Walker Hayes confronts America's divisive ideals with a beer and a smile in 'Good With Me'

Like just about everyone in America in 2023, Walker Hayes has friends whose sociopolitical beliefs differ wildly.

Since 2020, Hayes has, via his two No. 1 hits "Fancy Like" and "AA" and 10 million singles sold, become a one-stop shop for a positive spin on humanity's common denominator.

Now, at a time when staunch conservatism has counterbalanced surges in reparational equity in America, Hayes' new single, "Good With Me," out Friday, provides a 2½-minute reckoning on hotly discussed topics in America.

He's hopeful the reckoning is accompanied by just enough laughter to ease the tensions denying the conversations that can reunite the ties that ideally bind.

"This song is a lighthearted look at the walls and doors we've erected around each other and how that's harming our social condition," Hayes told The Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY Network.

The divisive topics the song covers include:

• Organized religion's logic.
• Homosexuality's link to brands of light beer.
• The fairness of college athletes being compensated for their name, image and likeness.
• COVID-19's link to Chinese scientists.
• The R&B-to-mainstream qualities of Hayes' own music lampooning the legacy of Hank Williams and other traditional country icons.
• The U.S. border with Mexico.
• Many Americans' confusion with gender identities that exist beyond the conventional binary.
• His own daughter's exorbitant spending habits.
• The U.S. government taking liberties with civil rights via the deregulation of cellular technology.
• Progressive views on marijuana legalization.
• Hayes' belief that his own label, Monument Records, fears he'll be canceled for making broad statements about all of the above issues.

To Hayes, those ties are best celebrated while sitting on his dock, fishing with his wife, listening to country music and drinking a cold beer.

Living in a house on a lake in a small town between Tullahoma and Winchester, Tennessee, he's an hour closer to Alabama than Nashville's Music Row.

The 120-mile span from mainstream country's hub to areas near Hayes' front door provides the best perspective for the breadth and depth of opinions that inspire his latest song.

Hayes describes the song "spilling out" of himself after a rare day home during his just-completed nationwide Duck Buck tour.

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Hayes described an episode at the gym when close friends got "loud, bowed up and passionate about one of his opinions on a socially relevant topic in today's world."

"I don't have the time to get fatigued about having opinions on that topic − or any topic," Hayes said, sighing while discussing the conversation that inspired "Good With Me."

"I am a husband and country music songwriter with six kids and three dogs," he said. "I have enough occupations to fill my mental capacity each day adequately. I don't think I can also absorb the news and have the ability to argue my opinions about that news on top of everything else I have going on in my life.

"We all need to sit and take a moment to drink a beer and keep it real. Putting someone's divisive, polarizing opinions ahead of their humanity can lead to us dangerously dehumanizing them. It's important that − whether it's beer, coffee, playing catch, religion, work, or something − we discover ways to re-create face-to-face relationships with each other."

Hayes is keenly aware that the song's extension of his frank yet joking demeanor into topics much more serious than anything he has discussed in his explosion of mainstream acclaim places him at yet another career crossroads.

"Very few people have heard this song," he said. "And when I play it, I've braced myself for the worst. I mean, I played it for my in-laws, Pam and Doug, who are referenced in the first two lines.

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"However, those who have heard this song, regardless of where their ideologies fall along the spectrum, have smiled when they hear about themselves, their beliefs and the presentation of an opposing opinion," he said.

"The exhaustive public expression of my life has allowed the world to witness me as an alcoholic and sober, an atheist and believer, poor and wealthy. I'm not trying to heal the world with fairy tales, but I know I'm genuinely at a place where I feel I'm best as an arm around people's shoulder if they need it."

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