Stay Gold

Stay Gold is the eighth full-length studio album from American musician Butch Walker, released on August 26, 2016 through DangerBird records in the United States. The album was announced in June of that year with the lead single “East Coast Girl”. Following his previous release, Afraid of Ghosts, an emotional album recorded after the loss of his father, Stay Gold presents a much more upbeat and optimistic outlook, with Walker saying “I spilled it all out on [Afraid of Ghosts] and it was a heavy subject. Where do you go from there? […] It triggered a lot of bittersweet nostalgia. So I started writing about all that, and it sounded like the template should be more of a celebration, as far as the music goes.”

Walker cites the 1983 film The Outsiders as a major thematic influence for the record, echoing his own small town childhood, with the title referencing the line spoken by Johnny Cade to Ponyboy Curtis, “Stay gold, Ponyboy. Stay gold.”