Walker Hayes Details His Kids' 'Sacrifices' to Tour With Him
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Walker Hayes is currently touring North America, but he's in good company, seeing as his whole family is along for the ride.
The "Fancy Like" singer was out and about in Thunder Bay, Canada, with his two youngest daughters while exclusively chatting on the phone with Parade recently, admitting how easy it is to lose track of time when they're together. “Wherever we are, we’re usually just killing time doing nothing but trying to be creative,” he tells us.
But their ability to do so doesn't necessarily come easy. Hayes, his wife, Laney, and their six kids—and three dogs—all pile into the bus together when the time comes for him to hit the road, and he understands the sacrifices many of them make in order to do so. "I don't know how people look at it; some people might look at it and go, 'Oh, their kids are so lucky that they get to go travel the world.' But it's also hard for them, you know, they sacrifice a lot of things that they just can't commit to," he adds.
Between sports, theater, and other extracurriculars, there are a lot of things they've had to pass on in order to stick close to their dad, since he doesn't want anybody doing anything "halfway."
"They actually do give up a lot," he says, for which he's incredibly grateful. "It only helps me be a dad, them being with me constantly. It gives me so many more opportunities to just spend time with them."
It also gives them a chance to see him at work in a healthy environment, just like he observed with his own father, who was a realtor. "Anytime I could see my dad work, I was learning from his actions; I watched him and how he treated people," he notes.
He hopes that by watching him and his team together—and also seeing him on his bad days, too—that they know what to aspire to in their own lives. "I think that'll help them when they have kids and they have a wife or they have a husband and they go, 'Oh, I've already been here.' This isn't perfect, it's just really beautiful," he explains. "It's not always easy—there's sacrifices every which way; if you go down one road, there's always one you could have gone down, but Laney and I are grateful."
One such road they had the opportunity to head down was a new partnership with Great Clips before the kids head back to school, each member of the family boosting their confidence with a fresh new do.
The company came calling at a "crazy perfect" time, just after Hayes had written the chorus for a song called "Haircut." He and his oldest daughter, Lela, 16, got to come up with a dance to go along with it—one of their favorite pastimes together. "[It] couldn't be more on brand," he says. "I mean, that's who I am; we travel the world and if we find a strip mall, we're at home. We can get a haircut there, we can get food, you know, that is such a perfect place for my family."
To get ready for your own back-to-school moment, Great Clips is also offering a coupon for your first haircut.
Next: Madonna Is Thankful to Be Able to 'Dance Just a Little Bit' After Health Scare
