Waylon Wyatt isn’t finished with high school yet, but that hasn’t stopped him from taking the steps toward launching a full-fledged career. Although many of his peers are still trying to figure out what they want to do after they leave the nest, Wyatt already has his mind set on one thing, and one thing only — becoming the next big folk/country music artist.
Found His Connection To Country Music Through His Family
Hailing from the tiny town of Hackett, Arkansas, Wyatt, whose full name is Waylon Wyatt Potter, has all the makings of becoming a global superstar. But he tells Music Mayhem, in a new exclusive interview, that he knows the dream of making it in music, particularly isn’t an ideal one, especially since he’s not surrounded by like-minded individuals.
“We only have about 800 people as a population in our hometown. Most people just take over whatever their parents are doing… [It’s a] you just follow what your daddy does, kind of, place,” he shares. “So nobody shoots for the stars, as I would say. There’s not a lot of people out [here] trying to do professional singing or anything like that.”
Despite a lack of musicians and singer/songwriters in his region, Wyatt has always found his connection to country music through his upbringing and family, who provided a foundation for his love of country music’s history. He calls his parents “firm believers” of the genre. “I’ve always loved country music. I grew up around it,” he explains. “I mean, nobody in my family particularly plays instruments or sings themselves, but we all have been very into country music from the get-go.”
“My dad is a big traditional country music fan. My mom, she’s a big bluegrass fan, so I believe it all runs together,” he added. “And in the heart of it too, I’m from Arkansas, so Johnny Cash, he’s from Kingsville, Arkansas, and we’re firm believers of Johnny Cash as well. So just exactly where I’m from is we’re all prime believers of country music.”
Pays Tribute To His Late Brother Dylan
Digging deeper into his reason for turning to his guitar, Wyatt shares the heartbreaking detail of losing his brother, Dylan.
“I lost my older brother way back when, and I picked up the guitar as a way to cope with the depression I felt afterward. I just went strong and hard at it since, I mean, that was my only way to fall back on it once I lost him,” the 17-year-old shares. “But he played guitar himself. The real reason I picked it up is a way to remember, that one of his biggest traits was, he wanted to play guitar, and he was pretty great [at it]. Honestly, I don’t think I’m near as good as he is, but I’m definitely getting there.”
With guitar providing a therapeutic outlet for him, Wyatt penned the heartfelt tune, “Phoning Heaven,” in honor of his brother. The song includes the lyrics: “We don’t talk about you often, but you’re long from forgotten / Been forever since we’ve seen your face / But there ain’t nothing against you / It’s just easier to live through this life / Thinking you’re one call away / Only one call away.”
“I wrote this song due to the fact that I lost him,” Wyatt recalls. “It was a way for me to recollect that and show that he was my inspiration. I like to play that song at every venue I play because he’s the reason I picked up the guitar in the first place. So I have to thank him for that.”
Til The Sun Goes Down
In the summer of 2024, Wyatt released his seven-track debut EP, Til The Sun Goes Down, which featured “Phoning Heaven” as well as breakthrough hits like “Arkansas Diamond” and “Everything Under the Sun.” Of “Arkansas Diamond,” which tallied more than 50 million streams, Wyatt says he’s still surprised the tune caught rapid fire the way that it did.
“It’s absolutely crazy. That was the second song I ever wrote, and I don’t know, it’s just wild to see that it reconciles with so many people,” he shared. “Just knowing that a song that I put together, I mean, it’s insane because I’m me, and I’m human, and just knowing that so many people actually love the stuff that I do is just an insane factor on its own.”
One song not featured on the EP is a collaborative co-write on “Jailbreak” with Bayker Blankenship. The track is one of very few co-writes that Wyatt has been a part of. But, the two artists came together organically. Wyatt came across Blankenship’s cover of “Arkansas Diamond” on social media, and from there, the two met up to collaborate.
“We started exchanging numbers, and we scheduled a meetup in Nashville in the first hour that we met,” Wyatt recalled. “We wrote ‘Jailbreak’ together, and we’ve been inseparable ever since!”
“Nashville Is New York City For Country People”
Interestingly, Wyatt, who signed a deal with Music Soup and Darkroom Records in the fall of 2023, doesn’t plan on moving to Nashville anytime soon, despite its plethora of songwriters and producers to work with and its bustling music scene. He reasons that “Nashville is New York City for country people. They’re all on top of each other, and Arkansas has a lot of space, and that’s one of my favorite things to have is space. So I wouldn’t trade living in Arkansas for the world.”
For now, Wyatt records all of his music on his own in the comfort of his home kitchen. But, his production process makes perfect sense for a teenager who is not only growing a fan base with just his vocals, an acoustic guitar, and natural storytelling but finding success by doing everything his way. So much so that he doesn’t need to incorporate all of the bells and whistles to create a heavily-produced track. And he couldn’t agree more.
Of his stripped-down acoustic sound he says, “I would love to put a full band in there, but I believe it’s doing so well, not having that kind of production on there. And I feel if I were to put that type of production in there so soon, it would slip away from the overall meanings that my songs are trying to give off….it’s just so raw.”
“I record all my music in the kitchen of my house, and I feel like if I were to go into a studio, it wouldn’t have that heartfelt special feeling behind it,” he continues before laughing. “Sometimes I have to stop a recording session because mom would have to go into the kitchen. I’ll have to stop the whole thing and then get right back to it afterward.”
Deluxe Version
Most recently, Wyatt released the deluxe version of his Til The Sun Goes Down EP. The original collection, which includes the previously stated tracks along with “Your Whereabouts,” “Back To Then,” “Riches To Rags,” and “Strangers To Me,” has received over 40 million combined streams across all social media platforms.
“I never saw any of these songs being bigger than what they are,” Wyatt says of the set of songs, all co-written by him. “I never saw a bigger project than what they are, but when I got to thinking about it and releasing all these songs together, they just ran together so well. I mean, I’m a big, I love to write love songs. I mean, I might not know love exactly myself yet, but it doesn’t mean that I can’t put it into words because I’m a very wordy person. I love lyricism, and it seems that many people can relate to it, even though I may not be able to.”
The extended project includes a new track called “O.D.” The tune compares love to a drug, as Wyatt shares his weakness in experiencing the euphoric feelings that come with being in love with someone special. He sings: “If your love was a drug / I wouldn’t get enough / I’d be cracked-out, bad-mouthed, lacking teeth / A crashed out, blacked out, lacking sleep / A hard sight to see / Living out on these streets / Being a wreck a wretch begging for cash / So I could buy some more of that.”
No Drinking Songs
And while Wyatt has claimed a place in country music and has delved into the space of addiction and dependence on a light-hearted level, don’t expect him to be writing drinking songs anytime soon.
“Well, I figured that my music appeals to a younger audience since I’m still in high school, so I’m young myself,” he explains. “The song itself relates love to drugs and abuse of alcohol, but the opening line is, ‘I don’t drink. I’ve never been drunk at all.’ And I think that a lot of country music artists — not to put any shame on their names or anything — but they relate country music to drinking and smoking and being an outlaw. When I feel as if being in country music has to relate to any of those things, I mean, I’m a kid writing country music, and people are loving it, and that song, I just relate to myself.”
What’s Next For Waylon Wyatt?
Wyatt, who has toured alongside Dwight Yoakam, sees no signs of slowing down. Having already graced the stages at major festivals, including Country’s Calling and Americana Fest, while also gearing up to make his Stagecoach debut next year, he has a lot to prepare for on the horizon.
“Well, the thing I’m looking forward to the most, I will say, is the travel,” he says of putting a list of shows in the books for 2025. “I love going places and seeing new faces, meeting new people, seeing beautiful sceneries. I mean, I love experiencing!”
“When I went to West Virginia, it was one of my very first, I think, it was the first time I ever went flying. I went to West Virginia to play at a festival, and it was absolutely beautiful to drive up there, the drive back, the mountains, and the scenery were amazing. And I think that’s one of the things I look forward to the most. It’s just beautiful landscapes,” he continues. “I’m going to be doing a lot more songwriting as time progresses, and we experience a lot more. So there’s a lot more songs to write.”
For more information on Waylon Wyatt, visit his official website HERE.
