Wes Bayliss Refuses to Sing Half-Truths

Wes Bayliss doesn’t sound like a man who’s trying to impress anybody. He talks slow, pauses often, and lets silence sit in the room like another instrument. He’s a big Southern man, Alabama born, who’s spent years on the road with The Steel Woods, building a reputation as a voice of weight and gravity. But when you strip it all back, what’s left now is something simpler, rougher, and maybe even heavier: a songwriter who’s not interested in half-truths anymore.

“I come from a southern rock background, you say, but I come, before that, from a gospel background,” Wes told me. “I grew up in a gospel band with my family and we traveled all over. It wasn’t until I was about 16, I started playing honky tonks… and started the band and did that for the better part of ten years”.

That band, of course, became The Steel Woods. They came together in 2015, and by 2017 they were on the road hard. “We had really similar interest and goals for the band and at that time we were both just like, you know, the world needs, a real band, like some truth,” he said. “There’s nothing that we ever wrote that was influenced by something other than what we felt like we wanted to say”.

 

But tragedy split it apart. In 2021, Jason “Rowdy” Cope, Wes’s partner in the music, died unexpectedly. “It came out of nowhere and shocked us all… we never quit, but it really slowed down the momentum”.

Even in those days, faith was underneath. “The interesting thing is that a lot of the spiritual influence, in the early days was from him,” Wes explained. “There was a lot that we discussed and agreed on. We were really careful not to try to lead anyone in the wrong direction, especially youth. People have told us over and over they love the band because they can put their kids in front of it and not worry about what’s being said”.

But over time, the convictions got louder. “Even though everything you’re singing about is true, if it’s not the whole truth, then it’s a half truth. It’s a lie,” he said. “If you’re leaving these people wondering or to figure things out on their own and you’re still not giving God all the glory, then my conviction was, you’re doing it wrong”.

That’s when Bayliss knew it was time to step away. In 2024, he walked off the stage and went home to Alabama. “Honestly, I wouldn’t trade anything for my upbringing,” he said. “So, I really want that for my kids. And the fact that we have a family that all are serious about serving God and we’re plugged into a church there that really is on fire for the Lord. That’s really the main reason to move, for me”.

These days he’s back doing what his family’s always done: building. “The most Alabama thing I’ve been doing is construction,” Wes said with a laugh. “My family’s always built houses and barns and whatever anybody needs, and that’s what I came up doing, 12, 13 years old, out there swinging a hammer with my uncle or grandpa. I haven’t done that in a lot of years, and I’m definitely out of shape for it, but I’m enjoying it. We’re building a studio there and building a house, so that’s what most of my time has been consumed with”.

Still, music didn’t let him go. This month he releases Product of Grace, his first Christian single, and the first words don’t waste time: If I got what I had coming, I’d be six foot in the dirt. “That line came immediately when I thought about grace,” Wes said. “If I got what I deserve, I wouldn’t be here. The fact that I woke up today, and I can sit here and talk to you and I got all my fingers and toes… those types of things are all grace”.

 

It’s not vague, and that’s on purpose. “I’ve been real intentional about trying to make sure people can understand what I’m saying,” Wes admitted. “Because a lot of times something sounds good or it rhymes right and you just go with it. But I want folks to get the right message. If you lead somebody wrong because you didn’t tell them about the scary parts of the Bible, you’ve done a disservice to God and to them”.

He knows it might not fit the CCM mold. He doesn’t really care. “You don’t have to sell somebody the truth,” he said. “The truth proves itself over and over, every time. I’m not concerned with selling. I’m not concerned with changing anything about the truth in order to have somebody like it for a moment. All I can do is put it out there. Some folks will get it, and I hope it helps them and brings them closer to God”.

More singles are coming this fall, an EP in December, and a full album in 2026. Through it all, Bayliss says his only aim is that the songs are Biblically sound. “I don’t feel like it’s necessary to have a board of people critiquing because that’s what the Holy Spirit is for,” he explained. “The Word is alive, and it’s at work all the time. If you spend time with it, you’ll gain the wisdom it has for you”.

Wes Bayliss doesn’t talk like a salesman, or a preacher, or a polished CCM lifer. He talks like a man who’s seen loss, who’s carried burdens, who’s swung a hammer in the Alabama heat and come to believe that waking up with breath in your lungs is his only needed proof of grace. He’s just trying to tell the truth, all of it. And when he sings it, you believe him.