Walker Hayes Reveals How Kenny Chesney Inspired ‘Shut Up Kenny’

Walker Hayes released his album, boom., in December, and one there’s one track on the record that brings to mind a rather well-known country singer.

Titled “Shut Up Kenny,” the song finds Hayes dealing with heartbreak as he is reminded of his former flame every time he hears a Kenny Chesney song.

“‘Shut Up Kenny’ is also a true story. My wife (Laney) and I associate so many memories in our relationship with the timing of Kenny Chesney songs,” Hayes said in a recent radio interview, via CMT.com.

The singer added that while most of the memories are good ones, he and his wife did have a rough patch in which a Chesney song was involved.

“So many happy memories: us in a U-Haul, us moving into our first little apartment, all great stuff,” Hayes shared. “But one night Laney and I were in a fight, we were past the point of talking. We were actually being dead silent and I flippantly just turn on the radio and ‘Anything But Mine’ came on. And that song makes me happy, but I wanted to stay pissed in that moment. So I thought ‘Shut up, Kenny!’ and I changed the station, and the same song was on another station,” he said.

“So I took that idea a couple of days later, and me and some buddies (AJ Babcock and Pete Good) wrote it.”

Hayes and Chesney haven’t met yet, but Hayes’ producer, Shane McAnally, sent Chesney the song and the star gave the go-ahead for Hayes to include it on his album.

“That was a great moment for me. To think that I came here 13 years ago loving Kenny, and 13 years later Kenny didn’t cut my song, but he heard it. And he liked it, and I get to put it on my album,” Hayes told CMT.com. “I thought it would be funny if Kenny and I got into a fake Instawar like he writes a reply that’s like, ‘Shut Up, Walker.’ But he’s so gracious, and they play it on his SiriusXM station, and it has sparked a huge reaction to that song. It’s good to have his support.”

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