For Walker Hayes, Any Day Off the Road Is Father's Day

When Walker Hayes heads out on the road, he leaves his wife Laney and their six children home in Nashville. Days off are precious.

"Every day I'm home is Father's Day," Hayes told The Boot at the 2019 Taste of Country Music Festival when asked about the upcoming holiday. "I just sit around and do what I want and hang out with my wife and kids."

Celebrating the actual Father's Day holiday, though, isn't as big of a deal to the "Don't Let Her" singer ("I'm not a Hallmark holiday guy," Hayes admits). And when it comes to gifts, he prefers those simple, sweet homemade gifts -- finger paintings, popsicle stick sculptures and such -- even if he doesn't keep every last one of them.

"Laney is actually really remarkable at purging," Hayes says. "Our rule is, if you haven't looked for something in about a year, then we have the right to toss it."

This year, Hayes confesses, Father's Day comes with a bit of uncertainty. On June 6, 2018, his seventh child, Oakleigh Klover, was born and died after Laney suffered a uterine rupture; Oakleigh was deprived of blood and suffocated, and Laney's life was at risk, too.

"I didn't really know how to approach those holidays," Hayes admits of Mother's and Father's Day. While the one-year anniversary of Oakleigh's death "sucked" and "was rough," Hayes says, Mother's Day was "okay," and he thinks Father's Day will be "happy."

In both the happy and sad times, Hayes' children have provided musical inspiration. He's written a song for each of his five oldest children -- "Beckett" appears on Hayes' 2017 album Boom -- and says he's "waiting on the idea to spring forth" for a song for his youngest, Everly.

For Walker Hayes, Any Day Off the Road Is Father’s Day