Alex Hall Turns Sobriety, Struggle and Second Chances Into ‘Keep Livin’’ {EXCLUSIVE}
- All Country News
- 5 minutes ago
- 4 min read
Some songs are written. Others seem to arrive exactly when they’re needed.
For Alex Hall, “Keep Livin’” was the latter.
Born from an intensely personal moment following an AA meeting, the song captures Hall at one of the most reflective points of his life. More than two years into sobriety, the singer-songwriter has found himself experiencing life, and music, with a new sense of clarity.
Hall recently sat down with All Country News to open up about the unexpected way “Keep Livin’” came together, how sobriety has reshaped his life on the road and why he hopes the song can offer a little light to anyone walking through a difficult season.
Instead of dressing struggle up with an easy answer, “Keep Livin’” offers something much simpler and, perhaps, more powerful: when life gets heavy, keep moving.
A Song That Showed Up on Its Own
“As cliché as it sounds, the song really did just come to me,” Hall tells All Country News.
After leaving an AA meeting and getting back into his truck, Hall says the chorus appeared almost immediately.
“I started singing the exact chorus melody as it is now and landed on ‘Keep Livin’,’” he recalls. “It’s crazy too because the phrasing of the song is definitely different for me from a lot of other songs I’ve written, and that in itself makes it feel even more like it came from a higher power than myself.”
That feeling of surrender sits at the heart of the song. Hall wasn’t chasing a hook or trying to manufacture an inspirational anthem. The message simply surfaced, honest, direct and rooted in where he was in that moment.
Sobriety Changed More Than the Road
With two and a half years of sobriety behind him, Hall admits life on the road looks considerably different these days.
Drinking had once become part of the routine that surrounded touring. Walking away from it meant relearning some of those rhythms.
“Not drinking in itself is very different on the road and I love it now,” Hall says. “It felt weird at first because it becomes a part of a ritual almost, but I can’t imagine not being sober at this point.”
The biggest shift, though, may be happening internally.
Hall says sobriety has made him more emotionally present, giving him a deeper well to draw from as both a person and songwriter.
“I think it gives me so much more inspiration than before,” he explains. “I feel like I feel so much more than when I was drinking.”
The stories he hears in AA have also changed the way he listens to the world around him.
“I hear so many people’s stories in AA meetings too that really inspire me to listen more, be more present, and to be a better person.”
Hope Without the Sugarcoating
That heightened sense of presence is what gives “Keep Livin’” its weight.
The song is hopeful, but it never pretends that hope makes hardship disappear.
There is no promise that tomorrow suddenly fixes everything. Instead, Hall focuses on endurance, on getting through today so you can eventually reach whatever comes next. For him, finding that balance between optimism and reality didn’t require much calculation.
“It was and is important to me, but to be honest, I didn’t have to really put much thought into writing this song,” he says. “In so many ways, it wrote itself. I try to live my life that way, and so I think it naturally comes out in my writing.”
That authenticity keeps the song from feeling preachy. Hall isn’t standing on the other side of hardship pretending he has all the answers. He’s simply sharing something he has learned by continuing to walk through it.
Sometimes Progress Is Just One More Step
At its core, “Keep Livin’” isn’t about having life figured out. It’s about getting up, putting your feet on the floor and choosing to move forward again.
Resilience isn’t always dramatic. Sometimes it looks like surviving a bad afternoon. Sometimes it’s showing up when nobody else knows how difficult that feels. Sometimes the win is simply deciding not to stop. For anyone who discovers the song while caught in the middle of their own rough season, Hall hopes that message comes through.
“I hope that they can take away that it’s just a season and every season will pass,” he shares. “If you can just keep going, putting one foot in front of the other every day, it gets easier.”
Hall knows difficult seasons aren’t reserved for any one kind of person.
“Life has hard times for everyone, no matter what your life looks like,” he continues. “But if you put in the work to get through the hard moments, there’s always something beautiful waiting on the other side.”
Just Keep Livin’
There’s nothing overly complicated about the philosophy behind the song — and that’s exactly why it works. “Keep Livin’” doesn’t offer a shortcut around pain. It offers a reminder that pain doesn’t get the final word. Seasons change. Hard days end. Progress can happen slowly, quietly and one step at a time.
For Alex Hall, those steps have led to sobriety, a renewed relationship with songwriting and a deeply personal song that now has the chance to meet someone else exactly where they are. Sometimes, the next step doesn’t have to be big.
You just have to keep livin’.
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