Waylon Wyatt on New Song 'Jailbreak' Featuring Bayker Blankenship & Breakthrough Success: 'It's Pretty Wild'

Waylon Wyatt recently had a pretty good excuse for missing school: the 17-year-old was on the road with Dwight Yoakam. “Just last week, I couldn't go to school on Thursday and Friday because I was opening for Dwight. Do you know how crazy that looks?' the senior asks.

But Wyatt (whose full name is Waylon Wyatt Potter) has been getting used to crazy times since he started writing songs two years ago, influenced by alt-country artists like Tyler Childers and Zach Bryan. The Hackett, Arkansas native made it through songs like “Everything Under the Sun” (a song he says was inspired by “watching sunsets over a lake in my hometown”) and “Arkansas Diamond,” which are on at the intersection of folk, country and rock. “Arkansas Diamond” has earned more than 24 million Spotify streams, while “Everything Under the Sun” has reached 12 million streams on the platform.

Today (Sept. 6), he and newcomer (and “Maxed Out” singer) Bayker Blankenship teamed up for the heart-pounding rocker “Jailbreak.”

“I found him on social media after he covered one of my songs, 'Arkansas Diamond,' and we got in touch,” says Wyatt. Bulletin board above Zoom. “We became friends and now we have a song that we created and recorded together. It's pretty wild.”

In August 2023, Wyatt signed a deal with Music Soup and Darkroom Records. Darkroom's roster includes nine-time Grammy winner Billie Eilish, “Feel It” singer D4vd and DJ/music producer John Summit, with Wyatt becoming the label's first country/Americana artist. “I found it more unique [signing with Darkroom Records] was not have [a country/Americana artist]so maybe I could give it to them,” he says.

He's quick to credit Darkroom's unusual method of contacting him while several other labels were also expressing interest. “I was working for my father's construction company and in one of the TikTok videos I was wearing the company hat. The darkroom called me, but he also called my dad's business, got his secretary, and then scheduled a Zoom meeting,” Wyatt recalls. “It all started from there.”

In addition to artists like Bryan and Childers, Wyatt counts some of his biggest influences as pioneering country artists before he was even born, including Waylon Jennings, Don Williams and Hank Williams, Sr. [the music of] Hank Williams Sr. over Hank Williams Jr. — He might hate me for that, I don't know,” he says.

Although he sounds confident in the mix of hard acoustic country/rock, Wyatt says he dabbles in different sounds.

“I wanted to do all kinds of singing since I was about 12. I had my little rap phase where I was big on Eminem — the first song I probably ever learned from him was 'Lose Yourself,'” he explains. “I actually wrote a rap too. I wouldn't say they were the best, but it was trial and error. But all these years of finding myself musically, it's been great.”

He followed up his breakthrough songs in July with a seven-song, acoustic-based EP Til The Sun Goesa project he wrote and recorded himself (the project was released through Music Soup/Darkroom). The lo-fi effort features his gravelly voice backed only by an acoustic guitar, with songs like “Back to Then,” “Arkansas Diamond,” “Phoning Heaven” and “Riches to Rags.”

“There was no over-production or anything on those songs,” says Wyatt. “I didn't imagine it was a larger project, but as I went through it, I was like, 'All these songs I've written so far, they could run together.' They are all based on the same thing. All of them are very comparable pieces of work.”

Wyatt's hometown of Hackett has just 800 people, creating a close-knit community, including his classmates, who are proud of his career progression. “A lot of them don't know how to process it because I've grown up with them and it's a small school. My hometown is small, so I know almost every face around here. But they were so supportive,” she says.

Wyatt, who is booked by Wasserman, is set to perform during AmericanaFest this year, before making his Stagecoach festival debut in 2025. But he's also balancing music with finishing high school. “My parents never went to college or anything,” he says, “but they're grown up [my] ending the school year.”

Ahead, he says he'd love to release another project, one that would “probably involve a little more production than just guitar. And more violin, because I like to listen to violin.”