The Success of ‘Fancy Like’ Challenged Walker Hayes’ Sobriety. His New Project Celebrates It
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Country singer Walker Hayes was six years into his sobriety journey when he scored a surprise number-one hit, instantly giving him the biggest platform of his career, while also propping him up on the biggest stage to fall from.
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That surprise hit was “Fancy Like,” Hayes’ humdinger of a single that touted the joys of a “Bourbon Street steak” at Applebee’s over a snappy beat and sing-along chorus. Buoyed by a viral TikTok dance and even a remix with Kesha, the single went platinum (for sales of more than one million units) and hit number one on the Billboard country charts. But three years later, Hayes says the resulting whirlwind of “Fancy” was anything but.
“It was the greatest thing that ever happened in my career,” he tells Rolling Stone, “but it was one of the biggest storms in my life too, because I didn’t know how to process it.”
Hayes is sipping a green smoothie in the lobby of a trendy West Hollywood hotel, miles removed from his modest home in Mobile, Alabama where he lives with his wife and six kids. The country star is in town to promote his new collaboration with Athletic Brewing Company, the country’s largest non-alcoholic beer brand, who’s just tapped Hayes for a new American Pale Ale, appropriately called “Fancy Like.”
The partnership stemmed from a genuine love for the brand, Hayes explains, but also a desire to create something fans could feel good drinking at his shows, especially if they were laying off the alcohol. While Hayes calls himself “a sweet tea guy,” the singer admits he was tired of not having any options at bars and restaurants aside from iced tea, club soda, or Diet Coke, which made his stomach hurt.
The newly-christened Athletic Brewing Co. “Chief Fancy Officer” (CFO) describes his new beer as a “great, classic pilsner” and compares it in taste and feeling to Miller High Life. “It’s just fun and laidback,” he says, adding that “Fancy Like” was “just the perfect name for it.”
The beer officially went on sale April 25 and is available in select retailers nationwide. The launch of Hayes’ non-alcoholic beer also coincides with the release of his latest album, Sober Thoughts, which features a collection of introspective songs that chronicle the singer’s journey to sobriety.
Hayes says he started drinking at 13, though he can’t recall a particular reason or moment that drove him to drink. What he does remember, is watching home videos with his wife and kids one night eight years ago and not recognizing the person he saw on the screen. “It hurt man,” he says, “because I was looking at a picture of me and my son, and my eyes are glazed over.”
“I was smiling,” he continues, “but I just wasn’t there.”
That moment, Hayes says, “awakened a guilt in him,” which led to him finally putting down the bottle at the age of 36, ending this “crazy battle” within himself once and for all — or so he thought.
In 2020, Hayes began filming himself making TikTok videos with his family, partly as a way to kill time during Covid and also as a way to promote his album, Country Stuff. One of the videos, which featured the singer dancing with his daughter to “Fancy Like,” quickly went viral, propelling both Hayes — and his song — suddenly into the spotlight.
The rise of “Fancy Like” was swift, with the accompanying dance becoming a TikTok trend, and Applebee’s — name-checked in the lyrics — using the song in a series of commercials. The restaurant even brought back the Oreo Shake, thanks to Hayes’ mention of the drink on the track.
While Hayes — who had struggled for years as a singer and songwriter in Nashville — had seemingly found his big break, he says the success of “Fancy Like” came amidst a turbulent period in his life.
“I have a daughter we lost three years prior, who was stillborn,” he explains. “And my dad died six weeks before we put ‘Fancy Like’ out. And then ‘Fancy Like’ was just this large stone that splashed into the lake of our life, and the ripple effect, honestly, was like nothing short of tragic.”
Hayes went from playing UNO in his pajamas with his kids during Covid, to being on the road and doing promo in a different town each night. Most nights, he’d fall asleep alone, miles away from his family and friends. And then there were the sudden flashes of fame, which the small-town guy from Alabama had never had to navigate in his life.
“All of a sudden, you take this dad who’s very comfortable at home just writing songs and you put him in a suit, and you do his hair, and he’s walking red carpets with Machine Gun Kelly, and Cardi B’s introducing him? Yeah,” Hayes admits, “there were times where I was like, ‘I would love to be hammered right now; I’d much rather be drunk at this award show because I am uncomfortable.”
“I’m not gonna lie,” he shares, “but there were many nights where I called my wife and I said, ‘Look, there’s a bar down at the hotel, there’s nobody there, and nobody would know.’ There were many nights,” Hayes says, “where I counted on my wife and friends to talk me through and say, ‘You will not regret it if you don’t have that drink. You will not regret it if you wake up tomorrow and don’t have that secret to keep.'”
Hayes seems a little uncomfortable sharing that anecdote. But he has no regrets.
Country music has always been synonymous with drinking. Some of the most popular country songs of all time revolve around beer or whiskey, or some combination of the two. Hayes admits that he still “loves a good drinking song,” but the singer hopes his story — and music — can inspire fans to think beyond the bar.
“There’s beer or whiskey in every single country song, and it’s almost like the furniture that goes in the house of a country song,” Hayes says. “And I think my role, or my calling, if you will, is to just be sober out loud, at least in our genre of music.”
“I don’t want to judge people,” he continues, “but I’m gonna have ‘Fancy Like’ [non-alcoholic beer] at all my venues, and I’m gonna promote it and say, ‘Hey, do you need this? It’s an option. I want to expose you to it. And it’s okay.'”
Hayes’ favorite song on his new album is called “Same Drunk.” It’s about how we all struggle with something, he explains, whether it’s alcoholism, substance abuse, or just “hitting the gym every day and realizing you’ll never be jacked enough. At some point,” he offers, “whatever you’re leaning on is going to let you down.”
Another song on Sober Thoughts is called “Beer in the Fridge,” inspired by the single remaining beer Hayes had in his refrigerator when he decided to quit drinking. “I would see it every day and shut the door,” he says, “and that was a victory for me.”
Why didn’t he just toss it out?
“I don’t know,” he admits. “I guess back then, I was playing a dangerous game and felt like, ‘Temptation tastes good.'” He shrugs and shakes his head in seeming disbelief.
Hayes is quick to acknowledge that launching a new beer brand — even a non-alcoholic one — could be a form of temptation as well. Does he want to walk so close to the fire?
“It’s not a trigger for me to drink a non-alcoholic beer,” he says reassuringly. “I don’t drink one and go, ‘Oh, this makes me really want to drink a real beer. I just like the taste of beer. And I like the activities that beer goes with, like baseball, golf, boating, bonfires, friends, family.”
Hayes’ immediate goal is to raise the profile of non-alcoholic beer in country music, starting with the venues on his “The Same Drunk Tour,” which kicks off May 30 in Cincinnati. He’d like to see his Athletic Brewing collaboration eventually make its way to airports, baseball concession stands, basketball games and football stadiums — places where people travel to, he explains, where they might want an alternative to booze.
“I’m really vocal about my story, my struggle and my redemption from alcoholism,” Hayes says, “and I just want to give people hope, especially in my line of work, where it just kind of coincides with drinking.”
“I don’t want people to be in dark places alone,” he continues, “because I know when I’m in those places, life is sad. And when you’re doing something in the dark that you know isn’t good, it’s killing you. And I don’t want people to feel that way. That’s really why I still make music,” Hayes offers. “Just to say, ‘Hey, out there. Are you okay? Are you good? Me too.'”
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