “AA” on November 19, 2021.[1]
For starters, the “AA” in this song is a shoutout to Alcoholics Anonymous, the well-known NGO which helps drunkards kick their alcohol addiction. The way the vocalist references said organization is in alluding to his own desire not to be re-captivated by such malady. The reason he regularly feels compelled to resort to the bottle is because, most simply put, Walker is a bit stressed out.
Up until this point Walker Hayes has a couple of multi-platinum hits under his belt, the most recent being 2021’s “Fancy Like“, which is considered to be his signature song.[2]
Part of the inspiration for this song was Hayes’ near-relapse after his seventh child, Oakleigh, was born and died on the same day in June 2018. The evening after Oakleigh’s burial, Hayes came close to drinking alcohol again after two years of sobriety. “That night I actually drove to a bar and I wanted to just get hammered and get in a fight, and I didn’t have my wallet,” he revealed on Apple Music Country’s Ty Bentli Show. “And when I went home, I just broke down.”
“When I walked in my house, and I was so ashamed, I saw my wife on the couch all by herself. I was like, ‘I’m so sorry.’ You know, I left her alone to just go self-destruct,” Hayes continued. “And she helped me. She found an AA meeting in Williamson County.”[3]
“It was funny: three recovering, alcoholics, writing the truth,” Hayes tells Everything Nash. “Just saying, ‘I’m just trying to do these things in life that I fail at all the time. But I’m trying, and that’s what I’m up to.’ That’s how that song came about. I walked in the room and ‘Fancy Like‘ was just on a rocket. Luke just laughingly said, ‘Man, how are you? What are you doing? How is it going?’ And I said, ‘Man, I’m just trying to stay out of AA.’ He said, ‘Let’s go. You write that down.’ And that was the conception of ‘AA.'”[4]
The song “AA” by Walker Hayes delves deep into the raw and emotional topic of addiction, particularly alcoholism. Hayes, known for his honesty and vulnerability in his songwriting, bares his soul in this hauntingly beautiful composition. The lyrics serve as a confession and a plea for redemption, as Hayes openly admits to his struggle with alcohol and the consequences it has had on his life.
In the bridge, Hayes explores the crucial turning point in his life. He reflects on blaming his failures in life on external factors like his pitching in baseball. However, once he became a father, he realized that he had the power to make a positive change. The lyric “But once a man becomes a father, I’m told the pitcher ought to do well” reveals a newfound determination to be a better person and break free from the grip of addiction.[5]
Well, that is exactly the song I would have expected from the Fancy Like Applebees guy if he were tasked with writing a soul-searching meditation on family life and addiction.
A little bit of casual misogyny and toxic gender roles here. A little bit of underexamined personal philosophy there, where the subtext of self-loathing is literally the only interesting direction the song could have gone. We’ve got soft-pedaling the message enough that no one in the audience feels compelled to change their behavior (we all need a beer, just trying to “avoid AA”). We’ve got the dissonant images of “can’t afford $35 for an oil change,” but also writing a mainstream country radio hit as a reasonable professional goal. We have bizarre shoutouts to (famous college football coach) Nick Saban, John Deere, Skoal, and Nicorette. All of it in a sing-song cadence a toddler would be proud of and ending up in a line-dancing bar with big tiddies dancing around.
Fucking hell, Nashville, this is why I have to justify and cajole people to listen to anybody with a southern accent. Contrast the Walker Hayes garbage with Jason Isbell also doing a lightly up-tempo song about the struggle to stay sober and do the right thing.
Or, if that one’s too subtle, here’s him doing a semi-autobiographical (and it’s only barely “semi” from what I understand) roots rock confession that’s literally about an alcoholic in recovery. Seriously, compare “Keep muh dawters off the pole!” with “Last night I let myself remember… my daughter’s eyes when she’s ashamed.” There’s probably half a dozen other lines like it, that are “comparable” but… well… NOT comparable.
Also, what the heck is up with your link #5? It’s definitely not the linked song, I don’t think it’s a Walker Hayes song, and I can’t seem to find any of the lyrics on the interwebs. Is it an AI hallucination? If it is, it’s somehow slightly better than Walker Hayes.
