Skip Happens Podcast - Every Boot Has a Story!

Texas Country’s Rising Force

• Skip Clark

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SPEAKER_00:

Hello, everybody, and welcome to another edition of Skip Happens. As you know, I'm Skip Clark. I am the host of Skip Happens, also uh afternoon guy in upstate New York, Central New York, the wolf. Not a 2.1, the wolf, but tonight I'm sitting down with one of uh Texas uh fastest uh rising country artists, Hayden Haddock. Haddock. I said that right, right? Yes, sir. You got it right. Okay. From uh, you know, I want to say from a viral college video to a number one Texas country hit. He's become a real force in the uh red dirt scene, they say. He's uh his new single, it's called Hell or High Whiskey. It dropped back in November on the 21st. It's already making some noise, and we love that. And uh, we're talking new music. We're gonna be talking life on the road and the stories behind it all. Let's get right into it. Here's uh Hayden Haddock. Hayden, it's good to see you, man. Hey, absolutely. Thank you for having me on. I really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_02:

Absolutely. Where um where exactly are you right now? Uh so I live in Rockwell, Texas, right now, so just east of Dallas, about 45 minutes. Um, but we're actually moving here in the next month. We're gonna move move a little bit up towards uh the McKinney area, uh, which is more like north of Dallas. So about to be making a move here soon. So you're like close enough to the city, but far enough away.

SPEAKER_00:

Exactly, but we still got traffic, don't worry. It's it's everywhere. So is this like you where you are now? Is this like your hometown where you grew up?

SPEAKER_02:

Uh basically, I mean, I grew up in the uh Dallas Fort Worth area. I grew up in the Garland Plano area. So um, again, from here in Rockwall, probably about 45 minutes. Um it's close enough. And my whole family's from the area, so we're all within about an hour of everybody.

SPEAKER_00:

So what's the big thing in your town? Let me just throw it at you this way. If I was to drive into your hometown where you are now, let's forget about Dallas and all that. But uh you're pro being a suburb and probably a small town. What's the first thing I'm gonna see if I drive in on the main drag?

SPEAKER_02:

Well, other than traffic now, uh now here in Rockwell, we have this big bridge um that like you'd come in and you'd actually pass a big old Bass Pro, and we've got a huge lake right here, Lake Ray Hubbard. Um, but once you get to that bass pro, it's a bridge that uh with past few years is nothing but traffic. But outside of that, we actually have we have some great uh barbecue places here in Rockwell. We've got a couple of the, I don't know if you've heard of them, but like the Texas um what do they call it, the top 50 monthly top 50, but it's a pretty big deal here in Texas. And so we've got a couple of those joints actually um right around us. Um and then we've got a a pretty famous old uh live live music uh venue called Southern Junction. Um so there's there's some stuff to do around here.

SPEAKER_00:

See, I was uh that we were saying before we went on uh on the air here that uh you know my wife and I had made a trip to San Antonio a couple of years ago. We ended up going to Flores Floors General Store. Floors Country Store, yep. Country store, that's what it was. We saw one of uh Texas artists uh Kobe Cooper there. And uh just I love I love the the atmosphere in Texas when it comes to these venues. It is it's just so very cool. So very cool.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, it's definitely Texas. I mean, everybody always says Texas is for sure it's kind of own, you know, own little bubble. And obviously, yeah, there's there's so many venues here and so many great venues, really. Um, almost every town you go to, you're bound to find a pretty decent live music venue. I love it.

SPEAKER_00:

And what I also love is uh it not it's not every time I do an interview that I'm talking to a uh a country artist from Texas, because when I say that, Texas has its own chart, you have your own country music scene, and it kind of overflows in the Nashville a little bit. But uh, you know, eventually some of those artists. I know I'm a fan of Randy Rogers, what was it, Pat Green? Um, I can go on and on just some of the great, great Texas uh country artists. So that's pretty cool. Yeah, so anyway, no, no, no, it's all good. I took a breath at the same time you did. But uh, you know, so that dorm room, let's start right from the scratch. I did a little homework. That uh dorm room video 2018 literally launched your career. What's the wildest part of looking back at that moment? And now that you're you know an actual touring artist, you got millions of streams. Uh, what's all that like?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, no, it's definitely still still crazy to think about. Um, you know, and yeah, obviously the whole the whole thing back then was you never thought it would really amount to much. Um, and I've I'm surprised it's amounted this to this, even because I've heard that video a few times, you know, a couple years after that all happened, and I'm like, sheesh, that's not you know, not very good. But um it doesn't matter though. Look what it did. It's cool. Yeah, I can see it. No, it's it's been crazy, and it's it's been a fun ride. And obviously we've we've gotten a lot done, but you know, we've got got a long, long way to go um to get to where we want to be, but we've been we've been busting our butts and trying to do everything we can, and and um that's kind of what we're gonna gonna keep trying to do here. But uh but yeah, no, it's definitely crazy just going from that, you know. I almost didn't even bring a guitar um to college station for my freshman year, which is kind of right around that time that video was filmed or voice memo, whatever it was. And um, yeah, so it's just crazy thinking about how you know how things would have changed had I not brought that little I think I had a little travel sized uh Taylor guitar.

SPEAKER_00:

Um so had I not brought that kind of was that one of those that kind of folded up or was it just a small it was just a small didn't they come out with a guitar at one time that it it folded up? I don't know. Maybe I saw it CRS or something.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, that that sounds familiar. It sounds like something they did.

SPEAKER_00:

It was kind of weird, actually, when you it's like that's a guitar, yeah. You know, but I've heard of the baby tailors, the smaller, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

That's what this was, and yeah, it was actually actually a good little guitar for its size. But yeah, but I always think, yeah, had I had I not brought that with me, how how things would have been different. I guess I'd be doing construction right now, probably.

SPEAKER_00:

I was gonna say that because from what I read here is I did a little bit of homework, as I mentioned a moment ago, that uh you studied construction science at Texas AM, and then music started to pull on pull on you pretty hard, hard enough that you knew you had to go after it from a professional side.

SPEAKER_02:

Right. Yeah, yeah. We um yeah, once that video kind of came out, and then I guess I ended up playing my first like little show, which of course was just a little acoustic. I actually played four songs on the house or on the break of a house jazz band at a jazz bar in Dallas that my my family someone in my family happened to know somebody who knew the owner, and you know, because of course at the time we didn't know how you got a gig or you know, so that was that was the best we could do. Um, so my of course my whole family was there and a bunch of my friends, and yeah, um, so we did that one, and then that that was kind of the one, you know, being the first in front of everybody, um, and that wasn't a recording, you know, everybody was like, Well, man, you're not half bad. And so I always say we've been been rolling ever since. That's so awesome.

SPEAKER_00:

Now, if if the 18-year-old Hayden could see you now, what would he say? And what would surprise him the most about your journey so far?

SPEAKER_02:

Oh man, that's a good question. Um, probably just keep, you know, I mean, it's kind of cliche, but keep going and don't give up because, you know, I mean, there's there's definitely been some very low times where there's no doubt. I'm like, hey, you know, I've got the construction degree. I could probably go make more money pretty quickly doing that. But then, you know, the flip side of that as well, would I really be as happy as I am, you know, for the most part, getting to getting to live out or at least try to live out my dream of playing music for a living?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, have that to fall back on if something should happen, and let's hope it doesn't, and I don't think it would, but uh still it's I was gonna ask, what would you be doing if you weren't doing music? And obviously you've got this degree in construction, and you know, and there's probably so many different avenues with that. What would you be would you be like be building houses, furniture? What would you be doing for everything?

SPEAKER_02:

Uh no, I guess if I if I had to imagine it'd probably because actually, so my dad um has his own interior design like architecture firm. Oh, okay. Um, and he was an Aggie as well. And then actually both of my older brothers have construction degrees from AM. Um, so they're both my second oldest brother, Cameron, he's actually a uh project manager for like a residential company where they do like custom homes. Um, and then my oldest brother does more of the commercial side, he's a project manager superintendent, one of the two for uh more of the commercial side of stuff. So imagine it'd be somewhere along those lines.

SPEAKER_00:

Do you ever do anything with them? Do they call on you once in a while to help out or no?

SPEAKER_02:

Oh no, no. They they work for pretty yeah, they work for pretty large companies. So I got you. Yeah, I got you. I don't think I'm cool enough to go help them. Well, you are pretty cool.

SPEAKER_00:

So, you know what I'm reading though, you've had a chance to sit down and write with some uh pretty, pretty big, some uh heavy hitters. I know David Lee Murphy, I saw on the list. I'm looking here. Kevin Fowler, by the way, that was the name I should have mentioned earlier. Love his music, Trent Wilmon. Uh Terry McBride, McBride and the ride, dude. Yeah that is that is pretty cool. And Terry, of course, he has written so many, so many big songs. I think he, if I'm not mistaken, he did a lot for Brooks and Dunn as well. I think he wrote Red Dirt Road and songs like that. I believe so. I believe.

SPEAKER_02:

I believe. I should know that because yeah, me and my me and my drummer were actually just talking because we just ran into Terry McBride at a gas station. I say we, actually, my band, I wasn't with them, but um, and they were talking and stuff, and and then me and me and BJ started talking about all the songs he had written. And I know there was a bunch of that Brooks and Dunn stuff, but I can't remember which ones he was listing off.

SPEAKER_00:

He came by the radio station once and we were we were talking, and uh all of a sudden he started just rattling off some of the songs he's been involved in, and it's like I knew a lot of them, but then there's others I go, holy crap, you you were I had no idea that he read some of those, so which is pretty cool. What's the uh biggest writing room lesson that you've learned from you know writing with those guys, the heavy hitters?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, uh yeah, probably just um, you know, don't be afraid to I guess like speak your mind while you're in a writing room or throw out your ideas, I guess maybe is a better way to put that. Um, but and I mean I'm still like this, even though, as I just said, some of these bigger guys have said to not not be scared. But you know, I've always been afraid of you know saying something stupid or you know, something that other people won't like or something. Dude, I'm doing this.

SPEAKER_00:

I say stupid things. It's like afterwards to go, why did I do that? Why didn't you say that? I hear you.

SPEAKER_02:

No, but of course they're their thing is like, well, you know, even if you say something and you know, maybe it's not the best line or but whatever it may be, that can that can always help spark, you know, someone else's mind with a a different line or a different idea, or you know, make the song go a whole different direction. So that that's probably been the biggest thing is just don't be afraid to kind of when something comes to your mind, just say it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, you know, I one thing I I usually don't talk about is too much, or I will ask is, you know, who who are you influenced by? But then I I looked it up a little bit and it's like you're big into straight. You got Tracy Lawrence, Tracy, hell of a guy, love Tracy, Cody Johnson. I mean, they're they're you know, from bull riding to doing what you're doing, being out there, and uh Clay Walker as well. How do you create a modern Hayden Hadock uh sound while keeping that Texas tradition alive?

SPEAKER_02:

You know, I don't know. I think just uh really just working with the right people. Um, you know, I uh pretty much all the songs that we've we've had out for the last, I guess, since 2020 from my album Red Dirt Texas, um, and then through all the singles up until Heller High Whiskey, um, those were all produced by Trent Wilman, um, who's obviously Cody Johnson's longtime producer, Kevin Fowler's longtime producer, um, and a lot of guys like that. Um, and really if you go listen to a lot of the stuff he's done, um, and obviously, you know, Cody kind of being the biggest, but it it kind of keeps that traditional line, yeah, or that, you know, that traditional thing going, but also riding the line of okay, there's a little bit of modern twist to it. Um, but you know, you're not gonna hear all the the snap tracks and and whatever it may be, and no knock against them, it's just not what I want to do. No, I don't blame you. Yeah, and so uh, anyways, I'd say yeah, just kind of kind of making sure, especially with your producer um on stuff, making sure you're on the same page of like, hey, all right, we want to keep this kind of traditional traditional sound going. Yeah, how do you um Hayden?

SPEAKER_00:

How do you handle you do 80 plus shows a year? How do you handle you know all that road life and how it ends up in your songwriting, the exhaustion, the ad uh adrenaline, and the weird hotel stories, all of it. I imagine you got that's gotta be a little crazy, but how do you handle it? 80 shows a year is a lot.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, um, yeah, and we're actually, I think we're on track to do more uh over a hundred this year, actually. Um the goal is to get up closer to 200 at some point. I know it sounds like a lot, but obviously um kind of part of it. But yeah, no, I don't know. Um really just uh I don't know, kind of kind of gotta watch yourself because obviously there's a lot of a lot of drinking that you're surrounded with, um, a lot of late nights, obviously a lot of bad, bad food you're surrounded with. Because guess what? When you're you know finally loaded out of the venue at 2 a.m., there's not a lot of healthy options to eat. No, no, no, I know that. Been there. So yeah, I mean, so really just I mean, you're never gonna be perfect, but definitely at least keeping a you know, trying to keep it.

SPEAKER_00:

Let's let's talk about eating a little bit. You had to change your diet. You, if I was really now, I'm you know, I'm probably very close to where well you're I don't know if I can get into the personal stuff, but I think I read like a type 2 diabetic or type one, yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, all right, yeah. Oh, it's type one. All right. So I was my diet had to change here recently because I was right on the edge of possibly needing insulin. I mean, my A1C was so high, and you know, now I I take meds for that and other things, and I've lost weight and I feel great, and I have changed my eating habits, but that's gotta be so hard for you knowing that you and you mentioned the late nights. I mean, you get you get done at 2 a.m. You're gonna go and uh yeah, you're gonna eat some crap. I mean, but you gotta get something in your stomach, so to speak. So, you know, how do you handle all that?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, really. I mean, I I wish I had a real cool answer for you, but really I think with that, it's just kind of you gotta almost kind of roll with the punches. And luckily, um, you know, like I wear a um uh omnipod insulin pump and a GEXCOM continuous glucose monitor. And now the way they have the technology, those things work together, and it's pretty much they call it a closed loop system, which is like the closest you can get to a functioning pancreas. Um, I'm sure we're boring the audience with the medical talk right now.

SPEAKER_00:

But yeah, you know what? When I talk, I don't think we bore anybody because when we talk like this, not only about your music, but a little bit about you personally. We talk about where you live, and that's why I ask some of the questions like that, because you know what? You're no different than I am, and somebody that's watching this, somebody that's listening, listening to this. Uh, except that you're a musician, you're an artist, and uh you have a talent. Everybody's got their own talent, and this is your talent. This is you know, so it it's interesting. If somebody they hear you on radio or they go to one of your shows, they're gonna go, yeah, that guy, you know what? He goes to the same store I go to. He drives the same truck I drive. He you know what I mean? That's the stuff I think is cool. And that's one of the that's what I bring out when I do the podcast is to prove to everybody that these guys are real. You know, the artists are real, they're real people. Yeah, that's it.

SPEAKER_02:

I was just listening to uh because I listened to a lot of podcasts, I can't remember who it was. It may have been actually Joe Rogan and Billy Bob Thornton or something like that. But uh that they were just talking about uh basically, yeah, people, you know, I think it was Billy Bob obviously saying it, but people don't want to see pictures of you on stage, they want to see pictures of you, you know, eating a steak or yeah, shopping at the grocery store, you know, doing regular people stuff. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

It'd be like, holy crap, I saw McGraw at the store in uh Nashville the other day. It's like, well, you know, he was picking up uh a sack of potatoes. I mean, he's going home to make potato salad or something, you know. Right. I guess that's exactly what you're saying. Um, I want to talk about the new single. That's uh one of the big reasons um that we have you on tonight. Not only that you're a number one artist in in Texas, but let's talk about Heller High Whiskey. Um, what's the story behind that? And where did the idea or emotion come from?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, so um honestly we wrote that um because I went and lived in Nashville, me and my now wife at the time she was my fiance, but we went and lived in Nashville um for a year um after I graduated college. Um, and so um that year while we were living there, I was doing a quite a bit of writing. Um, and so I went into a write one day with um it was actually this lady, one of the writers on it, her name is Liz Hangber. Um, and she was one of the writers on one of my previous singles called uh He Sings for Mary. Um and um anyway, she'd been wanting to get back in the room, and so she said, Hey, I've got a write with um, you know, obviously myself, um, and then a guy named Matt Willis and Frank Moroni who you want to join. So went in and um, you know, first 10 minutes we all got some coffee and we're trying to figure out what we wanted to write. And I guess um I was the only like artist in the room. So typically when that happens, they always say, Well, what you know, what song do you need? What do you want to write? You know. Um I'm like, look, I don't know. You know, I didn't come with any bright ideas, so we can do whatever. And so um I think it was Matt Willis. He's like, Man, I've had this title um called Heller High Whiskey. He goes, I don't know what you know what it's about, but he goes, just like hell or high water, but hell or high, you know, just thought it was a cool idea. Um, and so we fumbled around with some other ideas, but everyone seemed to kept coming back to that title. Um, and so kind of the rest is history. We sat there and and wrote on it for the next few hours, and yeah, and we we think we got a a really good song out of it.

SPEAKER_00:

I love it. I love it. And if not mistaken, um, I think I listened to the link and that Kat sent me. I was gonna try to download it to play a little bit of it, but I'll I'll I couldn't do that, but I will attach it to the uh this interview afterwards. So if you're watching this or listening to this, it'll be at a link uh you know below this. But uh, I'd love if I'm not mistaken, he hit some steel in the beginning. You have the steel guitar. Yeah, I love that. I love that. You can't go wrong with a good steel.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, no, and I just I just got a a really I don't know if badass if I'm allowed to cuss, if I'm not, sorry, but badass, yeah, nobody cares. Just got a badass steel player um in my band. And so that when we went into record this, it's another thing. I'm a bit when I go into the studio, I'm big on, and I know there's some things you gotta do in that slide, but it it's kind of one of those deals where it's like, all right, if we go into the studio and I don't have a keys player, why are we gonna why are we gonna have you know a minute and a half long keys? So you know what I mean, when you can't pull it off. So yeah, uh now granted they're still fiddling stuff on the new, you know, and all that. Um, but yeah, with the steel, I was like, go go big on the steel for this, because I was like, Mike, my player, I was like, he's gonna love it. So sure, sure enough, this is his new favorite.

SPEAKER_00:

This so the steel player is the guy that's out with you doing the shows, too. Right. Cool, you know, because and there are correct me if I'm wrong, but there's a lot of artists that go in the studio and it's a completely different band. It's all studio musicians, and they hit the road, they have a touring band. So, I mean, that's what happens around here a lot. It's like two different things.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, and we we do that too. Um, there is there is a I don't know, there's definitely pros and cons, I would say. Um, because I will say some these studio musicians, they are the best, just incredibly talented. They're usually, yeah, the best. Um, and I always say it's just um it's not even really a talent thing. It's how almost like how fast their mind just picks up on stuff. Um, because you'll play them, you know, play the studio musicians like uh a uh rough track where let's just say it's just my vocals and the acoustic guitar. Um, and I mean within two tries of them running the song together, it sounds like they've been playing the song yeah, on the road for you know a hundred dates a year. Yeah, that's chilling. So it's just crazy. Um, but yeah, there's definitely pros and cons to it for sure.

SPEAKER_00:

And I I made a note, um, Barroom Country Energy. And uh and what made this the right track to put out right now?

SPEAKER_02:

Well, really, just after talking with the with the management company and you know, including Kat and everybody, um, because our last single, keep me up, um, you know, it was a good little mid-tempo, but kind of breakup song. Um, and uh anyway, so and then this song for some reason also playing this for everybody, um, including my band, including you know, my wife, family, uh, friends. Um, I played them this, and we actually recorded two more songs at the same time. So we had three total, and they're three completely different songs. Um, and literally, I think 99% of people were like, Man, they're all good, but that heller high whiskey, you know, you've got something there.

SPEAKER_00:

So with all that being said, Hayden, is Heller High Whiskey part of a bigger rollout? Maybe an EP an album or steady singles for the year of the year and uh 26?

SPEAKER_02:

It's a good question. We've um we get asked that all the time, and we've had me and the management team have had many discussions about it. I think for right now, we're gonna keep doing the single thing, um just until we feel like doing something else would would have the benefit. Um, but right now it's just kind of from what we've seen and what we've been told by a lot of people is that especially for you know younger upcoming artists, um is this the single thing just seems to have more effect. Um, because obviously, yeah, it's like we can put this one out and then you know, a month and a half, two months later, we can roll another one out, then another month and a half, two months. You know what I mean? Yeah, but what I do yeah, at some point I do want to roll up all the singles and at least do um make a vinyl out of them. Vinyl's the way to go now.

SPEAKER_00:

I mean, I know it's coming back. Man, I'm getting vinyl every day in the mail. I just got I got a Lanny Gardner. Um uh it's just everybody is like, as well as the digital side of things, but they're sending out the vinyl, like the whole album, which is cool, and I love that. I had to go out and get another record player. It's like I got rid of that years ago. I had to go get another one. Uh, but it's so very cool that that artists are doing that, and I think that would be a great idea if you did something like that as well. I mean, I mean that that is so cool. Um you know, let me ask, I don't know if you're aware of this, but uh this is this could be a it makes me very angry. I'll tell you why. AI. I love AI. Don't now here's all right. There's two sides of AI. There's a side that it can help you. You're you're kind of lost for a word, or you need a I don't know, a line, or like me in the radio side of things when I'm writing commercials or I need to write a promo or a sweeper, what we call them in the business, or something like that. I can go on AI and say, this is what I'm thinking of, and it'll spit something up. Now, this morning, I'm watching Good Morning America and they're talking about the song that is at the top of the billboard charts right now, which is all AI. It's by an artist, uh, was it Breakout Rust, Breakthrough, I don't know, something like that. And the guy doesn't exist. The song doesn't freaking exist, but it's AI. I mean, really, but it's at the top of the charts. That made me very angry because I look at you like I'm looking at you right now. Somebody, you're out there busting your ass. You're out there, you're writing songs, you're putting music out, and this is your livelihood. Now that that's out there. I mean, how do you feel? You know, as an artist, what are you feeling when you hear something like that?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, no, I I think it's insane, and it's funny you're even bringing that up because I literally just sent that uh, you know, some article popped up on my Instagram this morning of that guy being number one. So I sent that to my wife and brother and all of my band guys, and then actually, right before we got on here to do this, um Woody Harrelson was doing, I don't know if you've seen those hot ones things that I use the hot wings. Um and I guess at the end of it he was talking about, you know, he's kind of scared for acting in the next 10 years. So even my wife was like, Well, what does that mean for you know acting artists like you in the next 10 years? I think it's I'm like, it's gonna get weird.

SPEAKER_00:

It's gonna get really weird, but it's you know, I mean, you you have a talent that nobody else will have. You've got your own. You're unique. You you are Hayden Haddock. You are you, you've got a great talent, everybody's got their own talent. Uh, but then this is stuff like this is just I don't know. It it's scary. And you're right. I don't know if we're gonna be able to stop it. How are we gonna stop it? I don't know.

SPEAKER_02:

I guess the only thing would be that's what I was just telling. I don't know if anyone would be willing to write, you know, some kind of laws into play. I feel like that's the only way that would even something.

SPEAKER_00:

They don't even know who did this. They they even, you know, there's a name on there, then they did a a search for that name, and it didn't apparently it didn't exist. So nothing. I haven't looked yeah, I haven't looked far into it. I thought get your feathers all ruffled. But minor two, I'm gonna tell you from the other side of things, from the radio side, this is not right. It's not right. Yeah, you know, so it's crazy. All right, change the subject. So I want to, you know what? You've had a number one song on the Texas country music chart and a front porch in the rain. And how did hitting that milestone change your confidence going into the new music? I mean, that first of all, what was that like hitting number one? And then, you know, how did that uh change your confidence going into the, you know, what you have now with the new music?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, no, it it was um it was definitely an awesome feeling. Um and it's kind of one of those things um, you know, we've we've been promoting, I think pretty much uh I think we promoted a couple songs off my first lady that we had. So we've been promoting songs out to radio for, I mean, it's gotta be close to seven years. Um and uh of course that one that one just went number one here not, you know, not too too long ago. Um, and so it was just a great feeling that after all those years, with obviously all all those years the goal being to get to the number one spot. And we just, you know, we had gotten to I think number 10, had a couple top 15s, a few top twenty, you know. So we were always kind of sniffing around, getting up there, but never could quite uh catch it. And then actually that song I mentioned, uh He Sings Fairy, um, that had gone to number seven, and then that very next one, Front Porch in the Rain, went to number one. So no, it was a great feeling um to finally be able to um you know kind of put the put that feather in my hat. Um definitely an exciting thing. And then yeah, we're actually um we're actually trying to get our our second number one right now, um, because we actually still have Keep Me Up, which was my last single. That's actually been um our radio single. Um and it's been running a long course, um, longer than normal, but it dropped in May, right? Am I right to say because you're you're quizzing me on stuff and I'm the whole timeline. Yeah, no, no.

SPEAKER_00:

I just you know, from the radio side of things, just because you know, we're kind of in a different world here in the Northeast than you are in Texas when it comes to music, but I keep track of everything. I watch it like I said earlier. You know, I'm a big fan of the Texas country music scene. As a matter of fact, uh there's a programmer in Stillwater, Oklahoma. His name's uh Jason Kranz, says we play his music here on the radio. So that's cool.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh awesome. Well, thank you.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep, yep. And uh yeah, I got some. Oh, I wasn't looking at all these comments. Oh, yeah. A lot about um there's stuff in there about AI, but uh very cool. Anyways, so let's get back to it. It's like, you know, I make a turn and we go. Um so you're a part of um well, good company entertainment. What does having the right team behind you allow you to do now that you couldn't do early on? Yeah, um, yeah, good company.

SPEAKER_02:

Um that's obviously yeah, the new management company I signed with. Um, I guess it was December of last year, something like that. Um, but we really got going um, you know, early this year. Um and no, they've been they've been nothing but great. Um they've got a got a full team um with them. So, you know, we've got a lot of stuff in-house, which is absolutely great. Um, not having to outsource a bunch of stuff. But yeah, Keith, Keith Gale's the head, yeah, um, head manager over there, and and I I love him. We just actually got back from Nashville um a couple weeks ago going going down there to finally let Sierra, my wife, meet the team and meet him and get to hang out with Keith and his girlfriend. And yeah, so we've we we uh we have very good good thoughts and feelings about uh everything that's to come with those guys, and we're excited. Uh yeah, the Heller High Whiskey release is kind of their first full release under them.

SPEAKER_00:

That's exciting, you know, uh working with them and so uh you know you've been featured in Billboard, Taste of Country, Country Now. And how have you learned to navigate the business side of being you know a modern artist without losing sight of the art?

SPEAKER_02:

Well, that's a good question. I guess just not getting too wrapped up in the social media stuff. Um, you know, but that's hard not to. Oh, absolutely. But yeah, sometimes like not maybe not reading all the comments um, you know, is for the best. Um, you know, there's always a negative comment on any of that. Uh well, haters are gonna hate. That's all there is.

SPEAKER_00:

Everybody says that, I know that, but it's so true.

unknown:

It's just

SPEAKER_02:

Uh what is it? You know, everybody tells you if you don't have hate or if someone's hating on you, you know you're doing something right because that means people are paying attention. I'm just gonna say that.

SPEAKER_00:

That means they've got an ear on you. So that you know, they're listening. It's the same thing in radio. Somebody bitches about something, it's like, right, they're listening. Thanks for doing that. You know, I mean, it's you never hear from the, you know, people that have something good to say. But I shouldn't say you never, very rarely, but you'll always hear from somebody that's got a bitch about something and they don't like the sound or whatever. It's the same thing for radio. But that means, like I said, they're listening. And we say thank you. 100%. And so uh the can we I want to get back to uh a little bit about your health because you're doing actually you've been through a lot and you're on a you have a journey going. Uh, you're open about living with type one diabetes. How does that affect life on the road? And what do fans really see about the day-to-day reality with you?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, um, so being on the road, I mean, like we kind of talked about earlier, um, definitely just obviously watching the obviously diet's a big thing um with diabetes in general. Um, so yeah, just kind of watching that stuff. Um, and then obviously, you know, another big thing is um actually a huge thing because it's been a problem that I've had to learn from, but not having enough extra supplies with me or backup supplies, and then you know, we're in um, you know, Missouri or something, and I'm trying to get a prescription call, you know. Um, so now I just travel with you know three times of everything um that I could possibly need. Um teaching the band how to use a um you know an emergency glucagon shot. Yeah, exactly. Um that's what I've learned is the best strategy. Um, but yeah, really, I mean, and then in terms of the fans and stuff, I guess they really don't see much of it um going on because obviously I take care of a lot of that stuff before the show and exactly um and all that, which is obviously you know how it should be. Um But there's there's only been a couple times where like during the during the set I've had to kind of stop or let the band roll a little bit and I'll be trying to get my my Tim or my merch guy or whoever can see me really be like, I need a Dr. Pepper or something with some sugar. I need a little bit of sugar.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah. It might maybe you do like a hand gesture or something that they'll they'll see and go, okay, we gotta get this up to Hayden now. Yeah. Yeah. But it, you know, you're not alone. You're not alone. I think there's so many Americans that are going through so many people going through the same thing that you're going through, and I just about going through. Uh, when it comes to that, uh, you've worked closely with JDRF. Uh, what's one misconception about type 1 diabetes that you always find yourself correcting?

SPEAKER_02:

You know? Oh, oh, probably the biggest one, the easiest one is that you can't eat sugar. That's always the fun one. Yeah, that you know, someone will find out I have diabetes and oh my gosh, so you can't eat sugar? No, or I'll be yeah, about to take a bite of something. Be sure you can eat that. Yeah, like I promise I can eat it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I did. Uh we have the Reese's here left over from Halloween, and uh I grabbed a two-pack before I came on here tonight, open it up, my son's like, no sugar, dad. Like, all right, Zach. No, dad's dad can have some sugar. So yeah, it's all good. You know, um, when fans meet you off stage, what's something that will surprise them? Maybe I don't know, a hobby, personality trait, something totally random. Is there something? I know it's a crazy question. I have some shorts. I don't know. You're short.

SPEAKER_02:

I don't know. Probably a lot of people, because I wear dress shirts a lot, and most of the time I'll roll them up, roll my sleeves up a couple of times. Yeah, but then I guess sometimes after shows I'll pull my sleeves up the rest. So some people I guess, especially if we're like opening for somebody and it's people that haven't really seen us before, yeah, they always are shocked by how many tattoos I have. Um, you got a full sleeve I know on one arm.

SPEAKER_00:

Do you have do you have a full sleeve on both?

SPEAKER_02:

No, I've got yeah, I've got the sleeve on that arm, then I've got a bunch of random stuff on the other, but then sometimes too, like when I wear a dress shirt. Yep. Um and I've, you know, the buttons. I've got like both my my chest is all tattooed. Um got one on my legs.

SPEAKER_00:

When did you get your first tat?

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, um probably freshman year of college. Yeah, I don't think my family even knows that because I hid it for a while, but we'll we'll break it here.

SPEAKER_00:

It's kind of what I was gonna say. So did uh mom and dad know you're out there getting a tat? No, uh absolutely not.

SPEAKER_02:

But you're old enough to do it yourself, so yeah, and there was only so much they could say because I think my oldest brother had already had a full sleeve um from that, you know, at that time, and then my second tallest brother, I think he started his little sleeve. And then but my first tattoo is a little baby, little baby thing up by my armpit.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, but once once you get one, you're you're gonna want to get another. I've got a couple, you know, and uh it's like now, okay, I want to dress this one up. I want to, you know, I'm starting to think about that. Even at my age, it's like yeah, I just now they're fun, they just they just get expensive real quick.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, they do.

SPEAKER_00:

It does add up. So we gotta get you out more shows. No, you already have one. That's all. Um exactly. Yeah. So what do you want? What do you get around town in? What do you drive a truck? I would assume you're in Texas. You have a dually? Yeah, no, I do not.

SPEAKER_02:

I I used to have a I used to have an F-250. Nice um, but then I got tired of paying for maintenance on that thing and paying for diesel because the whole idea was the whole idea was I got that um when we finally got like a big um band trailer, like a full-size, you know, big, big boy, 14 foot or 15 foot, whatever it is. And um the idea was if I was gonna have to pull that around, well then pretty much as soon as I got that truck, it wasn't a few months later, and we decided we were gonna go ahead and get into a sprinter van. Oh, yeah. Um, and so that truck I had it for I don't know, two, two, two or three years, and it never once got hooked up to pull anything. So then after that, I I went back and my little brother actually got that truck. He got one hell of a first truck. Um, but uh and then I've got a I've got a 1500 uh Silverado now.

SPEAKER_00:

Now I was gonna go to the Silverado. I know I've had the Chevy's, I've had the Ram, I've had the Ford, not uh not the 250, just the 150, but still, you know, now I'm driving around in a baby truck. I get a Chevy Colorado, which is still nice. I mean, the new Colorados are big.

SPEAKER_02:

I've had a couple Tacomas, and I sometimes I miss my little Tacoma.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah, I'm telling you, this is you know, I kind of I I don't know. I fell in love with it. So it's cool, it's cool, it's very cool. So um what album when you were growing up, what album did you wear out? Like you listened to over and over and over again?

SPEAKER_02:

That's a good question. I don't know if I remember any album specifically, um, but I know, I mean, kind of probably as you'd guess, because I think you kind of mentioned earlier, but really just a lot of that 90s stuff.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Um, because I remember just between my dad, my uncle, and and my brother um in his truck, um, just a lot of Tracy Lawrence, Claywalker, George Strait. Um, and I guess that's where all that, you know, that influence that I talk about came from. Um, and then yeah, of course, um, you know, being a Texas guy and all that stuff. I think it was actually my my brother Cameron that kind of introduced me and my whole family to Cody Johnson when like I think it was like Diamond in My Pocket first came out or something like that. And so um, I mean, I remember driving to go see Cody, actually not far from here, uh Silver Saloon and Tarrell, uh, my junior year of high school going to see him, and I was buttoned up to get to the front of the stage, and you know, now we've played there a few times, so kind of a cool full circle thing. Um, but yeah, so I don't know, just a lot of mainly that 90s stuff though, for sure. And a lot of Randy Travis. My dad was always a big Randy Travis fan.

SPEAKER_00:

Now I was a fan you talk about that though, like AJ Allen Jackson, and now I'm listening to the Zack Top. I mean, I love that stuff. Yep, and and it's cool with Zack Top. It's I know this isn't about me, but I can tell you the drummer went to the same high school I went to, Nick Felty is from this area. And it's like, dude, when he he played, they were here for a show. I forgot who they were opening up for a couple of years ago, and I thought that's neat. What the hell? You know, and it's like, dude, yeah, you know, but I thought it was cool. Uh, so Dream, I'm sure you get asked this a million times. Dream duet partner, straight, Tracy, Kojo, Clay? Uh that is, yeah, that's a great question.

SPEAKER_02:

Will you pick any one? I guess, you know, I want to say George Strait, but I feel like everybody would say George Strait. So I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go, yeah, probably Tracy Lawrence.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Um, just because yeah, probably outside of probably outside of George, I think he might be kind of my number one influence guy. Um, and the modern guy, definitely a Cody Johnson thing. So Cody Johnson or John Party, honestly. I'm also a big John Party fan.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, John Party's awesome. Yeah, absolutely. Um, so if I was to tell somebody about you, I said, hey, uh, you know, I interviewed this guy, Hayden Haddock. Uh, he's really cool. And they said, well, what's his music? What would be the first song I should tell them to listen to? You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02:

That they're gonna go, wow, yeah, okay. Well, Heller High Whiskey, of course. Of course, of course. No, uh, Heller High Whiskey is a obviously a great one. Um to get them started on you. Yeah, keep me up was a really good song. Um, or you know, is a really good song. It is, yeah. Um, I think that's very well written. Me and Trent actually wrote that together. Um, and we from the time we wrote that, we we really loved that song and and had good feelings about it. Um, and then another one of my favorites that's kind of a it was kind of slept on in my opinion. Um I wish it would have done more. Um, but it was a single, I think in early 2024, um, but it's called Rolling Stone. That is a great song, even just from the lyric side of it. It's a great song.

SPEAKER_00:

So how often do you get to Nashville?

SPEAKER_02:

Um now it's uh it's pretty much been once every couple months or so. Um, but really I like to say it's on a need-to-go basis. Um, so I mean if I'm if they do you really want to go to Nashville?

SPEAKER_00:

You've got everything right there.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. No, I I don't mind going at all. Nowadays, it's it's more so for um like if we have meetings or something that's you know with people up there. Um, or if I just need to go write, then I'll go. Um but we try to make sure that um, you know, I'm not just flying up there to I don't know, to you know, write once and then sit there. Right. Um so we'll try to if you know if we're gonna go, we'll try to get meetings, I'll try to do a couple riders' rounds, I'll try to get a few writes in, you know what I mean? We'll try to pack the schedule um as full as we can.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, are you happy? I mean, obviously you're happy, but I mean you're you're Texas and Texas country. Is there gonna be a time where you'd say, you know what? I want to expand. I want to, I want to hit everywhere. I want to be on the big chart. I went not that Texas isn't don't take it the wrong way. I'm just but I want to be on that big chart. I want to be on media base. I want to I want to do that.

SPEAKER_02:

Is there gonna do you think that time will come or yeah, no, that's that's absolutely that's the goal. Um and uh, you know, yeah, like you said, there's some guys that are absolutely content with um, you know, staying to be a Texas artist will say. Um and you know, yeah, they don't care to go do the Nashville thing or the national thing. Um and that's fine because there's obviously, I mean, you can tour Texas all year and you'll never play all the venues around here. Right. Um, and you can definitely make more than enough to have a good living um playing in Texas. But um, yeah, I guess just over the years working with Trent and kind of seeing what Cody did coming from Texas to now where he's at. Yeah, um, that definitely, you know, kind of sparked a fire under my ass to well, hey, it made me realize there's a lot more out there. Um, and I mean that in a good way to do it. But look what you're doing, dude. You're killing it. You're doing great. We're trying, yeah. Well, you're gonna be able to do it.

SPEAKER_00:

But yeah, no, definitely you're successful, so that's cool.

SPEAKER_02:

But no, definitely the goal is to to get out and kind of do the national thing. Basically, take take it as big as we can take it, is what I always say.

SPEAKER_00:

Exactly. What is the um Texas? What is the most Texas thing you've ever done that you're oddly proud of? Oh shit. Most Texas thing.

SPEAKER_02:

I don't know. Maybe uh cooked a pretty good brisket, smoked a pretty good brisket. Well, we do that here, though. I mean, it's different.

SPEAKER_00:

Maybe it's not the same, though. Maybe it's you know, Texas, it may taste different, even though it's not really different, but it's Texas.

SPEAKER_02:

That's cool. Yeah, I don't know, other than like hunting and fishing stuff, but yeah, everybody does that. I can't really think of anything. So do you hunt and fish? Yeah, I do. You do? Wish I could do it more, but kind of time time pending.

SPEAKER_00:

It's got you, it's got you going pretty good, though. What are you? Are you deer hunter?

SPEAKER_02:

Yep, deer, and then obviously we'll go and hunt hogs and then you know, bird hunting when it's time.

SPEAKER_00:

And I see a lot of videos on the hogs. Is that a big problem there? That that they oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

They're a big big nuisance. So a lot of a lot of like landowners, they you know, they'll let you come. Right? Yeah, yeah, and they'll let you come shoot pigs for free just to help them out.

SPEAKER_00:

Now are they edible? I'm sorry if that's a stupid question.

SPEAKER_02:

I'm just no, they they are. Some people are kind of weirded out by eating them just because they are like wild pigs, and they're I mean, they're obviously pretty nasty animals, but like we've in our deep freezer, we've got some uh hog breakfast sausage right now. Um, and then my brother just I'm trying to think of what that was that he cooked. He cooked something else from a pig. It may have been the backstrap or something. I don't know, but he cooked something else the other night. It was actually pretty good. Um so it's kind of one of those things, as long as you can get over that you're not eating um or that you're eating, you know, kind of a nasty well pig, but it tastes it tastes decent.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I mean, you have to cook it a certain way. I mean, just like with venison, if you just cook it just venison without putting onions and peppers and spicing it up a little bit, you know, it's like kind of bland. Right. But so, but if you cook it the right way. So oh, Michael James just said Hogan is fun. I don't know, like I say, I I've never done it. So anyways, so that you know Yeah. Just trying to think. Uh wow. So your family. Before I let you go. You're the only musician. Oh, I think he just liked to say goodbye. No, there he is. He's back. You disappeared for a second, dude. Are you there? Can you hear me? Hello? Hold on, you cut out. All right, I'm hanging. I'm hanging. That's all good. That's all good. It's Hayden Haddock, everybody. He's a uh number one recording artist in Texas, so and he's got uh he had a song all the way to number one. And uh I can see you, but I can't hear you. Okay how about Al? What about now? That was a Lone Star song. But anyway. Can you hear me? No? I can't hear you. I can hear you. Okay, he's gonna go out and come back. But if you get a chance, check out his music. Uh definitely jump online. You can follow him on YouTube. Now I can hear you. You can hear you now. Sorry, I don't know.

SPEAKER_02:

Someone tried to someone tried to call me, but I declined it, and then it cut out. My fault.

SPEAKER_00:

Ah, yeah, no. It's probably the kids from the other room. I don't know. Give dad a call. He's been on that long enough. Uh, yeah. So, anyways, no, I do want to uh, all that being said, that uh if somebody wanted to get a hold of your music, listen to your music, I imagine. You have a YouTube channel, I know that. Uh, but where can they get your music?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, um, so you can get our music anywhere you stream your music. So Spotify, Apple, Amazon, um, obviously, yeah, YouTube. Um, but the easiest thing to do for anything and everything is just my website, which is HaydenHaddock.com, and that has links to shows, merch, music, um, everything under the much is very important. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

But yeah, HaydenHaddock.com is the easiest way. Yeah, exactly. Support the artist when you see them on Skip Happens. If they have a merchandise link, click on it, support the artist. It's very important. Uh, you know, this is their livelihood. So, and and what I was gonna say before somebody tried to call you from the other room was uh no, I'm just kidding. But um your family, you're the only musician in your family. Right. And and you've had a number one, you've had a number one song on that Texas chart. How does the family react to that, knowing that, hey, my brother or my son, or you know, he's a number one recording artist in Texas?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, no, they were they were very proud um and very happy. And obviously, yeah, that was one of those things they've they've been very supportive and very uh, I guess you could say close to my career um this whole time. So I think it was kind of a kind of a win for all of us, and like I said earlier, kind of a feather in the cap for all of us. So it was definitely a cool feeling uh to be able to kind of send out the text in our family chat that you know, hey, finally got to the number one track.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, did you guys party? Did you uh get some beer and celebrate? What did you do?

SPEAKER_02:

Oh yeah, we're we're always partying.

SPEAKER_00:

Come on. No, yeah, we did. We all we went to dinner and celebrated a little bit. I love it. What is the uh before I let you go, what is the most trouble you've ever gotten into? Man, uh we're all kids, man, at one time. We did a lot of crazy stuff.

SPEAKER_02:

Trying to think, because honestly, growing up, like me and my second, my my oldest brother, I think, got in all the trouble. I think he kind of took it away from us. But uh no, we other than like staying out late or you know, closing the door with the girlfriend or something, probably. Uh, we really didn't get into much trouble like at school or anything. I did get in trouble when I was in like middle school for kissing my girlfriend after hours in the after football practice. She was a cheerleader, so then we had to go call our parents in the office. Um other than that, but like I've never had anything with the law.

SPEAKER_00:

How would a parent handle that though?

SPEAKER_02:

I mean, you're come on, it's a part of growing up. My dad just kind of chuckled because you also got to remember I've got two older brothers, so it wasn't nothing he hadn't dealt with before. That's my boy. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, but he didn't. Oh, sorry, go ahead. No, no, no. Oh, I was just gonna say, no, other than that, um, no, really, just never got in much trouble. Um, was always tried to be kind of a good kid, and we were obviously we were raised kind of hard, so obviously we knew if we did something wrong, we were gonna get our butt work.

SPEAKER_00:

So made you a good person, the good person that you are today by being raised that way. So that's cool. That's cool. How many kids do you have? I actually don't have any. Oh, okay. I thought I thought early on you said you had one or two, so I didn't know.

SPEAKER_02:

No, yeah. So the phone call was actually my my grandfather. You're joking about it being my kid in the other room. It was my grandfather.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I love it. I love it. Well, tell them we said hello. So, anyways, uh, we're gonna let you go. I want to thank you for taking the time tonight to join us uh here on Skip Happens. And uh, you know, it's gonna wrap it up for this episode. Uh big thanks to Hayden Haddock uh for hanging out, sharing the stories, giving us an inside look at the music. It's really cool, especially the new single, Hell or High Whiskey. By the way, I went looking for the video. There's no video yet. Not yet. Not yet. We're gonna do something though. But the single is out. So if you've enjoyed the conversation, make sure you subscribe, hit the notification bell, check out more artist interviews. Uh, you'll see them all right here on Skip Happens. We're now gonna add uh Hayden Hadock to that list. Uh you can also catch me on 92.1 the Wolf here in Syracuse. Follow along in all our socials to stay connected. And uh, want to say thanks for listening. Thank you for supporting the artist. And as always, uh, we'll see you on the next episode of Skip Happens. Hayden, thank you so much. We're gonna sign off and uh stay right there. We're gonna say goodbye. Goodbye, everybody. Thanks for watching. Don't forget to subscribe. Please help me out. There you go. All right, here we go.

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Skip Clark

Host