Adam Wainwright’s debut country album is the story of his life. ‘I have so much to tell.’

“These are my stories,” the soon-to-be-retired pitcher told the Busch Stadium crowd about his three-song set. “This is real stuff.”

It was a preview of Wainwright’s country music ambitions, which are being fully realized this week with the release of his debut album, “Hey Y’all.” And, as he told Cardinals fans last year, the music is meant to reflect his unique tale.

“It’s the story of my life. I have so much to tell,” Wainwright, 42, says of the album’s 13 songs. “It’s one of those albums where you can press play and let it go until it’s over.”

“Hey Y’all,” is out Friday — the day after the Cardinals’ home opener at Busch Stadium. The songs are influenced by Wainwright’s early interest in country music, his childhood, his family and a host of other personal connections.

“I have five kids and a dog and a beautiful wife and a crazy life,” Wainwright said in an interview with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “There’s a song about being a dad. This is a song about being a husband. There’s a song about growing up in the South.”

There’s also a song, “If You Would Have Stayed,” about his father leaving home when Wainwright was 3. Among the lyrics:

“You should’ve seen first grade.

Should’ve seen the first home run I made.

You should’ve seen the way that my big brother.

Stepped up to take your place.

You could’ve been the hero.

Instead I had to make it on my own.

I can’t help but think how proud you’d be today.

If you would’ve stayed.”

Gary Baker, Wainwright’s producer and co-writer, said the songs on the album prove that the ex-pitcher is a “real” musician.

“He’s not a guy just jumping out of baseball deciding to become a country singer,” Baker said. “I’m sure some people think that. I get the apprehension. But it’s so far from the truth. He’s a legit artist.”

‘The world needs to hear it’

Talk of an album first surfaced around 2019. Wainwright and Baker had become acquainted via Baker’s son Ryan, a friend of ex-Cardinals player Matt Holliday.

Wainwright had dabbled in music from his days in the minor leagues, as far back as 2001. He’d pick up a guitar and sing while traveling from city to city.

“It was a cool, fun thing to learn. It helps your mind and it was a great outlet,” he said. “I loved writing and trying new chords and riffs and that kind of thing.”

Years later, he would share his songs with Baker, who liked what he heard.

Wainwright recalled Baker encouraging him “to keep writing and sending him songs. At first, music was something I would sing to friends around the campfire. But Gary said, ‘I think you got something here. The world needs to hear it.’”

Baker eventually brought songwriter Greg Barnhill into the mix.

Barnhill has written for Amy Grant, Vince Gill, Etta James, Jessica Simpson and Pam Tillis. Baker most famously wrote “I Swear,” recorded by John Michael Montgomery and All-4-One. He also has written for Alabama and Lonestar.

“He blew us away,” Baker said of Wainwright’s early songs. “We just filled in the blanks, and it evolved into this thing. He took every bit of knowledge I could give him and turned into a legit songwriter, legit artist and legit singer.”

The album was recorded at the Nutthouse, in Sheffield, Alabama; 112 Recording, also in Sheffield; and Playloud Studio in Nashville, Tennessee. Additional writing on the album is by Jeff King and Matt Johnson.

It was Wainwright’s first time in a professional recording studio.

“Hey Y’all” features the single “A Song Will Bring You Back,” an ode to Wainwright’s favorite country hits of yesteryear. The album also includes “Hero in Your Eyes,” “A Good Story,” “If You Knew Georgia,” “I Like Coming Back,” “American Hearts,” “El Camino,” “I’m Just Reminding Me,” “Hot the Ground Running” and “Show ‘Em All.”

The songs lean into country music’s traditional, throwback side. Wainwright’s influences include artists like Alan Jackson, George Strait, Travis Tritt, Tracy Lawrence and Garth Brooks, whom he calls “the first artist I really loved.

“I couldn’t listen to his albums enough throughout middle school and high school,” he said.

He even has a song he wrote titled “Garth Got Me Into It,” though it didn’t make the album.

You won’t find Wainwright chasing contemporary country music trends.

“When I hear music in my head, it has a ‘90’s country vibe,” he said. “I love the new stuff too. It’s just not what I hear in my head.”

The ex-ballplayer knows people don’t usually expect much from athletes making music. Indeed, Wainwright often second-guessed how good his songs were, and whether people would like them. And performing original music is vastly different from performing covers.

“If I’m singing all my songs and people don’t know the words, there’s a vulnerability there,” Wainwright said. “You have to trust yourself and the people around you. They tell me to play with passion and go for it. Validation from people I know and trust goes a long way. Now it’s fun, no fear.”

‘He was thrilled to do it’

Wainwright’s life story has several new chapters now. There’s, of course, the well-known chapter as a longtime Cardinals pitcher and World Series hero. Before retirement could settle in, he signed with Fox Sports and MLB Network as a commentator for baseball broadcasts. Retirement also cleared a path to country music.

And there’s the role of family man; his baseball career meant missing some of his kids’ milestones (first steps, first lost tooth), and he doesn’t want to miss any more. The Brunswick, Georgia, native now lives in southern Georgia with his wife, four daughters and son.

“My wife says I got rid of one job and got three, and that’s not including being a professional Uber driver for my kids,” Wainwright said. “I’m living a crazy life now. I’m having so much fun making the music I’m making.”

The Cardinals helped showcase his musical skills with the postgame concert last September. His biggest crowd up to that point had been around 700 people, at a show at Boondocks Pub in Springfield, Illinois.

“I went straight to 40,000,” he said of the Busch Stadium performance. “I was nervous 30 minutes prior to the show. Then I was cool as a cucumber.”

More shows are on the way. He already performed at the Grand Ole Opry on March 9, an experience he called “surreal.”

He’s opening for Zac Brown Band in the sold-out “Glennon LIVE” concert at Chaifetz Arena on Saturday. He’ll follow that with a performance Monday at the Rock N’ Roll Drive-In in Chaffee, Missouri, as part of a solar eclipse party.

On June 2, he performs at the Confluence Music Festival at World Wide Technology Raceway, on a bill with Ludacris, Riley Green, and Big & Rich with Gretchen Wilson.

Kwofe Coleman, producer of the festival, says booking Wainwright was an easy decision.

“Adam is a hometown hero. For him to make the jump to music and for us to put him on the stage is a no-brainer,” Coleman said. “He’s a good example to people that you don’t have to be pigeon-holed, stuck in one path.”

Sandy Koller, president of Cardinal Glennon Children’s Foundation, says Wainwright adds extra star power to Brown’s concert, which will benefit Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital. Wainwright has long been a supporter of the foundation’s Homers for Health program.

“We reached out to him and asked if he was interested, and he was all-in from the moment we asked,” Koller said. “He was thrilled to do it.”

More concert dates are forthcoming as Wainwright’s budding country music career develops.

With time now to focus on family and songwriting, Wainwright says his goals are the same as those during his playing days.

“Anything I do, I really want to be great at it, to be able to pour enough effort into it to make it legit,” he said. “I’m glad the timing worked out like it did. I couldn’t have poured enough time in (music) before for it to be legit, and it wouldn’t have been fair to the baseball team. I took pride in giving the fans everything I had.”