Wade Hayes has done a lot in country music, but there is one dream he still wants to cross off his bucket list. The Oklahoma native reveals his biggest dream is to write a song that becomes a hit for another artist, a dream that will likely come true in his lifetime.
“I’m starting to work on a new record,” Hayes reveals to Everything Nash. “I’ve got enough tunes written to do a new project. I’m really torn between doing an actual Greatest Hits album, or doing all new tunes. I’m weird about visiting the past. I always want to look forward as far as music goes, because I still have one dream that I have not realized in my life, and that’s to have another artist record a song that I wrote, and have a hit on it.
“That is my one dream that I did not get to realize yet, and so that’s what I’m striving for,” he adds. “And so I continue to write songs and make records, and hopefully somebody will hear something that turns them on and record it … That would make the whole journey complete.”
Hayes may not have written a hit single for another artist — at least not yet — but he has definitely left his mark on country music as a genre, with a new generation of country music artists looking to Hayes for inspiration.
“There’s a huge resurgence of ’90s sound. And I’m tickled to death that I’m still around and getting to enjoy it,” Hayes says. For Hayes, who had a series of hits in the ’90s, beginning with his No. 1 single, “Old Enough To Know Better,” seeing other artists emulate him is fulfilling in a way he didn’t expect.
“There becomes a lull,” says the singer. “You’re coming off finally, your stuff is not played as much on the radio. And now it’s starting to get played again. Recently, I saw a kid named Zach Top, and he was singing one of my songs on a TikTok video. He and Dierks Bentley were doing one of my tunes in concert. And I thought, ‘I wish I could tell them how much that means to me,’ because it really does. It brought a tear to my eye, that somebody actually thought about me that way. I wish I could tell them how much it means to me, because I don’t think they have any idea.”
@countrywestern094 @dierksbentley and @Zach Top with a Wade Hayes Classic. Old enough to know Better. Live at the Walmart Amphitheater in Rogers Ar. #FYP #viral #foryou #fyp #foryoupage #fy #trending ♬ original sound – ROWDY
Hayes’ latest album, Old Country Still Rocks, was in many ways his love letter to country music, paying tribute to the artists and songs that became the soundtrack to his own life. Included on the project are songs like “Slow Hand,” “Whiskey River,” “Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind” and more, songs that can now in turn inspire others.
“That is an album I could have made four of with ease. It was so very difficult to find songs,” Hayes says. “The title track, ‘Old Country Still Rocks,’ is a song that I wrote. It was just me, and songs that I loved mentioning artists that were influential to me, and mentioning stuff that I loved. And it still means a lot to people. And the younger folks, the last two years, especially the last two years, we’ve seen a huge influx of young people. Kind of a rejuvenation of the ’90s era, when I was having hits. These kids were riding around in their Pop’s truck, listening to records, and their old man was going, ‘I dig this guy.’
“I remember that exact feeling riding around in my dad’s truck listening to Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson. That’s how I became diehard fans of theirs. So the same thing has happened, except I’m the old guy now,” he adds with a laugh.
Hayes will once again be part of the 2026 Country Music Cruise, joined by Josh Turner, Patty Loveless, Neal McCoy, Randy Owen Shenandoah, T. Graham Brown and more.
“I enjoy it,” Hayes says. “Here lately, I’ve been really thinking about my life and things, a lot. And one of the few things, one of the very few things in this life that I actually enjoy, is making people happy. And the rest of it, the traveling, everything is tough, especially now that I’ve got all this stuff going on at home, it’s tougher. But I sincerely love watching somebody smile, if I bring back a memory of when we were all younger, and there were hit songs on the radio that we enjoyed.
“If they liked one of my songs, and it brings back a memory to them, I get a kick out of that,” he continues. “And I sincerely love it, so that’s why I do it. There are a lot of people from our demo that were there when these songs came out, and they were current on the radio, and that’s why I do it … I’ll come back as long as they’ll have me.”
Find Old Country Still Rocks, and all of Hayes’ music and upcoming shows at WadeHayes.com.
The 2026 Country Music Cruise will set sail on January 25 from Ft. Lauderdale, and visit Grand Turk and St. Thomas, returning on February 1. Cabins are on sale now, and will sell out quickly. Use code EVERYTHINGNASH for an exclusive discount. Find more information at CountryMusicCruise.com.