Hailey Whitters On Grit, Growth, And Claiming Her Crown As The ‘Corn Queen’

There’s a certain kind of duality to Hailey Whitters. She’s part small-town Iowa grit and part Nashville glitter and her latest album Corn Queen embraces that contrast in full.

“I think it started as like this silly little pun online,” Whitters laughs, recalling how fans gave her the nickname. “I’m from Iowa. Lot of corn in Iowa. But I just remember seeing them start to call me that and thought it was just so cute, but also kind of funny the more I thought about it.”

On paper, “corn” and “queen” shouldn’t go together. One is humble and hardy, the other regal and rare. But to Whitters, the oxymoron is the point. “Corn is this very humble, simple crop. And Queen is this more regal, inherited birthright, you know, lineage. And I feel... I’m on the road, I’m sleeping on an airport floor, bags under my eyes, feeling anything but royal. But I thought that was just such a funny little oxymoron. And the more I thought about it, the more I just kind of loved it.”

If anyone’s earned the crown, it’s Whitters and not through inheritance. “This metaphorical crown... it’s been anything but inherited,” she says. “It’s been a lot of blood, sweat, tears, elbow grease getting this far.”

That work ethic was forged in Shueyville, Iowa population: tiny. “They brought me home from the hospital to a single wide baby blue trailer in the middle of a cornfield,” Whitters shares. Her dad worked nights at the corn plant while her mom raised the kids. “She always says, ‘We didn’t have a pot to piss in.’ But I saw them work really hard to put food on the table and to grow.”

Today, her dad owns an excavation business and still farms. Her mom runs a trucking company. “Both very blue collar,” Whitters says. “Work is definitely in my family lineage and my bloodline, I think I carry a lot of that with me in Nashville and in the industry.”

Despite a decade-plus of grinding as a staff songwriter in Music City, Hailey’s approach to writing has shifted. For the first time in 17 years, she’s not rushing to fill the calendar with co-writes.

“I’m kind of just like really giving myself that space,” she says. “Trying to be less mechanical and manufactured with it. There’s no real rhyme or reason to it. And I feel like, you know, I’m just trying to really tap into finding, letting it kind of inspire me.”

That search for meaning bleeds into the album’s standout tracks like High on Heartbreak, a surprisingly empowering twist on the breakup narrative.

“Whoever broke her heart, it wasn’t like, ‘I’m going to hurry up and get over it,’” Whitters explains. “It was like, ‘I’m going to milk this. I’m going to sit in it. And it’s going to feel good.’ I kind of liked that.”

Listen to Corn Queen front to back, and you’ll notice something: no two tracks sound quite the same. From classic country to gritty rock and bluegrass textures, it’s an intentionally eclectic journey.

“I grew up like an aux kid you know, pass the phone, everyone plays a song,” Whitters says. “So I kind of liked getting out of this very limited genre box. It’s still super country. It’s just all the different sides of country I’ve always been influenced by.”

One example? White Limousine, a polarizing, unexpected track that raised eyebrows at her label. “People were like, ‘Are you sure?’ And I’m like, yeah. I like to put things on a record that no one’s expecting from me.”

The strategy worked. “When I did The Dream, All The Cool Girls was that song for me,” she recalls. “It was that spot where, again, people are like, ‘Are you sure? This is very different from what you do.’ And I was like, ‘Let’s just throw them a wild card.’”

Some of the album’s richest moments come through unexpected pairings, including collabs with Charles Wesley Godwin, Molly Tuttle, and the Wilder Blue.

“I met Charles and the Wilder Blue boys when we toured with Luke Combs last summer,” Whitters says. “We all got to spend a lot of time together, and I heard their sets every single night. Just became a die-hard fan.”

Her collaboration with Molly Tuttle came about thanks to a few pandemic-era Zoom writes. “I just respect what she does, her artistry so much,” Whitters says. “This song came up and I was like, maybe this is the Molly moment. It just feels so her.”

Whitters’ already taken some of the new songs out to live audiences and the response has been promising. “We open our set with High on the Hog, and it’s still very new to a lot of fans, but seeing them start to move, that’s always the gauge for me.”

And while she’s currently taking Corn Queen across the USA, Whitters’ itching to get back to a certain southern hemisphere.

“I am dying to come back to Australia,” she says with a grin. “I had so much fun at CMC. I stayed some extra days and hung out. It's such a great country, everyone’s so warm and welcoming. And I am dying to come back.”