Zach Bryan and Walker Hayes’ Beef, Explained

Country music stars Zach Bryan and Walker Hayes recently found themselves in a small beef. While the two men seem like very different artists, with approaches to songwriting that are quite dissimilar, it seems to be that exact difference that led to the beef. Things all started when Bryan took to X (formerly Twitter), to make a comment on country music radio by praising Americana musician Tyler Childers while ridiculing Hayes’ hit 2021 song “Fancy Like.”

“Imagine being radio (whoever the hell that is), hearing ‘Shake the Frost’ and being like, ‘No, no let’s go with the Applebee’s song,” Bryan wrote, referencing Childers’ fan-favorite song from several years ago. The singer later stated that his intention wasn’t to be “insulting,” and that he meant it as more “humor” and “not malice.” Hayes eventually responded to Bryan’s post, writing, “Big shout out to radio for playing dat Applebee’s song.” He then added, “Zach and Tyler praying y’alls continued success.” It seems however, that Hayes realized he had a lot more to say and has put his feelings into a song that she shared on Instagram.

The new tune doesn’t seem to have a title, but it’s clear that Walker is working through his feelings over Bryan’s comment, with lines like, “Felt like throwing punches / But I just held ’em back / ‘Cause Jesus didn’t die for me / So I could fight with Zach Bryan.” He adds, “No hard feelings / ‘Cause man, I’d be lyin’ / If I said I ain’t never / Talked s–t about a radio record / ‘Cause I thought mine was better.” Hayes then closes the song by singing, “It’s kinda funny / Oughta feel happy for any fool makin’ money makin’ songs / ‘Cause I know most of us die tryin / To be Zach Bryan.”

In the post caption, Hayes shared, “Me and my buddies were talking about the whole Zach Bryan thing. They were saying they appreciated how I responded. I confessed that they only saw my best foot forward. I had a hundred smart ass responses in the chamber that I didn’t fire off. Then we got to talking about people in general. Why we get insecure, etc. Mostly about how artists size each other up, compare, and talk trash. It’s obviously our natural human tendency to be a little butt hurt by anyone else’s success.”

He continued, “Then we wondered about that. Why on earth we would do that as song writers. Knowing that .0001 percent of us are actually making it in this biz. Took me 18 years to feed my kids with music and I’ll still knock something I hear on the radio cuz I didn’t write it. So, we tried our best to put it all in a Twanger. And this is what we got. I hope it makes y’all talk about stuff that matters.” Bryan doesn’t appear to have yet commented on Hayes’ anti-diss track.