Video: Eric Hayes performs ‘Let It Go’
By Kevin Coughlin
A few weeks ago, Eric Hayes was lounging in his Morristown house with a couple of friends, who spied a beat-up Univox acoustic guitar in the corner.
Hayes has shared stages with Gavin DeGraw, Ziggy Marley, Martin Sexton and the Allman Brothers Band, among others — as a keyboard player.
But his friends egged him on to play something on the guitar, a long-ago gift from his father that has only three rusty strings remaining.
So Hayes closed his eyes, drifted into a trance, and channeled the muse.
When he finished playing he opened his eyes and discovered his female friend was crying, and his guy pal was astonished. “What was that?” the pal asked.
Fortunately, they had preserved the performance with a smartphone video.
Hayes, 33, hustled to a studio, recreated the performance word for word, strategically shared the song via social media … and soon was riding the wave of an internet hit.
Let It Go quickly earned him a tidy chunk of change– a healthy five figures, he said — from downloads on iTunes and Amazon Music and ads on YouTube, where it’s been viewed nearly 70,000 times.
The song hit No. 1 on CD Baby’s New Indie Release chart, Hayes said, and he’s been invited to Italy to sing it. Animal Aid USA , an animal rescue organization in south Jersey, used Let It Go in a documentary, and spinoff projects are on the horizon.
“My whole life I was waiting for a miracle… and then this happens! I was getting tired of playing piano. Now I can’t put the guitar down,” said Hayes, a Far Hills native.
Karen Talbot, co-founder of Animal Aid USA, said Let It Go hit her the same way it affected its first listeners.
“Tears were rolling down my face,” she said. “It’s very grass-roots, very genuine. You can feel the emotions pouring out of it. It was really a strong connection. I closed my eyes, and it made me feel like I was walking though these [pet] death camps in rural America.”
A self-taught pianist who cites everyone from Miles Davis to Radiohead as musical influences, Hayes has written dozens of songs since he was 15. None has generated this level of interest.
Hayes hopes Let It Go will catch fire like Fight Song, the tune that catapulted his friend Rachel Platten –who performed with him at Sona Thirteen and the former Valentino’s in Morristown– to stardom.
(Fight Song has become an anthem for people facing adversity. Hayes can relate: An accident years ago broke his neck, and the physical pain lingers.)
“The gifts God gave you, enhance them. Don’t waste them.” — Eric Hayes
Regardless, he’s not about to let go of his dusty guitar. He’s determined to mine more magic from it.
“The message is, when you have passion that you pursue and don’t give up, eventually your passion is seen by more people. And even if you’ve been doing it for 20 years, eventually enough people will hear you,” Hayes said.
“Do what you love, and don’t do what society wants you to do. The gifts God gave you, enhance them. Don’t waste them.”
And with the money he’s made so far from Let It Go… will he splurge for a full set of guitar strings?
“I don’t know,” Hayes said with a laugh. “But I will try to invest it back into my music somehow.”
He said he may hire a gospel choir for his next number.
Hey, in the music business, it never hurts to have friends in high places.
Video: Eric Hayes shares ‘Let It Go’ backstage with Martin Sexton
