Walker Hayes Nearly Relapsed After Baby Oakleigh's Death

In 2005, Walker Hayes moved to Nashville with his wife Laney. The couple added six children before tragedy struck in June 2018, when their seventh child, daughter Oakleigh, died the same day she was born. At that time, Hayes had two and a half years of sobriety under his belt. In a K-Love Morning Show interview that aired Aug. 6, the Grammy nominee, 45, said he immediately drove home from burying Oakleigh and then jumped in his car for downtown Franklin "just to self-destruct." He said, "I mean, I couldn't mentally or physically tolerate, you know, whatever that feeling was," and described going to a bar called 55 South on Main Street intending, "I'm going to get a little buzz and I'm going to just mess with those guys. I'm just going to get in a fight with those guys." He realized his wallet wasn't in his Honda, returned home to find Laney "sitting alone in the dark," had a "wonderful conversation," and Laney found an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting for him to attend.