live_tv
Livestream Starting Soon
00
Hours
:
00
Minutes
:
00
Seconds
Up next in 10
Exclusive 2026 Country Music Cruise Interview With Wade Hayes
Jan 31, 2026
Wade Hayes talks about returning to the Country Music Cruise, his lengthy career, songwriting, and more.
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
Hey guys, it's Gail with Everything Nash
0:02
back on the country music cruise with
0:03
Wayne and Hayes. Good to see you.
0:05
Good to see you too. Good to be seen.
0:07
This is becoming an annual tradition and
0:09
I'm not mad about it.
0:10
No, it's a good thing. It's a good
0:12
thing. Glad to be here.
0:13
How is your cruise experience so far?
0:15
It's been great. This one's been very
0:16
low-key. Thank goodness the weather has
0:19
been awesome this time and uh gotten to
0:22
get off the ship a couple of times, do
0:23
some walking around. It's been
0:25
wonderful.
0:25
And you're coming back next year.
0:27
That's what I hear. I'm glad to. I
0:29
always love the opportunity to get to
0:31
get out of Nashville when it's freezing
0:33
cold.
0:33
Yes. And it's a good lineup. I was just
0:35
talking to Daryl Wley about the cruise.
0:36
He's excited to come back on next year.
0:37
Bill, Joe Nichols, Winona. I mean
0:39
Oh, yeah. Those those guys are friends
0:42
of mine and I'm doing several shows with
0:44
Daryl this year. So,
0:45
yeah. Yeah. Go see them. Um
0:48
31 years debut album came out. I looked
0:51
that up today and I thought that can't
0:52
be right because I remember it. Does it
0:54
feel like 31 years?
0:56
No, it does not. It came out the uh in
0:58
in 95. The first single came out in 94
1:02
and uh the album came out in 95 and it's
1:04
just the time has just flown by. I can't
1:06
believe it. And I can't believe I'm
1:08
still out here getting to play music for
1:10
a living. It's what a blessing that is.
1:12
That's the literal dream, isn't it?
1:14
It certainly is. You know, it was just I
1:16
thought when I was a kid, if I could
1:18
just play guitar for a living, that
1:19
would be awesome. I never dreamed I'd
1:21
get to make records and have hit records
1:23
and gold records and and still get to be
1:26
doing all these years later.
1:27
And you wrote one of my favorite songs,
1:29
old enough to know better.
1:30
That's right. I co-wrote it with a man
1:31
named Chick Reigns and that is based off
1:34
a true story when I first moved to town.
1:37
If we've got time,
1:38
we've got time.
1:39
Um I grew up building houses with my
1:41
dad. He was a contractor.
1:43
So naturally, I got a job building
1:44
houses when I moved to Nashville. But
1:47
literally couple weeks after that, I got
1:49
a job playing lead guitar for Johnny
1:51
Lee. And uh Johnny Lee, he was rascal.
1:56
You know, we all we love Johnny, of
1:58
course, but he'd get wound up and want
1:59
to play all night long. And he did not
2:02
give a crap that I had to be at work
2:04
swinging a hammer at 7:00 a.m. So that's
2:08
kind of how that, you know, that that
2:09
came about.
2:10
Oh, it's still a great song. I still
2:12
love it. I listen to it on SiriusXM.
2:14
Still
2:14
Thank you. That that was that song was
2:18
such a blessing. It it was a number one
2:20
record for two weeks and I just I still
2:22
can't believe that.
2:23
And debut single. That doesn't happen
2:24
often.
2:25
Yeah. Yeah. I remember the the instant
2:27
that that song started taking shape. I
2:29
heard the fiddle player rehearsing. I
2:31
just I didn't even have a demo on that
2:33
song. I just we had just written it. and
2:35
I took it into the studio, played it,
2:37
kind of played it on the guitar for him,
2:38
and I heard this the fiddle player named
2:40
Rob Pacus,
2:42
and he started messing around with that
2:44
lick
2:45
and I took off literally running down
2:47
the hall and said, "That's the intro
2:49
right there. You got to do that." And
2:51
all of a sudden, we've got Old Enough,
2:52
Know Better.
2:53
It's great. Um, last year on the cruise,
2:56
you told me one of your goals was to get
2:57
a song cut by another artist. How we
2:59
doing with that?
2:59
I'm still writing them. I
3:01
Come on, guys. Yeah, I' I've I keep
3:03
writing them and I'm not a very good
3:05
coowwriter, so I tend to just write
3:07
songs by myself and um so it's it's a
3:10
little slow going, but I've I've
3:12
certainly got a a a hip pocket full of
3:14
songs and and I just need somebody to
3:16
pitch them for me now.
3:17
All right. Well, we're going to find you
3:18
somebody.
3:19
I need it.
3:19
All right. Wait, friends.