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Haliey Welch, the 21-year-old Tennessee woman who recently found herself at the center of relentless media attention after delivering the swiftly-made-ubiquitous phrase "hawk tuah" in a viral video, has broken her silence.
In a new interview with Brianna Lapaglia for Plan Bri Uncut, Welch, who has since secured a management deal, was asked about her initial reaction to the widely shared clip, which she says was captured following CMA Fest proceedings last month.
"He only told us he was a YouTuber," Welch said of being approached for the Tim & Dee TV-shared video. "He never said anything about Instagram, TikTok, nothing of the sort. So I was like, oh well, I’m never gon’ see this again. Sure enough, I seen it again."
Asked to elaborate on when, exactly, the clip made its way into her purview, Welch said that several days passed before she noticed it was growing into a full-fledged viral moment.
"So that was Sunday. I seen it about the Tuesday after that," she said. "I shit a brick. I seen it at, like, 2:00 in the morning when I was up getting ready for work."
The interview, recorded backstage at Zach Bryan’s recent sold-out show at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, also sees Welch addressing the creepiness of seeing her photos used in the creation of a slew of fake accounts. As Welch explained, she had actually deleted her socials about six months prior to "hawk tuah" breaking out, citing "personal reasons." A potential return, however, is in the works.
As those who have been following this story are well aware, fake accounts weren’t the only complications brought about amid hawk tuah mania. Multiple false claims about Welch were widely circulated, including that she was allegedly a teacher but had lost her job post-hawk tuah. According to Welch, she worked at a factory, not in the school system. She also never held a job as a bartender, despite claims suggesting otherwise. Furthermore, despite another rumor that has also been making the rounds as of late, Welch's father is not a preacher. In fact, she says he is "so far from a preacher it’s crazy."
Close to the five-minute mark in the just-released interview, Welch was asked about how her parents have reacted to her newfound fame.
"They think it’s so funny," she said. "They know how I am though, because you can never tell what comes out of my mouth. I mean, it’s a hit or a miss, what comes out of my mouth. I just talk out of my ass. The one time I say something like that, of course there’s a camera in my face."
Still, some of that aforementioned creepiness has indeed popped up here and there by way of total strangers. One example given by Welch involves a proposal sent to the person at the helm of her official hats collaboration, presumably the same brand mentioned in recent reports such as this one.
"So the guy that does my hats, he got offered $600, like, three days ago for me to spit in a jar and sell it," Welch revealed. "That is revolting. That is just disgusting, is it not?"
Elsewhere, Welch looked ahead at what could be next for her, as well as her longtime friend Chelsea, who was also in the original video that started all of this. Welch also noted that she doesn’t "want [hawk tuah] to be my image" and doesn’t "wanna be known as that" forever, adding that there is indeed "more to come" ranging from a potential show of her own to additional podcast appearances.
To be clear, Welch is no longer bothering with her now-former factory job.
"I done quit my job," she said. "I said, peace."
Hawk tuah-spurred shenanigans have indeed been pervasive in recent weeks, ensuring everyone from ex-Sum 41 drummer Steve "Stevo32" Jocz to Zach Bryan, the latter of whom welcomed Welch to the stage at Nissan Stadium on the same night this interview was filmed. Meanwhile, Third Eye Blind drummer Brad Hargreaves incorporated the inescapable saliva slogan into his solo during the Stephan Jenkins-led band’s headlining set at the FirstBank Amphitheater in Franklin, Tennessee on Sunday.
