Alex Warren Put His Dead Father's Voice on His New Album. Then He Called John Mayer.

Alex Warren released his second album, Wildchild, on August 28, 2026, through Atlantic Records — 13 tracks, 38 minutes, and a title that only means something once you know where it came from.

"Growing up, my dad used to call me Wildchild," Warren said, "so it's always had a special meaning and I even have it tattooed on me." His father has since died, and the word that used to be a private joke between them became the name of the record Warren built in the aftermath — and, permanently, part of his own body.

Warren has described the shift between his two albums in blunt terms: his 2025 debut, You'll Be Alright, Kid, was made by "a man who is broken." Wildchild, he says, is "a man who's trying to heal" — a record he calls "really healing, therapeutic and a way for me to continue finding out more about myself." That debut wasn't a quiet one either; it was built around "Ordinary," the single that turned Warren from a TikTok personality into a genuine chart-topping artist.

The most personal moment on the record is its closer, also called "Wildchild." Warren incorporated a recording of his father's actual voice into the song — and then, wanting a guitar solo that matched the weight of that decision, he reached out to John Mayer, who agreed to play on it. The album's liner credits now list Warren's father's name alongside Mayer's, on the same track.

The album was rolled out over months rather than dropped cold — four singles preceded it: "Fever Dream" (February), "Fine Place to Die" (April), "Passenger" (June) and "Rescuer," released just three weeks before the album itself in early August. The full tracklist runs from opener "Emerald Eyes" through "Same Stars," "Cry Wolf," "Are You Having Fun, Alex?," "I Miss You More," and "Won't Go Back Again," closing on the title track. Warren announced the album back in June with a self-aware move that undercut the record's heaviness on purpose — a satirical sketch video co-starring actor Kevin James.

Plenty of artists follow a breakout single with a rushed, safe second act. Warren went the opposite direction — building an album explicitly about grief, naming it after what his father called him as a kid, and getting one of the most respected guitarists alive to play on the track built around his dad's actual voice. Whatever else Wildchild turns out to be commercially, it's a genuinely personal record, not a victory lap.