Kelsea Ballerini Joins Walker Hayes for “Acceptance Speech”

Walker Hayes has new music coming out on Dec. 6, so he’s just starting to tease his fans, friends and followers with bits and pieces of each track.

So on Monday (Nov. 26), when he tweeted a mere 10 seconds of a song called “Acceptance Speech,” my head was spinning with all the things this song could possibly be about. Because I doubt it’s literally about the accepting of any kind of award. Could it maybe be about the acceptance of things that you cannot change? And the speech you give yourself every morning? Or maybe it’s about the kind of acceptance the whole world needs more of, like a modern take on Garth Brooks’ “We Shall Be Free“?

To make things curiouser and curiouser, right after Hayes had tweeted about it, saying, “The old me couldn’t make it tonight, so accepting on my behalf is someone better,” Kelsea Ballerini shared her thoughts on Track No. 7.

“I got to be a part of writing this song with Walker,” Ballerini wrote, “and couldn’t be more honored that it is on this project. He is a FORCE and game changer and this song is so special.” Ballerini and Hayes have been longtime friends, tour mates and collaborators, but this may be the first time they penned a single together.

Hayes album 8Tracks, Vol. 3: Black Sheep will be out almost exactly two years after his last full-length studio album, boom., which yielded Hayes’ biggest hit to date, “You Broke Up with Me.”

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Alison makes her living loving country music. She’s based in Chicago, but she’s always leaving her heart in Nashville.

@alisonbonaguro