“You Can Tell the Story Best If You’ve Lived It”: Caylee Hammack Discusses New Album and Novel, ‘Bed Of Roses’, Ahead of Highways Festival 2025

As the excitement continues to build ahead of her UK Highways Festival 2025 performance, Caylee Hammack sits down with Holler to delve into the creative process behind her new album, Bed Of Roses, and the companion novel she penned for the project.

The novel, which shares the title of the album and was also released in early March, explores the journey of a young woman finding herself – and love – in unexpected places.

Five years since her standout debut album, If It Wasn’t For You, Hammack has been quietly learning, growing and tending to her own garden. Now she’s back with a project that both challenges and complements her creative writing in a way that has seldom been done in the music industry.

Talking to Holler, Hammack shares her experience on cowriting her story, the thoughts behind some of the chapters and what her advice would be to those struggling to find their paths.

Hammack cowrote the novel with bestselling author, Carolyn Brown, who has 140 published books to her name with over 10 million copies sold. “The process was all too familiar and extremely different at the same time,” Hammack says about cowriting a book vs cowriting a song, “I was given space to paint between the lines and tell stories I never have before”.

Tracks like ‘Breaking Dishes’ – an up-tempo, woman-scorned, fool-me-twice style song – gave Hammack the freedom to explore an alter-ego, whereas tracks like ‘What My Angels Think Of Me’ are deeply personal and oh so relatable.

“'Breaking Dishes' was from a want-to-throw-dishes-but-the-budget-to-not-break-a-single-one,” she quips, “I like to think in another life though, I would be a wild woman when scorned. Someone emboldened and crazed with passionate fury, someone who feels it all and shows it, no matter what others thought…This song was a fragment of that fantasy of becoming mad instead of sad in the face of heartbreak.”

“'What My Angels Think of Me' was a moment in the mirror for me. As a very spiritual person, I would fall for someone and change myself for them,” Hammack shares about the deeply introspective offering, “It was an icky feeling the day we wrote this and I realised how much I had done this exact same thing with many people in my life. Everyday life is great fodder for the creative fire if you listen in.”

Used to a restrictive three-to-four-minute allotment, Hammack was able to work with Brown to lean into the space of a whole chapter, fleshing out her characters and adding depth and dimension to her story. “I feel there was a sense of anonymity that helped me share more in the stories,” she stresses, “The main character experiences things I have personally lived and written about. She also has experienced scenarios I have created within my head to round out the novel and bring it to life. So I got away with more. I feel that if you sing a lyric, you must feel the lyric. And if you can, live it. You can tell the story best if you’ve lived it”.

Akin to a ‘book or film first’ scenario, the simultaneous release begs the age-old question – which mode of story should fans consume first? “Listen then read,” Hammack advises, “Then listen again, but in reverse. Once you do, you’ve experienced my emotional walk through this record and also the lead protagonist’s journey.”

At the core of Hammack’s project is the message that, Llife is the bed you make, grow a good one’. With her energy focussed on reaping what she sows, Hammack believes that, “You can make your day more like heaven or more like hell with your outlook on it. I’m trying to go more with the flow and not worry quite as much, it helps me remain on the sunny side. And my roses grow best there.”

Hammack concludes with a powerful, stirring message for her Bed Of Roses listeners and readers alike, “To the folks stuck in the weeds: Life comes in seasons and phases, remember, bad times pass and weeds die down sometimes without you pulling them. Winter culls the weak and forges a stronger you in Spring. Try to do 3 things today, that will make your day tomorrow better. Then do 5 once doing 3 things a day feels manageable. It’s one thing at a time. Only one step at a time. You aren’t alone in it. Go outside, hug a tree, dig a hole and plant something. Then report back to me on if you feel just a little bit better already.”

After listening once, the arc of the story is apparent but garners enough suspense to crave more from the novel. Why is she breaking dishes? How long until he kisses her? Whose bed is she in? There’s heartbreak, there’s cowboys (one never seems to be far from the other) and there’s a whole lot of love. 

One might suggest the next step would be to get it on the big screen – it does already have a soundtrack, after all. 

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