At just 18, Waylon Wyatt balanced high school with a budding country music career, trading classroom hours for recording sessions, and now he’s released his second EP ‘Out of the Blue’ and is set to hit the road on a new headlining tour.
Stream: ‘Out of the Blue’ – Waylon Wyatt
I try to live by the verse: ‘Whatever you do, do it with all your heart.’
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Waylon Wyatt’s road to graduation wasn’t exactly traditional.
Between rehearsals, recording sessions and a hectic tour schedule, he missed over 120 hours of his senior year – enough to put his diploma in serious jeopardy. But with determination, a little grace from his teachers, and a promise to perform at the prom, Wyatt left high school the way he lived it: in the spotlight.
While his classmates take the summer off before heading to college or starting their careers, Wyatt is getting ready to release his sophomore EP Out of the Blue on June 6, followed by a 35-plus date headlining tour this fall.
“I’m still trying to wrap my head around it – I went from making TikToks in my bedroom to flying out to meetings in L.A. and recording my second EP. It’s crazy, but I feel really lucky. I’m just trying to keep my boots on the ground,” he says with a soft Arkansas drawl shaping every word.
It’s already been a wild year – one that’s included a standout performance at Stagecoach and a sold-out headlining tour to promote his debut EP Til The Sun Goes Down, which was recorded at the kitchen table in his childhood home.
Resting against wooden rails on some porch steps, an American flag drifting in the breeze behind him, the 18-year-old Hacket, Arkansas native sat down to talk about closing out high school, chasing his dreams, and staying true to himself along the way. Wearing a “Jesus Freak” t-shirt he just picked up at Walmart, he answers questions with surprising maturity and ends most sentences with a respectful “yes, ma’am” – a reflection of the deep-rooted respect instilled by his parents.
His new EP, Out of the Blue, marks a clear evolution in Wyatt’s sound and songwriting. Self-produced and deeply personal, it pushes beyond the acoustic roots of his debut, incorporating new instruments and richer arrangements while holding onto the raw honesty that’s won him a devoted following. It reflects a young artist growing into his own voice – balancing vulnerability and grit with a keen sense of storytelling.
Hackett, with a population just over 800, may not have a thriving music scene, but it gave Wyatt the foundation he needed: Faith, family and room to dream.
His father and grandfather were country music devotees, and his older brother Dylan, who passed away when Wyatt was young, used to play guitar.
“I picked it up for him,” Wyatt says. “That’s when it all really clicked.”
His foray into songwriting began much earlier. At six, he wrote his first song, “How to Be a Man,” which “didn’t make sense,” he says with a laugh, before offering up a few lines. By twelve, he was channeling his energy into rap, dreaming of being the next Eminem. But a random YouTube click at 15 changed everything – he found a Tyler Childers video that caught his attention and convinced him that country music is his calling.
His first recorded song, “Everything Under the Sun,” came after a long day on a job site with his dad. A buddy convinced him to post it online.
“I thought I’d get roasted,” Wyatt says of the video of him, dirty from the neck down after a day’s labor with his Pops. “Instead, people showed me love. A couple of record labels even reached out.” One of them spotted the construction company’s phone number on the branded hat he wore in the video and called the office. Within a week, Wyatt was on a Zoom call, and soon after, on a flight to L.A.
Now, he’s releasing Out of the Blue, a six-track EP that he not only wrote but also produced himself.
His blend of youthful vulnerability and authenticity runs through all of the songs on the EP, which includes “Smoke and Embers” with Willow Avalon, Wyatt’s favourite track “Out of the Blue,” and his recently released single “Sincerely, Your Son,” which is a heartfelt letter to his parents – part thank-you, part apology.
“This one put a doozy on me to write,” he says. “I wrote this song around Thanksgiving Day. I was really in my feels, ’cause I could sense that both my ma and pa didn’t feel very appreciated. Now I am very thankful for them and everything they’ve ever done for me, but I ain’t very loud with showing my appreciation. I figured singing it would be loud enough.”
The song has become a staple in his live shows, with his dad in the crowd, holding up two phones – one for TikTok Live, the other so his mom can watch back home. Before launching into the song during his set, he always asks the crowd to say hi to her.
As the whirlwind around him gains speed – with a new EP, a headlining tour set to hit over 35 cities, and growing national buzz – Waylon Wyatt is standing at the edge of something big.
But even as the spotlight gets brighter, he stays rooted in what’s always kept him steady: his faith, his family, and the values they raised him on.
“They taught me to work hard and stay humble,” he says. “I try to live by the verse: ‘Whatever you do, do it with all your heart.’”
Out of the Blue is out now via Music Soup / Darkroom Records!
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© Cole Silberman
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