The Bobby Bones Show - BONUS: 4 Things with Amy Brown - Walker & Laney Hayes: The Best Love Song. Blessing Others. Grieving the Loss of a Child. Practicing Gratitude.

Episode Date: August 26, 2019

BONUS EPISODE: Episode of 4 Things With Amy BrownSinger/song-writer, Walker Hayes (who wrote our theme song! + the #PIMPINJOY song 'Joy Like Judy') and his wife Laney join Amy for all 4 things this episode. You might laugh. You might cry. The parents of 6 kids let us in on a lot and we are so thankful that they took the time to share it all. FIRST THING: Amy is obsessed with Walker's song “Don’t Let Her”, which was written about Laney. Every girl would love for a guy to write her a song like this. Its genius. Sorta sad. But genius. And very sweet. A must listen!!! SECOND THING: Blessing others is fun. Walker & Laney have been on the receiving end, but now they are on the giving ned. They are paying it forward with their "Be a Craig Fund" that was inspired by their friend (named Craig) that blessed them with a van for their big family at a time when they were financially strapped and they didn't have a car with enough seatbelts for everyone. "Be a Craig Fund" now allows them to pass the blessing of a new car on to other people that need a little help. THIRD THING: Walker & Laney open up about the heartbreaking journey of losing their daughter Oakleigh during birth. They share about how they are getting through the grief process in hopes that it can be helpful to others who may be going through something similar. FOURTH THING: “Life ain’t always pretty, but hey its pretty beautiful thing!” Through the good and the bad...Walker & Laney practice gratitude...so they each share 4 things they are thankful for. Be sure to check out WalkerHayes.com for his music, more information on the Be A Craig Fund, as well as the awesome merch mentioned in this episode.  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Open doors to the future for you and your family with the help of American Military University. That's AMU. That's AMU. comus. dot E-D-U-S-Military. Hey, it's Amy. Thanks for checking out the Bobby Bone Show replay podcast. I wanted to tell you about my podcast, four things with Amy Brown,

and share a special episode with you. Now, on my podcast, I always share four different things. Health, lifestyle, faith, family, stuff like that. And on this episode, I interviewed Walker Hayes and his wife, Flaney, and they did all four things with me. There's laughter, tears, inspiration. Hope you love it as much as I do. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, listen on IHeart Radio, or wherever you get your podcasts. And here is Walker Hayes.

Cast up roll things Little food for your soul things Life ain't always pretty But hey It's pretty beautiful Furnal little more things Tight tighten up your core thing Said EK

You're kicking it with four things With Amy Brown Lainty's 40 by the way Boom Big birthday Looking smoking hot for 40 She is Yeah

She is gasoline Well Walker doesn't know is that I've started recording. Oh, crap. But no, that's awesome. But he's brought it up. Lenny is so fine. She is so fine.

She's fine for 20. Yeah. So I've got Walker Hayes and Laney Hayes on the podcast today. So they are going to do all four things with us, which is awesome. We're going to cover just some of Walker's music, which is amazing.

I feel like he is a talented songwriter. Like, so talented. He will forever. have a special place in my heart. Well, for one, you may recognize his voice because he does the theme song to this podcast, um, in case you don't know, but this is Walker. Walker, do you, do remember singing this? I don't, I don't really like, record actually. Put your headphones on. E.K. Cheats a lot. Lave a lot.

E.K. Let's up, bro. A little food for your soul. Right. Right. Life ain't always pretty, but hey, it's pretty beautiful. I like it. Yeah. So I had sent Walker when I asked him because Walker and I developed a relationship because Walker is also the guy that gave my mom a theme song.

Like my mom was battling cancer. We would talk about her on the Bobby Bone show. From that, the Pimp and Joy movement was born. And, you know, then next thing you know, Walker bust out with this song titled Joy Like Judy. And then Walker, what you don't know is that song? Well, I probably have told you before. You may know, but I'm just now I'm going to tell everybody, and I'm sure I've told everybody before, but I'll say it again, is that this song is such a gift, like, to me and my sister,

my family and friends, and my mom's grandkids, my kids who didn't get to know her, because you sent us this song, like, I feel like we at least recorded the video in March of 2014, not sure when you sent the song, but once my mom had a theme song, Joy like Judy, I was like, whoa, we got a mom, you need to do a music video. And she was so hesitant. It was like being on videos and not her thing. But she rolled with it and she was such a good sport. And now, you know, y'all can watch it.

It's on YouTube, but we'll put it at radioamy.com if you want to check it out. But this is my first connection to Walker and why he and his family will forever be special to me. Because like this is a video that will forever be there for my family to watch. And this is Walker's singing about my mom choosing joy. And it's definitely something, if you listen to the podcast and you don't know much about Pimp and Joy, that I encourage you to go check out because I don't know if the video is like just super special to me because it's mine. But I hope that you'll be touched by it too. And that's why another reason why I'll be forever grateful for Walker.

But he has so many other amazing songs. you know, Bobby has always praised your songwriting skills and is a big fan of you. And we're such a huge fan of Laney too. And y'all just have an amazing life with some stories, the ups and the downs. And y'all are willing to be vulnerable and share. And that's what we're all about here on this podcast. So I think we're going to cover some of those, some of those ups and the downs. So I appreciate y'all coming in to do it.

Thanks for having us. Are you nervous? Oh, jinks. Pinch. Pinch, po. Oh, do you say, big folk? You know me? Brainwave here.

Yeah. And we count of 10 really fast. Is that what you do? Is that the thing? Counts 10? I don't know. We do. I think so.

That goes back to 17. And y'all do have, yeah, six kids. So is that? We do. Probably happens with them, too, a little bit. Oh, yeah. Do you feel like they keep you pretty young? Kids?

Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Because y'all do not look like you have six kids. I got to tell y'all. If y'all don't know. too what Walker and Laney look like. They're like Nashville's most beautiful people. Right.

And then, Lainey, you said Walker's been, when did you start your working out journey, Walker? I started, so I quit drinking four years ago. And that's, I dabbled and then I became, you know, it becomes a little bit of an obsession. And so, yeah, so that's kind of when I started caring, I guess, you know, and visiting the gym frequently. I mean, because Lany, I don't know, you can tell me if I'm, but I mean, he, like, was not in bad shape, but he went from like Walker, Hey, a Workout, to, I don't know, like Men's Health Magazine covers.

Right. He's always been in great shape. Tell him, there were seasons. Tell him what you think of me. Tell him, tell them. Let's not get that deep. No, we can go deep here. You're like, no, really.

No, just kidding. But, yeah, it became his thing on the road for sure. He always either ran or worked out. He always was in good shape, but definitely now it's... Turn it up a knot. Yeah, it's up a notch. Spice things up at the house. Oh, okay.

He's crazy. Sorry, Amy. You can't take him anywhere. It's fine. We'll go ahead and get in. Tell him your favorite parts. What? Amy, I'm sorry.

Sorry. Kick him off. Okay. But yeah, seriously. Lenny is so fun. I always be like, does my arm look jacked? And she's like, it looks the same. I mean, I'm terrible affirmation because he always looks the same to me.

So I'm like, I don't know. You look the same as you did years ago. And he's like, no, that's not the right hand. answer. Well, I'm like, I don't see the fluctuation. Well, Walker, I know that you're used to kind of being out there and sharing a lot. I mean, and you're an artist, musician, a songwriter. You're out there. But Lainey, thank you for being here with us. And I know that y'all are both going to open up about some hard stuff. And again, we'll talk about kind of the highs and lows of life and what we like to be here at the podcast is relatable and touch somebody. And I know that your story about Oakley

and losing her and then even like Walker you having to deal with that and almost losing Lainey, I feel like that's something we're going to get into as well, which I hope will, you know, be comforting somebody. I mean, we're all experience loss at some level, but, you know, that's definitely another level to me. Like I can't even imagine, but even I've appreciated you being open and talking about it. So that said, we'll just, and then, too, I want to get at the end, sometimes what we do with guests is find out things that you're grateful for. Oh, yeah. And guess how many things we do?

Four. Boom. So, you know, while we're recording, be thinking of the four things that you're grateful for. They can be serious or fun or whatever, and then we'll kind of close with that. But with that said, Walker, do you want, are you going to sing us to the... Be kind. Too joy. Laugh.

Love a lot. Eat cake. Eat cake. So I just sent Walker the four things, the four things, joy seeker, which that's what that is called, the Be Kind, Choose Joy Laugh, Eat Cake. It's something we had on a shirt and a tote, and we called it the Joy Seeker.

And I was like, hey, would you mind doing my theme song? And you were like, no problem. And then you were like over in the UK or something, walking the streets of London, just spitting out rhymes. I was so excited to do it for you, but I didn't have any gear there to, like, lay it down and so yeah one day I remember you being like well I need it by a certain date and I was like oh crap and so yeah I just kind of wrote it I texted it to myself that's kind of how I write stuff

just text myself but yeah I remember we're walking around and I was like I got to find an alley where I can sit and sing like casserole thing and like and so send you a voice memo and I remember being glad when I sent you that and you were like yeah that's the that's great oh it's so perfect Like you had the little, like the casserole and how you tied in, like, yeah, we share recipes on here. Because I kind of told you, I think we're going to do like, it'll be all the things, like recipes, but then serious stuff. And so your brain came up with casserole things, food, food for your soul thing. So that tied in, it's not just about like literal food, but food for the soul.

Yeah. Mind-blown. He is. He is. You wrote it all. I just put it to music. But yeah, the, yeah, but my favorite lines, he, he, cake. I mean, to me, that's the jam. Like, you need a hat that says just eat cake.

Ooh, good idea. Yeah. Okay. I'll put that on a hat. Coming soon. Yeah. To Walker Haze.com. Eat cake. Yeah. I'll be selling my merch table. Don't worry. Other people do it. It's fine. It's awesome. First thing. That's right. Okay, so we're going to go ahead and start with the romantic song that I tease.

Because I feel like this song, Walker, it's so, I mean, it's probably everything, every woman would want to hear. And I know Lainey that you vet a lot of his songs for him. And do you get tired of doing that? Or is it like, do I get tired of doing that walk? I'm going to be honest in this interview. Don't lie. Tell him the truth. Yes, for sure.

I wish I was this like perfect wife who. was like, oh, bring me all your songlines. I love to hear him, but no, that's not really the reality at our house. When he comes home with a song idea, like the day he steps off the bus and he's home for a couple days, we're like, you have a new song idea right now? Like, couldn't I have just waited a couple of days until you go back on the road? Because he gets in songland and it's hard to bring him back. Like, anybody in the creative world kind of knows that you drift off.

And even though you're there, you're not really there. you're kind of living in your head in creative land. So, yeah, oftentimes we go, hey, come back to us, like out of creative world. But when you sent me the lyric to this song, I definitely, it was different. It was different from the others. Okay. And so for people that haven't heard it, I'm going to play a little clip here. We can only listen to a little bit of it.

Or then we might get sued by Walker. Because that's podcast laws. So we can listen quietly for a little bit, and then we may have to start to talk over it. Okay. So here is a little bit of don't let her. She don't get too sick about money, nice little coffee, let her sleep late as she wants. Home is her favorite restaurant. Don't you dare come home if you hammer.

Better watch your mouth than your grandma. She loves babies, hates glitter. You better shave for you kiss her. And if she ever misses me, please don't let her. There you go. Okay. So, what, people are probably like, okay, those are cute lyrics, but I don't really get it. But it's the concept behind it that makes the song so fabulous.

So explain the concept, Walker. It's a million different things into one. I was actually, I wrote this song the same week I wrote your theme song. Crazy. Like in one week I had the most fun, creative week. And I was missing Laney. And, you know, this was last year. was still, you know, we're fresh off the loss of Oakley, almost losing Lainey, which, you know,

I'm a, I am, Lainey would would agree, I'm the emotional person of the family, and I have trouble, I don't know what you call it, just digesting emotions. Like it takes me, I'm a slow rebound from any emotional stimulus. And so my head, you know, when I'm missing Lainey over there, I was in the UK for two weeks. I am 100% myself and recharging my batteries with Lainey and the kids. When I'm away from them, things begin to just go south. I'm just lost. And I just started writing specifics about Lainey.

And really, it was just a love song, like, look how much I know about you. Because I think that's flattering when Lany's like, when you smile like that, I know what means this. And when you, I know how you eat with your elbow up. You know, like little quirks, when somebody knows that about you, you feel like, oh, you noticed me. Right. And so. Like honey and coffee. And that's what I started to do.

I was like, you know, she loves to sleep late and, you know, she doesn't like you if you're drunk. And, you know, and just all the specifics about Laney and our story. And then I accidentally was like, and if she misses me, don't. And then I was like, well, what I want you to do if she misses me? because honestly, selfishly, I'm like, let her a little bit, you know, but then make her feel better. But I was like, no, I want you to, you know, help her move on. And then that's the line that became, that's what made it that almost morbid concept,

you know, was that question was like, hey, you know, we're not promised tomorrow. And that actually happens to a lot of people. And I've noticed that from the reactions of this song. so many people react and say, hey, that is my spouse. You know, I lost them. And I needed to hear that. Now, I'm going to go out. You know, I'm going to get back out there into the world.

So, yeah, that song is, you know, obviously completely about Eleni. I really enjoyed kind of sifting through the specifics of her. And I knew when I texted her. And by the way, she does not like to always listen to lyrics. Like there's, I almost cringe when I'm like, hey, will you listen to these two lines? Because I know she's like, oh, okay. So anyway, when I sent her this, I knew I was like, this is going to get her. I know this is about to get her.

And it did. So, Lainey, what was your, when he sent you? Like, I mean, one of my favorite line is home is a favorite restaurant. Yeah. So good. No, I really, this one struck me differently than a lot of. of the other songs. You know, sometimes he comes home with the sweet love song, and he's like, I wrote a song

about you today, and I hear it, and I'm like, no, that wasn't really about me. But this one obviously was to anybody. That's not real. Too generic. Yeah. But this one was so genuine, and it was sweet to think, oh, you do. You just know all the little intricate details of me and who I really am. And it's fun to feel really known for who you are, good and bad and loved anyway.

And so this song did. I think I sent him back a teary face and was like, oh, my goodness, that's so sweet. Now, on the other hand, I was thinking, I don't know why anybody would want to listen to a song about me, but, you know, I'm thankful that it really does touch other people. You're the inspiration. I think it's just for me listening. I mean, yeah, I don't like all, home is my favorite restaurant, by the way, too. I feel you on that one. But it's just like you can feel it's so cute.

It's cute. Yeah. Like it's a cute. love song that's deep and sweet has so many layers to it it's not just surfacy it's not surfacy cute it's deep cute thanks for saying that thank you is that that even makes sense yeah when i listen to it myself i find myself like i'm confused emotionally i'm like am i sad or happy or and then i laugh you know at the mom line uh that makes me laugh and then i love the little section about say the mom line best advice I can give you, brother.

Don't never say she's acting just like her mother. Oh, yeah. Even though she does sometimes. Which, by the way, I adore my mom, and it sparked a whole lot of, like, me calling my mom, Mom, you're going to get a complex over this song. So that was a really funny other little interlude. And my mom was so sweet. I was like, my kids are going to say that one day.

That's just life. Right. We all say that. I loved my mom as well. But when, I mean, when she was alive, my husband definitely compared me to her. And in fact, even since she's passed away, it's been five years now. it's like in that territory where it's okay to bring her up again, he will compare me. And I still get mad.

I'm like, I don't do that. But I mean, I clearly do that. But it's like little, it's just people that you're close to. It's the way it goes. There's things about people where you're like, and, you know, I'll call him out. Like, you're acting like your dad right now. And he's like, yeah. It ain't one side.

It is not one side of it for sure. All the time. That's the fun go-to when you're married. That's just an easy ammo, you know? Right. And then it's like, well, and then you're like, well, I wouldn't say that if I was like they were in the room. You're right.

But no offense, it doesn't mean anything bad. I might. Yeah. Are y'all close with, do y'all have a healthy in-law? I mean, I don't think your in-laws are listening unless they are. But I mean, we're also. Yeah, we don't get to see them a whole lot. You know, our life stays busy and they don't, you know, they come to visit some.

But, you know, we try to make the round to visit everybody at least a couple times a year. Because y'all are high school. I think that's pretty good. High school sweethearts. Yeah. So are your parents, friends? I've uh no no I mean our parents were once we we started dating in 11th grade they kind of began to get to know each other but you know I feel like maybe since our our relationship was so early and and an immature age and then you combine that with my career choice you know I can definitely even though at times I may stress or not appreciate my relationship with my in-laws, I can, as a father, I can see how difficult kind of watching us must

have been, you know, me, like Leni meeting me, obviously not being on her level. Like, she was completely out of my league. SGA president of everything, like beautiful. And then I was kind of a, I was a poor student, a little more of a wild card. And then, you know, a couple months into our our engagement. I'm like, hey, by the way, I'm not going to sell real estate. I want to move to Nashville, you know, be a rock star. And then turn around, she's popping out kids like, tick-tack. And you're like, and you know, I'm sure her parents, I can definitely see if there's any animosity or was ever any like, oh my God, what are y'all doing? I can completely understand where that would come from. When I tell our story a lot of times, I'm like, what were we

thinking. Yeah, what age were you when you got engaged? We were, we got married at 24, 23. So engaged at 23. We had a long dating, long volatile dating relationship. I think our life has just never made sense. And the things that we love the most in life are all the things that were really silly to go into. I mean, we couldn't afford, well, this dream was crazy to chase. And then we couldn't afford kids, but we kept having them. and all the things that we love the most about our journey in life, you know, have been the things that don't really make sense.

We still can't afford kids. And we want to, like we wish someone would just drop quadruplets on our door, you know. I mean, we still struggle with. That's why everyone should go download don't let her. Yes. We can afford. And then there's like, is there don't let her merch?

Oh, yeah, we just came out with the Don't Ever Watch the Office Without Me shirt. Because that's one of the things. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, we, yeah, we never, we sometimes, sometimes we're like, are we, we selfish, like that we want, you know, more kids or, and stuff. And we're both the babies of the family. And so if you, I think if you walk in our house, you realize that. Like, we're so, I feel like we're lazy at times, but we're just, there's, there's things that we're not concerned with.

Perhaps like the yard. I don't care. Like our yard looks like Jumanji always. And I don't care. I don't fix it until I get a notice from the neighborhood. And they're like, hey, you got to pull those weeds. And I'm like, for real, I thought, you know, my kids love them. They're like, they're so pretty.

The weeds are flowers. They're beautiful, mom. They're wild. We got sheet rock problems going on. I mean, we skateboard. We throw the ball in the house. We just, we live on like kind of a different planet and we always have. I think when you have a bunch of kids, though, you have to learn to let a lot of things go.

A whole lot of things go. You know this. Well, I mean, I have two. Y'all have six. But still, it's life with kids. Yeah, you do. You have to or you don't enjoy your kids and you don't enjoy what you have. Exactly.

I used to be way more uptight about, or I don't know what kind of mom, Lainey, you thought you were going to be. But I thought I was going to never give my kids cereal. You know? Like, and we, no, I get it. I promise, I get that. Oh, dude. You're like, we're going to have healthy smoothies for breakfast every morning, and I get it. Right.

With our first kid, Lainey always had, like, a mini bag of fresh carrots and, like, some purayed asparagus. And then now, we only start on avocado. Our house is raining lucky charms now. It is interesting how you change your, it's just, you know, it's like, what? Wait, why am I so stressed? I mean, I feel like we still have aspirations and goals of, like, keeping them healthy and getting them interested in, like, things that are going to be good for them. But at the end of the day, like, a bowl of cereal isn't going to hurt anybody.

But, I mean, I used to be pretty, and even, like, I was a little judgy. And I take it all back. I don't want to judge. Now I'm, like, not judgy, but I remember I would see, I was like, oh, I mean, because my mom fed me that. I ate sugary cereals. I will say we don't have, we don't have lucky charms. There you have a guy there yet. But no judgment.

No. A couple more kids. Yeah, right. Right, I know. If I pop out. No, I'm just kidding. That's what I'm saying. If I pop out a few more, I might go that route.

Yeah. But now it's like, even the convenience sometimes of, I think on Saturday morning, like Stevenson got up and I was like, hey buddy, he's like, what's for breakfast? And I was like, can you just pour yourself a bowl of cereal. And it was amazing. Yeah. I was like, this is the life, right? Yes.

So I can't even imagine. You know, there's this ideal, like, way up here in the clouds. and then there's real life and it doesn't always match. Now on the subject, though, of sugar cereal, I will say it has an immediate effect on our kids' attitudes. So then selfishly, I'm like, I eat a banana or something else because I just don't want to deal with the way you're going to act after you eat that cereal. That's a real thing. I'm saying that struggle is real.

Like the dietary stuff is for real. Oh, yeah. I can see it too in my kids. But then sometimes, well, sometimes it's like you were saying, Lany, like you just, you don't want to miss out on experiences with your kids. Like, you don't want to waste time doing the yard if you're missing out and stuff with your kids. Like, for me, I felt like I was sort of going to be the same way about, like, ice cream or different things. And then there's times we got as a family and we all get it together. And it's like, if I was trying to be uptight about it, we'd miss out on those moments because, like, kids love treats like that.

Yeah. And, you know, I don't want to be like so uptight. I can't even enjoy ice cream with my kids. Yeah. But, okay, so before we, again, back to Don't Letter. which you should be downloading now on iTunes to support Walker and Laney and their six kids. But let's listen to a few more lyrics to see where we are. I kind of like, let me turn it up.

I'm not a professional here, but hold on. Get it. I'm good. And if she think she'd love again, she should. Understood. That's her favorite flower. Don't ever watch the office without her. That shirt's available.

Got it. Yeah. Her favorite season is football. It's a jam. You really love football season, Lainey? Oh, I do. We're counting down. August 31st.

Oh, yeah, no, I know. See, I'm not that into football, but my husband, yeah, he's on the countdown. And I'm like, oh, gosh. I'm very lucky. Laney is, like, avid sport. Like, if I was like, hey, we're going to have a special date tonight, I have a surprise for you. If I was like, hey, I got tickets to a Cardinals game or a Braves game or a family

football game, she would lose her mind. Like, that's where. she likes to hang. And again, I'm a lucky, lucky dude. She knows more about pro baseball than I do right now. I'm on the road singing. I don't really get to watch every game. And she'll be like, dude, the Red Sox lost by this much.

And this is how this was crazy. And she'll just watch it by herself. I think it's probably been since having boys and they've gotten older and watching them at baseball and then just kind of getting into it and then watching some games with them. You know, it's kind of been a process. I can't say I was always like that, but it is a fun thing to do as a family.

And we're kind of obsessed with playing the show on the PlayStation when Walker comes home. Every day. We've gotten a lot of baseball knowledge that way, too. But I do love football. Nice. It's the first thing we do when we wake up. And four of our kids were August babies and not always. It's a PlayStation baseball game.

Oh, okay. She goes with the Red Sox. I usually play with the Dodgers. She's so good. It's like Walker's speaking that right now, and I'm just hearing a song. She likes Red So, socks. I like Dodgers. There we go.

Right? Add it in. Add it in. Put it on a shirt. Just kidding. But I know we mentioned the merch and the stuff about Walker. I just want to say too. You can go to Walkerhaise.com. Right, Walker? Yes, ma'am. Because, I mean.

Get it. Get it. Check it out. You can get some more kiddo. Okay, so Walker next. I want to talk about the Craig Fund, which is a really amazing story. So, too, you created a song from that. It's got to be, I think, probably therapeutic for you to be able to use, just like you gave us the gift of joy like Judy. Yeah.

And, you know, even the podcast theme song that may resonate with some people in some way. But this is like on another level because, you know, you met this guy Craig and he had a major impact on your life, which we'll get into. But then you were able to write a song about him. And then you played him the song. And then it's created a whole movement. Yeah. And so I'm going to play a little bit of the Craig song and then we'll talk about it because the Craig Fund, I think, is something that people, I mean, they may want to see how they can get involved.

Or they may just be inspired by like, oh, wow, like you can make a difference and you can bless people big or small. And Craig happened to go, I mean, he went big for y'all. And we'll get into exactly how. But here is Craig by Walker Hayes. Yeah, I know. He sounds cool right. Not your typical kid from Sundays go right. I still ain't figured out church yet.

But Craig I get him. Now he can't. Walk on water, I turn a nap of Valley red, but he just might be tight with a man that did. So obviously, there you're applying that Craig is like, J-E-S-U-S. Like Jesus, like he's tight with Jesus because he has, you know, a relationship.

You met him at church, but you kind of were like, this guy's different than maybe other people you had experienced. So Walker, I'll let you take it away. Yeah, yeah, Craig. There's two massive, like, there's two, two large things that struck me about Craig. It is one, I can be a very judgmental person, especially upon, like, a Christian community. Because a lot of times I find myself picking them up apart because they are proclaiming one thing, but then acting a certain way. And that's my problem. That's wrong of me.

But Craig's relationship with Laney and I was so unconditionally loving. And we never felt, if I'd have felt preached at or even taught, I would probably have backed off. I'm just that type of person. But he just loved us. And so that was definitely alluring quality that he possessed. And his just relationship with us was so, had no agenda. They just, they just wanted to, they just loved us, you know. And then also, I was beyond inspired, obviously, by Craig giving us a cart.

And there's many reasons, but one was because dude didn't ask. You know, I find myself a lot of times. Well, hold on. I'm going to back up a little bit because people might be, want to know a little bit more of the backstory. So y'all started in Laney. I don't even know that I know this part, but like who, like, Found the church y'all are going to start going to. Maybe it was new. You started going. Were you going? And then Walker started going. And then what was going on in y'all's life around that time? And then boom, now Craig is in the picture. So I originally met Laura, Craig's wife, through a mutual friend, just kind of nice to meet you. And that was it. And then saw her later at basketball at our kids' basketball games and just started talking to her. She told us they had just moved here. They had started a church. And I was like, oh, yeah, yeah, great. That's nice. And then they had invited us. And I was like, I don't know. So I kind of got online and I was like, what kind of church is this? What do they believe? You know, what's going on here? And she struck me, of course, as super kind and friendly from the very beginning. And we certainly clicked. And then I drug my family there. And it was in the winter. So it was pitch black dark. It was at night. They were meeting at night. And we were driving to the middle of the country. And I was like, guys, I don't know what we're about to drive up to. Like I was kind of a little bit flipping out about, I don't know where I'm taking my family.

And then we walked into this church at night. And it was just, it was amazing. People were so kind and welcoming and loving and kids everywhere and running around. And it was just the most come exactly how you are. And we love you sort of place that we had walked into. So that was kind of how it started. And then we did develop a very close friendship with Craig and Laura and their kids over the course of time. And you can go from here.

Well, yeah. And at that time in our lives, I was drinking heavily. Probably when we rolled into that church, I'm sure I'd been drinking all day. We had, we were about to have, we're about to actually be pregnant with our six. We had just had number five. Number five, okay. And, you know, things were going downhill fast, like money wise, job wise.

I had not gotten a job yet at Costco was what was about to. and uh but yeah laura but i mean honestly laura and craig uh they they just they adopted us is what they did i mean they they called us theirs they opened their house to us uh he showed up you know to my shows like a father figure would and sat in the back and anytime i saw craig in the back chatting somebody's ear off i knew that he was like isn't that dude good like do you ever heard this guy like he should like he would always tell every night like after a show he'd be like you need to be playing arenas man i can't believe you're playing right you know and i and i and i was just like it was so kind and and genuine and um and then yeah our relationship just continue to grow and then

about three years later we had had our six kid um everly and we were down to one car we we i had hidden the fact that I had gotten dropped from a label from an endorsement deal that I had. Because I knew that as soon as this Volkswagen dealership found out that nothing was going on musically that they probably take that van back. And all we had was this old Honda that Lainey brought in when we got married. And so the van got taken away. I remember watching the truck take it. And the kids were like, that's awesome. You know how they put it up on the truck. And I was like they didn't understand but not really at the same time and so things got rough you know and and you know I acted like oh I got you know I got it figured out and we shared a car for about six

weeks and one night Craig shows up unannounced we had invited he showed up after Beckett's baseball game and got out of his own minivan and Laura his wife drove in in in another car and he had this big grin on his face and and we argued you know he he was he was like take take the car you know just take it I know I know you know you need it all you got to assign he had the title and he did the song is exactly what what went down and I was like nah you know because honestly I was genuinely embarrassed and just proud and didn't want to accept help because you know accepting help just felt like I was saying that I couldn't do it, you know, on my own. And I remember my daughter, I remember her saying, Dad, just take the car.

And then I remember Craig saying he actually, him and his brother were like really good wrestlers in high school. And at one point he said, I'm going to wrestle you, you know, for it. And I was like, no, no thanks. I don't want to wrestle. And so I just took, I took the car and we drove it home. And I immediately felt about. burden just lifted. I felt the ability to focus on other things and not be so stressed out about, you know, the vehicle situation. And obviously the kids were much safer riding in a car that

they all fit in. You know, we had been driving everywhere in the Honda with Lainey and I and six kids. And so it was definitely illegal. And, you know, we weren't like proud of that. But that's all we had but yeah I mean dude showed up and he didn't ask like I said I mean he saw a need and he just I think him and Laura probably spoke like hey can we do this and and and Craig you know I think a lot of people feel like he just hands out cars and can do that I mean he I think after he gave us the car he went and bought himself something used like for five or six grand it's not it's not like he was like oh I'm going to get a Tesla and just so you all know that That was definitely a financial push for them.

That was not really something they could necessarily afford to do. People think, oh, they must be wealthy and be able to just do that. They really couldn't. They were stepping out in faith, just seeing a need that we had. And how can we help? They're just those people. You know, it wasn't that that was an easy thing for them. They were really just stepping out.

They have four kids. Right. Yeah. No, I have goosebumps. And they didn't have like a bank account of money that they could rely on if something happened. I mean, they were really, they were going out on a limb for us for sure. That was, and people don't, they wanted to bless you and, and Walker to you, like, he proved to you that like, yes, there are, there can be people that maybe aren't necessarily,

they are walking the walk and talking the talk. Right. That's who Craig was to you. So that's why, well, that's what the song is, is all about. And then you, from that, the Craig Fund was born? Yeah, it's unreal. I get teary-eyed every time we do something just because of how just full circle it is. But we have a Craig Fund.

We sell shirts where those shirts, every shirt that we sell the proceeds go to the Craig Fund. And then people just drop huge installments. Like people just, like when we lost Oakley, the Craig Fund filled up. kind of people's way of, you know, saying they love us and in honor of Oakley and stuff. And what we do is it was a lot of logistics and hoops and loopholes to jump through at first, but we gave our first car away to a single mother. And again, it was just such an emotional moment. And we're going to continue to do those things and find ways that the Craig Fund can be used.

all about exactly what Craig did for me. What we do is we take submissions of who you can like nominate for the Craig thing and people send us, you know, we had about 50 submissions narrowed down for us. And then me and Leni and the kids sat down and we went through like 51 night and it was like, okay, who do y'all? It's so hard. It's so hard. So hard.

But, you know, we'll keep all those and do it again and again and again and again. and it's my favorite, you know, part of being, you know, whatever you call me, you know, singer-songwriter recording artists or whatever. I mean, to me, that was the most fulfilling moment. I think I've experienced in this job is when we showed up in a town and I was able to give this lady a hug and her kids had written me, you know, letters. And I sat in the car and it was so clean. And, you know, from my experience with Craig, I remembered how nice that was, like to sit in a car that just started when you turn the key, you know, and you push the button and the window works and you're hot and the air makes you cold.

And there's a seatbelt for everybody. Yeah. It's like those things I think, you know, now, Laine and I are okay financially right now. And it's funny how fast you take those things for granted, but I know where those people are and I love reading the submissions. and the people that write the submissions are their, their Craigs and themselves, like just to sit down and write essays about someone they love and why they need a car

or they need assistance. So it's a really, really gratifying, fulfilling, fun part of what I'm able to do now. And that Craig fund stuff can be found at Walkerhays.com? Yeah, it's all over the place. All there. Yeah. You can buy a Craig shirt, you know, those are everywhere. And I didn't steal that from me.

me. And his team set up the fun, but it's all the people out there that are filling it. Yeah. Yeah. I was about to say a lot of people are like, oh, you're so nice. It ain't my money. It's the fans. I mean, they're the ones that fill that up. So it's, it's, it is an amazing. It is an amazing feeling. And, you know, Walker, you're, I know sometimes you're like, oh, no, you know, people ask you to sign like, pimping joy stuff. Like, you're one of the original joy pimper's. Because of the theme song and it's like, that's something too, where I, you know, I, you know, I know exactly what you're feeling, like watching people rally together for a cause and a reason and a movement. And it's so cool to see people react and they want to be a part of something bigger and better.

Because that's what Pimp and Joy is to me. It's what the Craig Fund is to y'all. It's a lot similar to your mom. I'm sure you're like, to me, it all starts, like that elevator thing. She talks to people, like, that's what grabbed me. So you must have been, were you listening to the Bobby Bone Show one day? I heard that, or maybe read, maybe heard about you talking about her and then read something. And in something written about you talking about her, you said she talked, I mean, who talked to people in elevator?

Well, because she was choosing joy and at the hospital, MD Anderson, when she would be like having a rough day, like going to get treatment. It was just like, oh, but she knew everyone else at MD Anderson was probably having really rough days too. Yeah. So she would make an effort to talk to people on the elevator and be like, such a cute sweater or whatever. And I'm like, who talks to people in the elevator? But she did. And I guess you picked up on that. And then I don't know that we've ever talked about how you decided to write a song about her.

That was the spark. And you have to, like, I think that's what I feel about Craig is like just the way he spoke to me that first night. And now full circle, we're just dropping cars on people because other people are, you know, doing it. And then that happens outside of us. But, you know, we'll meet people in line and they'll say, hey, I donated. I just gave somebody a car because I heard about your friendship. But you have to feel, you know, the same way about, that's just a cool thing, how small to me something can be. And then a couple years go by.

And it's a freaking franchise. Like, it's just happening. And it's all, it was literally because of love. It was because one person just wasn't in love with themselves. They were actually in love with. with everybody else just for a second and then baboon. Like, it's just a ripple. And I know Craig was kind of when you talked about releasing the song and it being public.

Like he was like, oh. He was. He probably still does. It was uncomfortable for him because he wasn't doing it for any sort of, he didn't want praise or recognition. He just wanted to, again, just bless y'all. And so, but for him and because him and his wife, they felt it was put on their heart. This is what they needed to do. and they were obedient with that.

Like, this is the domino effect. Like, this is the blessing upon blessings and blessing. And it's multiplying. And y'all are keeping it going and Walker with your platform. Like, and y'all's fans together. I mean,

hello, y'all do have, these are the haze of our lives. Basically your own soap opera happening. But y'all are, y'all are doing good with it. And I think that that's what's important. Some people are like, I don't really want to talk about it.

But when you do, it's not like for bragging because you know that it's possible because of everyone. Right. And it's also to inspire. Yeah, it is. Craig didn't even want to play the song for his kids. That's how, you know, humble he is about kind of recognition. And then on a, yeah, on a funny note, one songwriter came up to me and it was like, dude, that same thing happened to me. Somebody gave us a car.

And I was like, zero songbook. And it was like a... And it was originally. just meant as a thank you for him. And then it was never meant as an album edition. Yeah. Well, let's listen to this hook one last time in case Craig's listening. Craig, if you're listening, this goes out to you.

This goes out to you. Yeah, I know. He sounds cool right. Not your typical kid from Sunday school right. I still ain't figured out church yet. But Craig, I get. No, he can't. Walk on water.

I turn a nap of Valley Red. But he just might be tight with a man that did. Now, he's not the light of the world. But I wish that mine was right as it is. Yeah, he just might be tight with a man that is. Lyrical genius. And you know he will listen. Yeah, Craig will listen.

Anything Walker does. All right. Hi, Craig. Hi, Craig. Yeah. Craig. Yeah. Awesome. Hey, Laura. Hey. So that's another song, too. Walker's probably going to be like,

shut up, Amy. No. But you can go download. Yes. Do it, do it. You won't do it. So Walker, I have tattoos that are super personal to me. Yes. Like I have Joy tattooed in my mom's handwriting on my wrist. And then I have Espois right below that, which means hope and cradle. And that was just for me. Like our adoption process took five years. So obviously, having lost my mom, having joy in her handwriting on my wrist is a big deal. And then Espoa was there as the everyday reminder as we were going through that process of,

you know, like, don't lose hope. This is going to happen. Even though there were days where I thought, okay, this might not happen. But that was my reminder. And so I know that you have Oakley's footprint on your arm. And so I know, like even getting into this right now, I feel like it is something, I know it's so personal for y'all and I appreciate you sharing but even something like that every day having to look down. Yeah.

I'm sure it has sometimes like for me seeing my mom's handwriting it's like so special but then sometimes it's also hard. Yeah. And so how long has it been since? She would have been. She would be one year in about two months now. Okay. June 6th. Yeah.

Yeah. And, you know, you just talk about. I, Lainey and I kind of decided together to not be private about this. And I think one of the reasons we did is because there were a couple people that were not private about their own experiences that showed up for us literally the day of. Like I'm talking about while Lainey was in the operating room and I was there alone by myself. what was the girl's name? Michelle. Her name was Michelle.

I don't even remember her name. I've only seen her once in my life, and that was that day. And she showed up, and she began to just talk and walk me through her experience of losing a child. And had she been private or never reached out to any organization that cared about that happened into someone else, we would have been completely lost that day. I didn't know, you know, it sounds silly, but when you, when you, you know, Lany had a stillborn. She, she carried Oakley nine months. That morning we thought we were going to have a home birth. We were so excited.

I was supposed to play on the CMT awards that night, like first TV, anything, just a lot of excitement and happiness. And then, you know, she goes into labor, her uterus ruptures an hour and a half later. a doctor walks in to me in a room and says, hey, you had a little girl. We tried to resuscitate, but we couldn't. And so I'm just sitting there alone. I don't know. Like, I will obviously want to get to my wife. I don't know if I'm supposed to meet.

Do you, do you, do you, do you, do you, do you, do you, do you, do you, that's just a question, that's like one question in my head. Like, do you, do you, like, what are we about to, we about to have a funeral? Like, do you get rid of them at the, I mean, I mean, I'm just a question. I'm clueless, you know what I'm saying? I had absolutely no idea. And then in the meantime, emotionally, I've never experienced. And Laney and I are, we go through this together.

You know, I look at this tattoo still on my arm, and it reminds me I had a kid, a baby. I held a kid of mine, a real-life child in my hands. You know, they had a foot and another foot. and hands and hair and a face that just look like another one of our kids. And so, yeah, I don't really know what question I'm answering, but I think I started off by saying we would be vocal about it because it's not just us. You know, people lose people all the time,

and it is a shocking, lonely emotion, and people grieve differently. And I needed that girl, Michelle, there, more than anything. She walked us through getting pictures of Oakley And she helped us find the cemetery Where we would eventually go look And bury our daughter next to hers Which was earth shattering just like kind of a

That was just like a I don't know what you call it It was like a moment of peace and a very We fell in tears You know when we when we saw Lucy Is her name when we saw her name Lainey and I literally broke down and just shambles.

And then a dog came up and peed on a grave. And we laughed. We just laughed. We laughed so hard. And we needed that dog to pee on that grave. We were like, this is the perfect spot. We were like, it's just like our house. There's dogs everywhere.

And there's, you know, Lucy here. But it's just a whirlwind. You know, we still are in, like I said, I still look at her footprint. and I go, that happened to us, and it happens to a lot of people. And, you know, I'm talking miscarriages to, you know, and sits and people, people just lose, people lose grown-up kids, you know. Well, there's something about it being the other way around.

I feel like, yeah, I lost my mom. And she died too young, and she had cancer. But it was sort of in the right order of, like, at some point I was probably, hopefully going to say goodbye to my mom and I will to my dad because that's what we consider to be the natural progression of life. So with y'all having to experience, especially after you've got six kids, it's like, well, we're giving births of this. We've already done this before. We're out to meet our new baby and then it to do a 180 and then not. Yeah. Like that's a whole different territory even to where I'm just like, I wouldn't know.

Like, what do you do? Do you hold them? And do you take, yeah, do you take pictures? So yeah, I mean, Michelle, what a blessing that she was there. Yeah. And then Lainey's not, you're in surgery. Right. So, I mean, he went through a lot of it alone because I was in surgery for, what, a couple hours. And at this point, Walker, do not know her state?

No, you know, I didn't, I wasn't really, honestly, it just was such a blur. I wasn't, I realized later, I guess, how close. you know, Lainty was to dying. I was just oblivious. Again, I'm concerned with, you know, with Oakley. Because you're looking on it, you know, you're looking at minutes. You're like, 15 minutes ago, there was a heartbeat. Or, and you're like, no, I can't, you know, you can't be done now.

Like, are you sure? You're sure? And you're just like, no, no way this is, that this is happening. And then I could sense distress in the doctor as she continued to visit me and say, hey we're trying to stop the bleeding we're doing everything we can and then they would vanish and then i'd be like what did they just say to me like does it it sound it doesn't sound like it's over yet you know and so yeah i mean that was freaky and then the the worst part of it all was um was when lany came to and she was out she was she had a tube in her mouth so she couldn't talk to me and

she was very, very drugged and sedated. And she lost a ton of blood during surgery. And so she was coming out and awake from that. And she would look at me and I'd be like, ah, she's going to, you know, she's going to say something about it. And she would touch her stomach. And I knew she was, like, trying to say, like, what? You know, she wanted me to say, we had a girl or, you know, whatever.

And then I would tell her, I'd say, you know, As a girl, she didn't make it. And then I could just see Lanny's body physically just convulsed. Just go. Like, I thought she was going to have a heart attack because she couldn't talk or say anything. She could just cry. And I would just see tears and tears.

And then she would kind of pass out. And then 15 minutes later, we would just do it all again. Like, she would wake up. Like, I never told her anything. And so over and over, you know, I continually felt I had to answer. And so, you know, that completely sucked. And then, and you know, Lainey and I, we, it's like we were, somebody explained it to me, not like a therapist, but a dear friend said,

it's like you are both in a car wreck at the same time, like exactly the same time. And then forever will always be telling each other. what happened in our wrecks. Like it was the same wreck, but different wrecks. And, you know, I feel so bad, you know, for Lainey because when she woke up, she didn't lose just a kid. We're done. We can't have, she woke up and got told, you're done.

You're not having, you can't, we're not having any kid. It would be irresponsible of you to, to become, you know, pregnant. again and that is so hard you know for for me to watch lany is just just what she was born to do i swear to god that is it's just she she was supposed i didn't know that when i met her you know when i'm in 11th grade i didn't know she was just she was made to just raise and love and nurture and care you know for kids but that is um that's where she she belongs she's supposed she's gifted at that like like next level uh gifted and so you know she's been struggling with that um truth you know that she's she's we what i don't know what do you call it

you're you're you're on not like birth control but she we have what do you use the wall come on somebody help me the goley the eternal gole that never goes away you're iud iud yeah she did she does that he's going into like birth control method anyway i'm just saying she's on that but we she and i laugh and we're like I hope I still hope like I still hope you know like I hope I hope you get pregnant and that's like maybe God's way of saying you're not really can't stop this train like it's it's it's crazy how big those desires are you know yeah like Walker said not only did I wake up and realize that we had lost her we didn't know she was a girl so we find out it was a girl you know we lost her um and then they say you know they were able they they wanted to do a history

but they couldn't because of how much blood I'd already lost and they didn't think I could survive it and all of that. So anyway, they did not do a hysterectomy. So for Walker me, we're going, well, maybe there's still a chance. You know, like that's how badly we love having kids. Like, that is, you know, his only dream is not music, but that is my dream. Like, I love having kids and just pouring everything I have into them. Like, I don't know. So, yeah, to wake up and to realize we were done and that, you know, that wasn't our plan. You know, that was our plans just getting completely halted and told, you know, you're doing a 180 from this actually, you know. It is hard.

It's so many layers to process to take in so many levels of grief. You know, we're grieving Oakley, you know, after losing her, you know, my body has a hard time healing. And then it's the things like your milk still comes in, you know, a day or two later. and it's such a harsh reminder that you don't have a baby. And so you have these physical things you're dealing with, the emotional toll. You know, you're almost still in so much shock. It's kind of the Lord's way of protecting you.

You can't take it in. It's hard to even grasp. It's a process of grieving because you can't really understand the weight of it immediately. And yeah, we had so many people there for us. the people at the hospital the stuff we didn't know I mean hold her spend time with her

hug her you know love what you can try to memorize all our features you know you just look at her toes and you just you don't want to stop looking at her because you're not you won't

you're not going to see her again a photographer named Callie showed up and did pictures for us and you know then I said you know Lila is our only child that met her and held her I said, you know, don't take pictures on your cell phone because I don't know that you'll want that in your camera roll.

And I regret that. I mean, you know, I didn't know. It's not, you're not taught on how to do this. And so we didn't take snapshots of her. But thankfully, Callie was there and did pictures of her. And that's all we have. And so, I am so thankful because, I mean, would I do things differently? In some ways, yes.

But in other ways, I'm so thankful that these people all showed up because they helped us grieve. in the healthiest way that we possibly could going through something like that. And we wouldn't have known how to do that, how to walk through losing her. And then, you know, it's the things you're not expected for. You know, you're holding your dead baby. And you just, it is the weirdest thing. They look just like every other newborn we ever had. And you are physically staring at them going,

please just breathe like there's you know you just think oh they're going to start breathing you know they're not this isn't true you know they're going to breathe you know it's just hard to it's hard to take it in because you really are and the other thing and this is you know maybe a lot of information but she was cold and so the mom and you just keeps kind of wanting to snuggle her up and hold her close and wrap her up because you know she's cold and You know, spiritually, I'm going, she's not here. You know, this is just her shell. She's not here.

She's very much alive. Just not right here with me. But the mom of you can't get past the, this is her physical body that you want to care for, even though, you know, she's not there. But it is traumatic and traumatizing. And we do want to share her story because if it can help somebody, like you said, not feel alone. and if it can, you know, if we can help somebody grieve in the healthiest way that they can, you know, we want to do that. It's also therapeutic, I mean, selfishly, just to relive it.

I can still, just as we talk about it, there's still shock here. I mean, it really is. Her picture is that it's in our room, it's in our room where it all went down. And, I mean, some nights we just sit there. and talk, you know, and look at her picture and still absorb, like, this happened to us. You know, and like you said, it's probably a miracle that you can't, if you could, if you could feel it all at one time, you'd probably just explode, you know, or your heart would stop or something, but yeah, we were so lucky. The, the community, this community, not going to lie,

like artist we're so competitive like we just compare each other to each other and we want to we want to be friends but we want to sell more albums than the other one or i do speaking personally but i'm going to tell you something when something like this happens or when it did to us we had a meal that day from russell dickerson's family him and his wife that day i know they were busy uh CMT stuff and she left and homemade the most incredible lasagnas and soup yeah just soups every just a bucket I mean we I don't think we

paid for a meal or fixed a meal you know Oakley we lost Oakley in June on June 6th and I promise you we had food till September more food than we could eat you know and for us to be you know we felt

it took us a while like to just get back out into life you know and so the last thing you wanted to do was like worry about where are we going to eat tonight and and so yeah I mean it was we were so well taken care of Craig and Laura showed up they met they met Oakley they they held her that he actually officiated like a little a funeral service my my boys and I buried her like we filled it the whole lot with dirt and you know Craig and la were there and we were just surrounded by

We had a lot of family and friends show up that day. And, you know, it's a tricky situation for all of us to navigate. Nobody knows what to do. And, you know, death is awkward. It can be awkward for all of us. We don't know how to walk through it, really. And nobody, I mean, people talk about it. Well, I think y'all being willing to share your story and then kind of also, too, yeah, it is, that's an accurate statement.

death is awkward. So it's like just people should just show up. I mean, it's a reminder for me to hear that too. And I think other people listening, like if you know someone's gone through something sometimes, you just don't want to be in the way. Right. Or you don't want to, like, you don't really know, well, I'm not that close to them. But I mean, I have sympathy for them.

I empathize or whatever the case may be. Like, I hurt for them right now because I know that they're hurting and this has got to be painful but like but what do I do and so I don't know like sometimes we do nothing yeah yeah but it's I think that this is probably a reminder that just just do if it's put on your heart like don't ignore that just do and I know probably the people that sent meals and you know publishing companies and labels and you know so many people were providing food for us and that might seem silly and small to them but it really did. People feeding us through August. It was, I mean, it really was such a blessing because physically I couldn't for a while. And then after that, you just are trying to pick up the pieces.

I mean, you just are trying to, your best to maintain some sort of, let's get back into life. Like we can't just hole up in our house forever. And to have that taken care of and provided for us, it really was. That was huge. That was so huge. And that was, you know, maybe people saw that as small just okay I'm going to send them a gift card for Uber Eats or whatever people might have done I mean it it all made such a difference. To add to what you're saying Amy that's like to me the us experience in that and the people that did show up it's to me like the right answer in that case that you're talking about because I feel the same way like I don't even know that guy that well and like it's going to be weird

you know if I show up and I feel like the right answer takes the most courage. And like Craig, can you imagine how scary it would be to drive up to a dude's son baseball game, son's baseball game and be like, take this car? Like I can't imagine a more frightening thing to do.

And the same thing, you talk about Michelle showing up for me that day. I'm not, like, I'm a pretty angry person amidst like emotions like that so i can't imagine being on her side of that waiting room and talking to a completely silent man whose wife isn't even out and okay yet and just start black and just start telling my story you know that's just that had to that required some serious bravery um so yeah what i'm saying is probably like it's good just to show yeah i mean that's what i'm receiving from this now and even a reminder to myself. And then sometimes when you're hesitant on

sharing your story and sometimes it may hurt. But I think that what you all've learned for it too is it's therapeutic. And then also like Michelle, it probably was painful. It probably walked her through her entire thing and she's having to relive it. Right. But somewhat therapeutic. But also now it gives, not that you want to give, you have to find, it's almost like you want to find. It's almost like you want to find the reasons why things go bad? It's not like there's the whole that everything happens for a reason or like, okay, well, this is why that happens so we can better prepare me. But for me, I think if you look at it, like, yeah, this was a really crappy situation. Like, this sucked. But in order to make the best of it, I have to look for the ways to make this better. Like,

you can choose to live in the crap and make it crappy and it be a horrible situation. Like, the whole, like, my mom's cancer battle losing her to that. Like, could have been like, like, Like, we could have just lived in the crap. It sucked. It was brutal. The things I saw, I will never unsee, and it was horrible. And nobody should have to die that way. Like, it just was not right.

And, you know, I was there to her last breath. I even laid with her dead body for like an hour with my sister and thought it was awkward. But it's like my sister, I made a choice. Like, okay, what are we going to do from here on now? What's the legacy going to be? Are we going to, you know, just sit in this yuck? Or are we going to, like, look for how we can. help others with this, you know? And so then now that's what we've done. And I feel like, too,

y'all sharing your story, that's what you can do is look for the reasons. And for Michelle, yeah, I mean, she went through it, but then she was able to help you. And she was such, she was like your angel that day, Walker. I mean, like a huge blessing. And then now y'all are going to be that for somebody else. Because it, the stuff is going to happen in life. It is. But when you put yourself out there and you open it up like you have an opportunity to be that angel for somebody else like i guarantee you somebody listening right now like it has been or god forbid like somebody listening and then you know some like a year or two later something may happen where this podcast may right and they may remember oh gosh like they may know what you're saying and the things like remember to how to how to grieve and

everybody grieves differently but um and not that y'all went into necessarily exactly how you grieve the process, but just for y'all being open and sharing. And I'm so thankful. And I appreciate you opening up for my listeners, too. I wish we to have us. Okay, so now it's gratitude time. And I want to hear the four things. So technically, because it's times two today, we're going to get eight. Eight things. Okay. We're going to get eight things. Yeah, well, Walker, you get four and Laney, you get four. And it's just something fun to do because Because, you know, with gratitude, when you practice that, that's what brings true joy.

And so that's what we're all about on the podcast. So we want to encourage that. And maybe it'll get other people to be thinking about what they're grateful for today. Okay. Put me on the spot here. Well, obviously, I mean, I'm not just saying that. Because I'm right here. Well, I swear, I tell Lainey this all the time.

And, I mean, it's so cheesy, but I'm grateful for her. you know who I never would have thought you know just I mean I guess I'm like halfway through life here and I'm just really glad you know that I have I'm glad I found her so early my best friend just somebody I wanted just to hold my hand through everything you know and even the worst stuff you know I feel like I've experimented holding Lanny's hand through all things and she's there's no one else I'd rather like get old with so I'm obviously grateful for her I'm so grateful for all of my children living and gone they are unreal I learn so much from my kids about my own brokenness and I don't know they make me laugh but they also just make me love life even more

I'm grateful for, I'm grateful for music. You know, music, it brought us together. It is, you know, I always tell Lainey this and she makes fun of me because I'm so emotionally attached to all music. But it truly is, I can't imagine a life without it. I can't imagine a life without being able to make it for therapeutic reasons. It has saved my life a billion times, and it's given me purpose. And then my last, but not least grateful, and I don't really know how to say this, but I'm right now I'm grateful for the Bible.

I'm grateful for that book. I don't know everything in it. I don't know how to apply, you know, verse after verse, but I'm grateful that that is a resource for me at this time in my life as I kind of add up all my experiences and try to move forward as an old man. I'm glad it's there for me and the man in it is in there. with me, I think. Oh, I love those four things, Walker.

I'm going to try to not jump all over the things he said. He's just going to copy. He went first, so I can't copy. I'm so glad I got to come first. Kylie, no, I wish I'd gone first. This is super generic, and it's kind of a, you know, wonderful, like, Miss America kind of answer, but I know, right. Miss Alabama. And if you know me, that is not.

It doesn't really suit me very well. But I'm going to just go generic with love. on the first one. I mean, Walker and I spend more time than you know just talking about love, just how, you know, how do we love each other better? How do we love our kids better? How do we love other people? Obviously, you know, we have a handful of people in our life that have really impacted us in that, have taught us, shown us, you know, Craig, other friends, reading about Jesus, whatever. I mean, it's we, another book we're both kind of reading right now.

I mean, we are constantly talking about how can we just love other people better. So that's just kind of generic a little bit. My second one, I want to say laughter, because that gets us through a whole, a whole, whole, whole lot. Yeah. And, you know, I'm sure Sonas Walker feels like the jester of the family, but I'm like, we laugh. so much when he's home and I'm so grateful for that. It gets you through anything. It's like us trying to pick out a burial plot for Oakley and it's the worst experience you can even imagine walking through and then he makes me laugh. He makes comments and we just giggle and I'm like, golly, I'm so thankful

for moments of laughter, whether it's in the hard times or the, you know, super happy times. And then the third, I'm going to have to say all of my living family. I mean, I, and Walker's already touched on that, and I can't say anything but kind of repeat what he says. Walker, our kids living, it's, they are just such a joy in my life. They, because of all them, it makes it harder to yearn for heaven because I love being here with all of them. so, so, so much. That they are just my everything.

It's hard to not make them idols in my life because I love them that much. I always want to be with them and I just I don't know. Everything in my life just wants to revolve around them. And then the fourth one, I'm going to say Oakley because

I can see the big picture of her and what the Lord is doing with us having her and losing her. And I'm so grateful. It's a stretch to say I'm grateful for that experience because it is more painful than I can even express. But I'm so grateful for what the Lord is teaching us and how he's using her life to change us and to reach out to others and just to make us more outwardly focused and just I think a lot of the changes that he is working on in us would not have happened without having lost her. And I wish those were lessons we could have learned without losing her, but I'm not sure we were in a place to do that.

So I'm very grateful for her in what her life, even though it was just, just nine months in utero what that is really teaching us and continues to teach us. Yeah. Well, I just love and adore y'all so much. So Walker, Laney, thank you for coming on. Boom. Thank you. Boom.

You nailed it. The four things podcast. You can always end with a boom. All four things. And, you know, yes, through the, I can't even tell you all how many times I got goosebumps when y'all were talking and sharing. And, you know, I, yeah, I'm grateful. that y'all came on to share with us.

We're glad you have a podcast. Yeah. How's it feel? You feel famous? No. Come on. It's a big deal. You're rocking it, Amy.

You're an awesome. Oh, yeah, you know. You know the laws, the technology? Yeah. No. It's just stuff I learn from Bobby. So, yeah. It is different, though, because I've been, you know,

I've been doing this a long time like 13 years, but with Bobby. So now to kind of be on my own. Yeah. It's like a little bit. We were looking forward to it. And we've listened to a couple of them. You do a great job. I listen to him while I'm working out.

Learn recipes. Sure. Get a pancake recipe. Yes. Going on the first one. Stevenson's pancake recipe. It was good. Stevenson came on and shared it.

He's so cute. That was his podcast debut. He was funny. Yeah. Well, thanks. Well, y'all are great. And I will see how soon you've got to bring all the kids over. I mean, we talk about this all the time, but it's happening.

We're all getting together. We'll just come over to your house. Do it. Let's do it. Especially because it doesn't matter about the yard or the house. It does not. You can't mess up anything here. It's kind of crooked and dangerous.

It's awesome. Rusty. Perfect. Yeah. Love it. Good to go. Okay, well, everybody go to Walkerhaze.com. I don't know why I just kissed like that.

But Walkerhaz.com, download all of his music. Walker really, really quick. Yeah. What is your favorite song you've ever put out? Ever put out? Yeah. Not going to lie. It's just don't let her.

I mean, I know that's, yeah, I mean, that's my favorite one. Me too, but I just, I didn't know if there was some, like, you know, one we'd never heard of obscure. Oh, yes, Halloween is so good. I'm just trying to encourage people if they haven't ever heard your music. Beer in the fridge. Halloween, Layla Stars or Lila. Sorry, it's Lelis. Lela Stars, yes.

Face on my money is Lainey's favorite. He loves that. Yeah. But, yeah, I mean. But this is the jam right here. But don't get. And honey Love sleep late as she wants

Home is a favorite Reddry. Yes, Lady Go! Come on, we're jamming. We'll end on this. I'm going to turn it up. Hey's glitter. You better shave for you kiss her.

And if she ever misses me, please don't let her. Jam! Okay, so that's Walker and Lainey Hayes. If you weren't familiar with them before today's episode, well, you are now, and I hope you love them as much as I do. I just appreciate them coming on to do all four things with me and opening up about different parts of their life. Like, they're so amazing. You can follow Walker on Instagram at Walker Hayes.

And then on YouTube, you got to check out, these are the Hayes of our lives, their little YouTube show. Get it like these are the days of our lives, but since their last name is Hayes. So, yeah, give them a follow. Tell them how much you loved them being on the podcast. If you did, I mean, I'm not telling y'all to just like lie, but if you liked it, it never hurts to reach out to someone and say, hey, thank you for sharing part of your life with us. And thank you for doing Amy's theme song. Like, I love it.

I personally love it. Be kind. Choose joy. Love a lot. Eat cake. Which that was our joy seeker. I mean, we talked about it in the interview. That already existed.

But the way Walker turned it into my theme song, I love it. And then, of course, Pimp and Joy, which the note I got for my email shout out today has to do with Pimp and Joy. So it's a perfect tie-in. I thought this was a great email to wrap up the Walker and Lainey Hayes for Things Podcasts. So this email comes from Suzanne and Suzanne. I love this. Thank you for sharing this email with me. Amy, I just had to share this story with you because it brought so much joy to me and I know it will bring the same to you. I recently made a big move into D.C. to live by myself for the first time. I was absolutely terrified. But I faced that fear head on, especially with the help of your podcast. A few weeks ago, I was crossing a street with

with my dog and spotted a driver's license. I watched as tons of people stepped on or over it. It only took a second of my time, but I picked it up and took it home with me. I sent it back to the owner with a quick note that said, hope this reaches you in time, just a quick kind thing I could do for you. Hashtag Pimpin' Joy. Long story short, after a very stressful week, I returned home to my little apartment to find a card in the mail with a message that said, you give me hope for humanity in this world. Ah, Suzanne, great story. Yes, you saw a license, you took the time to pick it up, you checked out the address,

you mailed it to the person, they probably thought their license was gone forever, which I recently lost my license and I still haven't gotten it back and I still need to go figure out how I'm going to get a new one. I don't know what I need to do. Call and renew or go to the DMV, but the DMV just like even saying it right now sort of stresses me out. But I'm sure that this person was obviously so thankful. and yes, you gave them hope for humanity in this world by your little kind act. And that is what

Pimpinjoy is all about. I mean, first of all, Suzanne eludes to the fact that I think she's choosing joy for herself, even though she was terrified moving to D.C. But then she decided to spread joy to others. And Pimpin' Joy in a nutshell is about that. Choose joy, spread joy, be joy. I know that I can't talk, but somehow I have this podcast. So choose joy, spread joy, be joy, all things joy. So shout out Suzanne and shout out to all of you out there that are Pimp and Joy. You can always post stuff on Instagram. Use the hashtag. If you want to get any Pimp and Joy swag for yourself, just go to RadioAmy.com.

And that's where you can find a link to Pimp and Joy stuff. Same link that'll take you to Pimp and Joy will also get you to a SPWA Things, which is our line that supports Haiti. and just a quick note on that, we have launched the teacher for things tote bags. And there's a code. There's a discount code for teachers. And it's Apple. Actually, there's two codes that will work. You're only going to get still 10% either way, but two codes.

You can type in Apple or Westrock because we're doing a whole thing on the Bobby Bone show with Westrock Coffee. That's like we're big Westrock coffee fans and they do a lot of really amazing good things in this world. They even are delivering, I think right now, like I have. as I speak, some four things tote bags to Rwanda. Like, how cool is that that teachers in Rwanda are going to have tote bags? Four things, tote bags.

Like, it's amazing. So, yeah, if you are a teacher, you can get the teacher tote, which the four things on our already made teacher tote, say, caffeinate, educate, sleep, repeat. Pretty cute. If you, I know we went back and forth on what the four things are going to be for our teacher tote. And I know we didn't make everybody happy with that one, but overall it's been a great response. But if we didn't make one the way you like it, that's the beauty of the four things. So you can also customize your own. So that is super cool.

You can just think of the four things you wish to are on your teacher toe or our teacher toe and make your own. So that's the fun part or make it for a teacher in your life. Or yeah, maybe you're not a teacher, but you've got kids and you want to get your teacher a gift. Well, then order them the teacher tote. Pretty much every teacher can relate to caffeinate, educate, sleep, repeat. And what else? There was one more thing associated that.

Oh, yeah, we are still working on, I think around September is when we will launch the sponsored teacher toot, where we want to have you guys come alongside and sponsor some tots. And then we're trying to get donations and maybe even people sponsoring, like, you know, with funds. Like when you buy a tote, you could check out and say, like, oh, I want to donate an extra or $5 or $10 or $15. Or maybe you can't even afford to buy a tote, but you can do the $5. It'll go towards what we're going to fill the tote with to kind of bless teachers.

And then people are going to be able to nominate teachers and then we'll pick them. And then we'll just mail them a surprise tote full of all kinds of amazing goodies inside. Isn't that fun? Okay. We hope that y'all will join in. We like need to, this is where though we need to rally the troops and spread the word. Y'all are amazing at that. Like, I feel like we've got a great little community going here.

But this will be one where we've got to just spread the word. on Facebook, on Instagram, tell your friends, send emails, maybe just tell your book club, your mom's group, you're this or the, I don't know how you spread the word, but word of mouth is what we've got. So that's what we've got to use. Which, speaking of the same way for this podcast, word of mouth, tell your people, and subscribe. That would be huge. Really, just subscribing and rating and reviewing is amazing.

Maybe you don't have time to rate and review. Just click subscribe. Boom. Tell your friends. go on your husband's phone, click subscribe. Maybe he'll start listening. Then we got another male listener. I feel like every time we get a male listener, an angel gets its wings. So, okay, y'all are amazing. Again, shout out Walker and Laney Hayes for being on today. Be kind. Too good. Left a lot.

Cast a row of things. Little food for your soul. Life ain't always pretty, but hey, it's pretty. Beautiful thing. Beautiful. Laugh a little more thing. Tighten up your core thing. Said E.K. You're kicking it with four things.

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