Walker Hayes Opens up About 2019 Dream On It Tour

Walker Hayes just announced he is embarking on his 2019 Dream On It Tour, kicking off on Jan. 31 in Houston, Texas. The multi-city trek is proof to Hayes that all his work is continuing to pay off.

“It doesn’t get any cooler than that,” Hayes told PopCulture.com, while at the BMI Music Awards. “30 shows. Great markets. Great cities. Big venues. Lots of ticket sales already. Just to headline, it’s crazy. We’re taking Filmore out. He’s going to open for us. That’s my job. What can I say? That’s a dream come true.”

Hayes allowed his fans to name the tour, with the fan who chose the selected name winning plenty of prizes, including tickets to all of his shows and a chance to have dinner with the star. Although Hayes loved the idea, he admits he can’t take any credit for it.

“That wasn’t my idea,” Hayes conceded. “My team is amazing. They think out of the box, and they said, ‘Why don’t we let your fans name it?’ We actually had a back-up plan. If they were bad names, we were just going to lie and fake it. We love our fans, and they showed up for us. ‘Dream On It’ is the name of the tour. A girl named Georgia crushed it. She won two tickets to every show, and we get to go to dinner with me and the band. I love letting the fans interact. They’re the reason I’m able to do a tour. They’re going to show up.”

Hayes may not have picked the tour moniker, but it resonated with him the first time he heard it.

“‘Dream On It’ is a motto for me,” Hayes acknowledged. “No dream is too big, in my opinion. The bigger the better. I’m also the one who – I’m all right with a broken dream. Yeah, it hurts for a second, but I will dream again. My wife always laughs at me, because I have no realistic goals. They’re all completely elusive … I’m a dreamer. I want to share my belief in dreams with fans. That’s one thing I want my fans to take away is enthusiasm, encouragement and belief in themselves, when they leave my show, and when they hear my story. So ‘Dream On It,’ that’s a perfect name.”

Hayes and his wife, Laney, have six children, which makes time on the road a challenge. Still, the 38-year-old is determined to remain active in all of their lives, even if it requires a bit of extra planning.

“The end goal is two buses, so the wife and kids can come out whenever,” Hayes revealed. “Sometimes I take the boys, sometimes I take the girls, sometimes just Laney. Rarely we take everyone. That’s just absolute chaos, but we make it work.”

Hayes’ freshman boom. album was released one year ago, but he promises fans will soon have new music in their hands.

“We have a new album on the way, we have a new eight-track on the way, and the tour,” Hayes said. “I think ‘90’s Country‘ is going to even broaden my fanbase. I feel like it’s going to do what ‘You Broke Up With Me’ did. We feel it already, and there’s more music coming.”

The new set of tunes, Hayes promises, will show the highs and lows of his last few years, celebrating not only his successes, but also sharing in his ongoing struggle with sobriety, as well as the recent tragic loss of his baby girl, Oakleigh Klover.

“It’s very personal,” Hayes said of his next record. “It picks up a lot, talking about recovery. That’s a story I love to share. Three years sober this past October. It’s definitely still a battle, always on the road. It talks a lot about family. A lot of throwback to Laney and our relationship beginning. Love that stuff. Love, loss and recovery, that’s my thing.”

Find dates on Hayes’ Dream On It Tour at WalkerHayes.com.

Photo Credit: Getty images/Erika Goldring