0:06

I've always begrudgingly used all

0:08

the social media stuff, and that was the

0:11

first time where it felt like, yeah, this is

0:13

a way you can reach a ton of people, and

0:15

all of a sudden, there's a bunch of people that know my name.

0:20

This is episode four forty seven, Zach

0:22

Topp. I heard about Zach first from Jake

0:24

Owen, and Jake's like, this dude is so

0:26

good. So I know much about him,

0:29

and so I went and searched him up. And you

0:32

know, he is so traditional sounding.

0:34

I just thought he'd be older.

0:36

Yeah, he's gonna be poor.

0:37

Yeah, because he's really good, no doubt about it. But the

0:39

first time I heard him without really seeing him, I

0:41

thought, oh, I see why Jake like some Jake Love's traditional

0:44

country music. And I thought, man, it was

0:46

this guy coming out finally signed to make a

0:48

record. I don't know, fifty three, but

0:51

he's like right above being a kid.

0:53

He's like a young adult.

0:54

Even just say speaking voice is much much

0:56

older.

0:57

It's like an adult man. Yeah,

0:59

I really like Zach. After hanging out with him, for sure.

1:02

He released his debut single, Sounds Like the Radio.

1:04

And also, you think when you hang out with him, because

1:07

he's a cowboy. He's like a real life cowboy, and

1:09

you think, hmmm, what

1:12

are we going to talk about, like how nice

1:14

is or how warm will a cowboy

1:17

be? Because some cowboys it's not their

1:19

meme. But it's a hard life, not that warm.

1:21

It sounds like a country song already. I know he's

1:24

I mean, I really like Zach top so

1:27

you can follow him. Zach underscore top a

1:29

couple things. It was the number

1:31

one most added song that sounds like the radio

1:33

for two weeks in a row. It's

1:36

in the top around the top thirty now, which

1:39

is really cool. His debut album, Cold

1:41

Beer and Country Music no

1:43

more traditional album name than that, is

1:45

out now. It came out on April

1:48

fifth, and so what was cool

1:50

was it was at least by a new independent label, which

1:54

Zach's like their flagship artist. But like he's very

1:56

independent, but just is catching some

1:59

major because people love his sound

2:01

and love what he's about. He's going out with Landy Wilson.

2:05

I don't know what else to say. He's a great mustache.

2:08

Oh dude, it's solid. It's like it's almost fake

2:10

looking because it's so solid.

2:11

Yeah, I'm jealous.

2:12

Yeah, would you grow a mustache. She could.

2:14

I can't.

2:15

I've tried. I can't grow any facial hair.

2:17

Is that hispanic thing?

2:20

My dad has an awesome mustache.

2:21

He like twirls at a fan. He does have an awesome mustach.

2:23

I can't grow anything.

2:24

You are a failure to your genetics.

2:26

Yeah, now my family.

2:28

Zach underscore Top on Instagram,

2:30

Zach top on TikTok z

2:33

ah. Here he is. I

2:35

didn't know what I was getting. Didn't expect him

2:37

to be young and super nice. Here he is, Zach

2:40

Top. Is that good to meet you, buddy?

2:42

I use will Bobby, thank you one of my I

2:44

mean, now it's it's spread like

2:46

a positive virus. But at the time one of

2:48

my good friends Jaco and yeah,

2:51

a long time ago, I was like, you know, Zach

2:53

top guy. And I was like, I know he is,

2:55

Like I don't know a lot about him yet, but he was

2:57

like, man, he's the real deal. I didn't

3:00

you were so young. Yeah, I'm a bit

3:02

of a baby, I guess. Yeah,

3:04

because you know your music

3:06

is extremely traditional in

3:09

the sense of traditional compared to today. Yeah.

3:11

Absolutely. I mean if you'd have been born in the nineties, you'd have

3:13

been not traditionally've been current, Yeah,

3:15

exactly, cutting edge. Yeah.

3:18

So but Jake was like, man, this guy is so

3:20

good. Are you starting to feel like a

3:22

bit of love from inside the industry, like

3:24

from some artists that's just like, man, we love what you're doing.

3:27

Yeah, definitely.

3:27

There's been a bunch that have reached

3:30

out and been real positive and really encouraging.

3:33

You know.

3:33

He was I think about one of the

3:35

first ones, and he's been super good to me.

3:37

And it's funny. We

3:40

we joked over at the at the label I'm

3:42

signed with, We're like, if Jake Owens ever looking

3:44

for a gig, he's going to run the promo

3:46

team over here for Zach.

3:48

Yeah. Even I mean really even to me, he's like, man, this

3:51

guy's so good. Yeah. So he's been

3:53

a big fan for a long time. He's been awesome, which has

3:55

made me go, let me check it out. And

3:57

then obviously you wouldn't be hereified I think you're

3:59

you know, I appreciate that. So this

4:02

stage of your life, yeah, are

4:04

you running all the time right

4:07

now or is it kind of the calm before

4:09

what you feel is about to be the storm? Like where

4:12

are you on the tired scale? At a

4:14

little bit of both. I guess I stay pretty tired.

4:16

I like to say I've been busier in the one

4:19

Legged Man in a butt Kicking contest for the last

4:22

I guess since last August

4:24

was our first kind of like it

4:26

took off, and it was just touring NonStop

4:28

and starting to do you know, signed with the label.

4:31

So every day there wasn't a tour stop,

4:33

there was a radio stop somewhere. So

4:35

we're run around doing a lot of that. I feel like

4:37

it's it's a little of both. The I guess

4:40

had a little break in January, and it's you

4:42

know, just picking back up into touring

4:44

now, and and I feel like as

4:46

busy as I felt like I was at the end

4:48

of last year, I think it's probably just gonna

4:50

be about twice as much as that the rest of this year.

4:52

So it's not even just the cowboy hat.

4:55

It's not even just the sound

4:57

of your music or the jean jacket,

4:59

the denim you got the single mustache.

5:02

Well, I'm telling you you gotta

5:04

have.

5:04

The hole on some And the thing is, I believe

5:06

it well because there are some I

5:09

don't believe. Yeah, And I know for a

5:11

fact, well I know what I feel like

5:13

is a fact that they're putting on a bit. Yeah,

5:17

I feel like you're not putting on at all. No,

5:20

I don't ever try to put on too much.

5:22

Already had of my stash when you were nine, and

5:24

that's how that's how we know.

5:26

No, lord, No, I couldn't look

5:28

at my face, Bobby, I can't grow hair on it wor

5:30

a dang uh.

5:31

No. I it's funny.

5:32

I've been working on this thing for the last it's probably

5:35

like the last three years. I made a bunch

5:37

of tries at it, and it get kind of long and whispering,

5:39

and it's still too thin. I'd shave it back off, but

5:43

no, No, my my papa did, my

5:46

mom's dad.

5:47

It's funny.

5:48

He and I are real like looking

5:50

at young pictures of him, I'm kind of spitting the image

5:52

of you.

5:53

I guess it's gonna be a permanent thing. Oh yeah,

5:55

it's not like it because I grew my hair as a joke and I cut a lot

5:57

of it off today, but it was all a bit. But this is this

5:59

is part because it should it looks. It's

6:02

it's all real deal. Yeah, I

6:04

know. You don't even get your pants tailored you just roll them up.

6:06

That's right, that's right. Well, yeah, these things are too

6:08

dang long, and so I just rolled them up. You're

6:11

from Washington, yes, sir, states where

6:13

they make all the good country music, didn't you know? You know

6:15

I can't agree with that state,

6:17

not DC for this for those one dam I've

6:19

been to watching a bunch of times different parts of the state. It

6:22

is. It feels at times very

6:24

isolated because it's it's

6:26

a couple hours back. It's way to the north.

6:28

Yep, you know you're up in the corner. What was what

6:31

was country music? What was music like for you

6:33

within your families? I know you big blue grass? Yep,

6:35

if you guys all played together, yep. What was music

6:37

for you growing up ages? You know, six to thirteen,

6:40

that.

6:40

Was, yeah, a ton of blue grass and started

6:43

to the first thing that like kind of made me

6:45

fall in love with music. The thing I got the bug from.

6:48

My folks were just huge George Strait fans.

6:50

They had that playing in the house NonStop,

6:52

and I thought he looked pretty cool in the cowboy hat and

6:54

holding a guitar. So why they like him,

6:56

I think probably

6:59

just the songs, and

7:02

you know, it's it's the cool thing. You know, him

7:04

being a real cowboy actually was

7:07

attractive. My dad, you know, works in the livestock

7:10

business, still has for a long time, and you

7:12

know, so it's kind of we were living. You

7:14

know, I would not call

7:16

myself a cowboy, but I got to play cowboy.

7:19

A good bit growing up.

7:20

And uh and so you know we

7:23

listen to music that kind of fed into that a

7:25

little bit, him

7:27

and Marty Robbins, and you know that

7:29

that was kind of the earliest stuff I remember, just

7:31

always here in on Texas.

7:34

Yeah, I mean, yeah, you know I think

7:36

of mart Robbins. Do I think if obviously just l

7:38

Passo, Yeah, oh yeah absolutely, but

7:41

Washington. Did you live in a rural part of Washington

7:44

that felt like a

7:46

rural part of the South or Texas,

7:48

because there are parts of New York that's rural that feels like the

7:50

South.

7:50

Yeah, yeah, absolutely, I think yeah, having

7:53

seen it now, uh, it's I

7:56

mean, it's it's a little different thing with

7:58

you know, the the north West is I would

8:00

say it's more like like a Colorado.

8:02

Or Wyoming feel.

8:03

Where I was at, I think high desert

8:06

and you know, we're the Cascade Mountains run

8:08

down the middle of the state over you know, everybody thinks of Washington,

8:10

think Seattle and rain and over where

8:12

I was at Hill it barely rains three inches

8:14

a year. It feels like out there nothing at sage brush

8:17

and cheek grass, and.

8:19

So it was.

8:19

I would say it feels a lot like you know, some of them West

8:22

kind of towns more than or or parts

8:25

of the world rather than South.

8:27

But what about school? What was how big was

8:29

your school? What was school? Like? What kind of student were

8:31

you? Yeah? We it was a big school,

8:33

three students. I was homeschooled. Are you

8:36

serious? Yeah?

8:36

Oh yeah, yeah, man, my mom homeschooled

8:39

all of us kids up

8:42

through basically our sophomore year of high school.

8:44

Was that just a trick, said they should get to do more work around the house?

8:46

Uh, there was some of that, you know of that, yeah,

8:49

around the house. Yeah exactly. So you,

8:51

you and two of your siblings were homeschooled. Yeah,

8:54

well all four of us. My my oldest sister is just

8:56

a good bit older. She was kind

8:58

of yeah, she was out graduating exactly,

9:00

she graduated, she was doing she was exactly

9:02

top academy. She was doing as she went

9:05

to community college.

9:05

I guess by the time, I you know, kind of remember

9:08

doing school. But yeah, we my younger

9:10

brother and then I got a sister. We're all sixteen

9:12

or eighteen months apart, and

9:15

we uh yeah, so it was it was a

9:17

lot of I was a pretty good student.

9:19

I was good at math. Did you learned

9:21

on the road a lot? Because you guys were playing music? I mean you

9:23

were what seven when you started playing with the family band?

9:25

Yep? Did you since since

9:27

you were playing a lot of music, was that really

9:29

why you were homeschool so you guys could play music and travel?

9:32

No, not really.

9:33

The homeschooling thing was a big like the church

9:35

that we grew up in and stuff. It real fundamental

9:38

type, you know folks. And that

9:40

was a big thing in our church. Was you know,

9:43

keeping you know, protecting your kids from the world.

9:45

I guess a little bit. And uh

9:47

so we uh that was just kind

9:49

of the culture we were all in. So

9:52

what they what they decided to do with us.

9:54

And you know, as far as learning on the road, we

9:56

didn't. The way bluegrass

9:58

stuff works, it's really really heavy in the summer

10:01

and then there's not a ton of stuff, you know, it's a bunch

10:03

of outdoor festivals and stuff like that. There's not a bunch

10:05

of traveling that we did during

10:07

the you know.

10:08

School year.

10:09

I guess there was maybe three or four

10:11

festivals that we'd go to during the winter, and then

10:13

that was more than you know, we'd play basketball and then

10:16

baseball in the spring, so we could do some sports

10:18

as well, and

10:20

then pretty much the whole summer was just dedicated

10:23

to the music thing.

10:24

How did you play sports? Because if

10:26

you play basketball, yeah, they got two more players than

10:29

you on the oh yeah, five v

10:31

three it's hard to win. Where did you How did you play?

10:33

Well?

10:33

We it was all like club teams, you know, was

10:35

just starting in little league obviously.

10:38

In Arkansas. Yeah, exactly, So you

10:40

played ball, played basketball, yep, yep.

10:42

I was through in baseball. That was

10:45

kind of it for me. And it started golfing pretty early

10:47

on to my my mom's whole side of the family's

10:50

big golfers and and my dad

10:52

loves playing too, so that was a big one

10:54

for us early on.

10:55

Do you have to pass like a graduation

10:58

test.

10:59

Yeah, the way like the homeschool

11:01

thing, the state you still have to pas

11:03

basically just have an assessment at the end. Of

11:05

every year, the state sends you a

11:09

test basically just you know, go over

11:11

your knowledge and does.

11:12

Anyone look over you taking it? Can your mom take

11:14

it for you? Well she didn't, but

11:16

maybe I'm saying could

11:18

other people have cheated the system? Probably?

11:21

Yeah, I don't know what the verification was

11:23

like. There was no you know, camera on us

11:25

or anything.

11:26

Take and trying to do, Zach, how can homeschool

11:28

my kids when I have home and take there and so I can just make them

11:30

do housework perfect? I think I think you can get

11:32

away. I'm not accusing you.

11:34

Way for me to do that, Well, cameras

11:36

are so much more prevalent now. I'm sure they

11:38

make you, you know, sit there with your kid

11:40

on the camera taking the test.

11:42

Musical instrument that you played first?

11:45

My parents said they started me on piano first.

11:48

The first memories I have is with a guitar.

11:50

They got me, you know, I say that they got me

11:52

a Walmart first at guitar when I was like

11:54

three or something like.

11:55

Small, like yeah, little little

11:58

thing, and I.

11:59

Was left handed and they got me a right handed

12:01

guitar, and neither of us knew the difference. So I

12:04

just banged around on an upside down, but

12:06

starting to take lessons. My oldest sister

12:09

was a really, really good, classically

12:11

trained pianist, and so she started teaching

12:13

all us younger kids.

12:15

I don't know that must have been four or five.

12:16

I took my first guitar lesson when I was five, so

12:19

it must have been somewhere right in there about the same

12:21

time that I started taking piano lessons as well.

12:23

Do you remember loving music as a young kid or just thinking

12:26

this is what we do because older

12:28

sister siblings we did this is

12:30

just part of school that No, it

12:33

was. It was definitely uh.

12:35

As far as the guitar playing side

12:37

in country music, I love that forever.

12:41

The piano lesson thing, they my parents

12:43

kind of dragged me kicking and screaming through that, and

12:46

I hated. I wish i'd have applied myself more

12:48

now, but I think it was all. You

12:50

know, I didn't have any interest in learning

12:52

Beethoven and Chopin. I

12:54

was, you know, I wanted to if somebody was teaching me how

12:56

to play piano like Pig Robbins, I probably would have loved

12:59

it, but.

13:00

But you know it was I just wouldn't.

13:02

The music didn't do anything for me, So I

13:04

just kind of hated it, and gosh,

13:06

I wish I could play, you know, if i'd

13:08

applied myself and be able to play piano, like I

13:10

can play guitar at all,

13:13

Yeah, I can, fool I can do you a little piano

13:15

man, Billy Joe.

13:16

You know, you can fake it for a couple of songs,

13:19

make everybody think you're good. Yeah,

13:20

I could get by that. Yeah. Yeah, well

13:22

I used to do. I used to do this bit at my comedy

13:24

shows. I don't know anymore because everybody finally

13:27

had seen it. But I well, first

13:29

I took piano lessons as an adult, yeah, which

13:31

was very hard. Yeah. How old

13:33

when you thirty thirty? Yeah, older than you. Yeah.

13:35

And it was like I was like, I want to learn to play piano

13:38

because I want to because I played guitar for comedy

13:40

reasons. Yeah, but I'm not a guitar player, but I play

13:42

enough. Yeah. I was like, I'm gonna learn how to play piano. So I

13:44

learned some chords just so I could write some funny songs. Yeah.

13:47

And I had a TV appearance once and I played a

13:49

song on I actually played it on a piano. It was okay,

13:51

but I was really nervous, not comfortable piano at all. But

13:54

then I just recorded the track, and I thought, what

13:56

if I do my comedy shows and I just take a keyboard and fake

13:58

it, nobody knows the difference. Yeah, just played the track over the top

14:01

like the DJs do sometimes. Yeah, and so

14:03

but then I it was fun I would just sing

14:05

it. But the song was pretty funny. If it

14:07

wasn't any it was crazy funny. But then I thought,

14:09

what if I do the

14:11

song and then all of a sudden, I

14:14

have somebody else record the track for me, and all of a sudden

14:16

it turns into like a Beethoven chowpin and I look like I'm up there,

14:18

just yeah you go, And then it's so advanced.

14:20

Yeah. So then I end up like standing on one foot just doing

14:23

it like bugs bunny. Yeah yeah yeah. So then everybody

14:25

knew it was a joke, right yeah yeah, but makes

14:27

it a bit. Yeah. Then I stopped doing piano

14:29

lessons because it was extremely hard as an adult

14:32

he to wrap my head around it.

14:33

Man, It's it's funny that I think about

14:35

that a lot, like the fact that my parents

14:38

did you know, let me be cause they didn't. My parents

14:40

aren't musical at all. They didn't have any

14:42

background in it. My oldest sister basically

14:44

started playing pianos so she could play in church.

14:46

So is she the leader of the band, the family band? Then? No,

14:49

that was me? It really yeah,

14:51

Okay, we'll come back to that. He wont before you're telling me now.

14:53

But yeah, so we I think

14:56

about that a lot, the amount of time that, like, I probably

14:58

from the ages of five to fifteenrobably

15:00

played guitar like three hours a day or

15:02

something. And just like

15:05

knowing other artists and people that have

15:07

started, you know, in their teen years

15:09

or something, I can't imagine because you just don't

15:12

have time anymore to do

15:14

that, you know, let alone being

15:16

actually having to work full time as an adult. I

15:18

remember my dad for a second was gonna so

15:21

we had I played guitar, obviously, my little brother

15:23

played mandolin, Maddie and my sister

15:26

played fiddle, and then the oldest sister lake

15:28

and played bass for the little bluegrass family

15:30

band. And so we're missing the banjo. So

15:32

my dad got a wild hair that he was going

15:35

to be the banjo player at some point. But

15:37

it was the same sort of thing where you know, he it

15:39

was probably a couple months. He had a lesson every

15:41

week, but yeah, you know, he ain't got time to sit down and practice

15:43

and let alone just your you know, you

15:45

get older, it's hard to Yeah.

15:48

It has already established how it's gonna work.

15:50

Absolutely. You say you were basically

15:53

the leader of uh top top strings.

15:55

Yeah, the top string. Yeah, my mom was really proud

15:57

of that one. Still, but you're not. You weren't the oldest,

16:00

So how do you lead if you're not

16:02

the oldest sibling. I would just think naturally

16:04

the oldest of the oldest would be like, I'm the leader of

16:06

the band. Yeah.

16:08

I think I wanted it worse

16:11

than anybody else. For sure, they did

16:13

it and had fun with it most of the time. I

16:15

think I was pretty difficult to work with at

16:17

times. Maybe that hasn't changed.

16:19

I don't know, but anyways,

16:22

Yeah, we hic. I booked our

16:24

first show. I guess an old family friend

16:26

of ours, Randy, had

16:29

called my dad and asked the first show we played was

16:31

opening for a Passiklin musical at the at

16:33

the local high school, and Randy

16:35

had heard that we were. He was part of the roadary

16:37

clip you know, help him put it on or whatever. He

16:39

had heard that we were taking music lessons,

16:42

and you know, we kind of we didn't even weren't

16:44

even doing it as a band. Everybody was just learning

16:46

their instrument individually and we were all doing our own

16:48

thing kind of. We had nothing worked up together. And

16:51

he called and asked my dad if we'd like to come

16:53

do the come open

16:55

for that musical And my

16:57

dad said, well, Randy, you're gonna have to ask them. I

16:59

can't answer answer that for him, and so he put

17:01

me on the phone.

17:02

I don't remember that. How were you seven?

17:06

I've been told the story enough. He

17:09

uh. He was like, Hey, we'd like you come

17:11

do the show. And I said, well, Randy, that sounds great, we'd

17:13

love to and he's in.

17:15

My first question was how long

17:18

is it or how much time do we

17:20

have and he was like, oh, showing for a couple months,

17:22

and I said, well that's perfect. We'll know some songs by

17:24

then and we'd love to do it.

17:25

So then you start rehearsing, yeah, yeah,

17:27

and then we started actually, yeah, trying to work up stuff

17:29

together. So yeah, kids

17:32

do the darness things, do they ever? That

17:34

was you at seven running the business. Yeah,

17:36

Why would you play guitar for hours at

17:39

a time? Meaning? Was

17:42

it pure enjoyment? Was

17:44

it pursuing the dream of music?

17:46

Was it pursuing the idea of getting out of Washington?

17:49

Not a negative way, but no, right, yeah, why

17:51

would you dedicate so much time to

17:54

it? In your mind as a kid? What

17:56

did you think it would lead to?

17:58

I really don't know that I thought it would

18:01

lead to anything. All I knew was I

18:03

loved the music, and country

18:05

music specifically. I remember my folks

18:08

had a remember them briefcase

18:10

things that had a bunch of slots for tapes.

18:12

Yes, at tapes.

18:13

They have one of those down downstairs,

18:15

and we still had a tape machine. I

18:18

think it was pretty out of date at that point, but we had a tape

18:20

machine down in the basement and I

18:22

would go through that thing, just one

18:24

by one, take one out, play it through, trying

18:26

to learn every song on there, to learn how to sing them, learn

18:28

how to play them, just sit down there in front of that

18:31

tape machine for hours, sitting

18:33

there with my guitar.

18:34

Did you want to be amer?

18:36

I loved performing, Yeah, for sure. I loved

18:38

being on stage. I was always, you

18:40

know, the front man from the start, the one

18:43

talking between songs, doing most of the lead

18:45

singing. My sister Maddie's an awesome

18:47

singer as well, and Jorman Lakenar

18:49

too, but we the two of

18:52

us did most of the lead singing. And

18:55

yeah, I really it was a long

18:57

time before I ever thought anything about

18:59

now, maybe I could actually do this for a living.

19:01

It just I was ate up with the music.

19:03

I loved it. It was just passion. It was just

19:05

it was just a love yep. Whole bunch

19:08

of old bluegrass records.

19:09

I remember I got a box set thing with

19:11

like eighty George Jones songs on a CD.

19:14

I went through all of those, learned all that stuff.

19:16

I remember the first time they had the

19:19

uh Don't Close your Eyes tape of Keith

19:21

Whitley, and I about lost it when

19:23

I heard that thing.

19:24

Learned every song off of it. And then it's like you're

19:26

two hundred inside of a body of a

19:28

well seven year old. Yeah, now twenty five,

19:31

do you did you always feel a bit more

19:33

mature than the kids your

19:35

age when it came to the

19:37

art that you enjoyed.

19:39

Yeah, yeah, I think so, And I

19:41

always, you know, I

19:43

think I always hung out with you know kids

19:45

that were I played up a good bit, whether

19:48

it was sports or music or anything.

19:50

I was always hanging with kids that were

19:52

a couple of years older than me, and

19:54

and especially in.

19:55

The in the music sense of it.

19:57

I guess I grew up with a handful of guys that I ended

20:00

playing in a band with called North

20:02

Country for a little while. And those, you

20:04

know, they're most of the guys in that

20:06

band were ten years older than me or something, but

20:09

I love they.

20:09

Were because I'm familiar with the band. Yeah,

20:11

so like twenty fifteen, you guys start, what

20:14

was your role in that band? It

20:16

was I came in.

20:17

They they had a mandolin player that

20:19

got picked up by it.

20:20

Now they find it.

20:22

We just uh, they were Washington guys

20:24

too, so all the festivals up in the Pacific

20:26

Northwest, we were going to all the same festivals,

20:28

so we'd see each other, non stuff, you know, just for

20:31

a long time, just jam and having fun. We didn't

20:33

think it was. But when they lost that fellow Nick

20:36

Doomas did most of the lead singing

20:38

for him and played mandlin, they

20:40

asked me if I would like to learn mandlin

20:42

and come be their lead singer.

20:44

So did you learn mandolin.

20:46

Was it pretty easy to go

20:49

one to the other.

20:50

On the one hand, Yeah, it's it's weird. It's

20:52

just like technical things. It's a different

20:55

attack that took me a little bit to get

20:57

used to. But they asked me, I guess in

20:59

like November of twenty

21:02

fourteen. I think our first show was in February

21:05

of twenty fifteen.

21:07

Man, it's awesome

21:10

because I want to watch Ricky Skaggs. Yeah, and I know Ricky

21:12

from me playing the opera at the same Yeah, and I

21:15

was a Ricky Skaggs fan, yeah, as a kid,

21:17

and then get to get to know Ricky at the opry. Yeah,

21:20

But then to watch them play up

21:22

it's just yeah, it's so yeah.

21:25

Man, it just feels so intense

21:27

up it close, way, way more intense

21:29

than it seems from afar.

21:31

Yeah, and I think it's I think it's a more

21:33

difficult instrument to play in my opinion the guitar,

21:35

And probably that's partly because I've

21:37

spent more time on the guitar, but like just from

21:40

like physically, you got two strings, you

21:42

know, the double strings tune the

21:44

same, so you're depressing

21:46

two strings at a time instead

21:48

of just one.

21:50

You know, just little things like that.

21:51

I felt like it was hard on my hands compared to and

21:53

it's tiny too, like you're wrapped around a

21:55

whole handle with your hand and the

21:58

frets are smaller. I felt like it

22:00

was kind of I faked my way through it.

22:01

When's the last time you played a mandlin? It's

22:04

been a minute. If I handed you one,

22:06

could you fake it like you did? You can't? Oh

22:08

yeah, I could play I fake it. I'll still play it, yeah,

22:10

yeah, yeah, but you could make somebody feel like

22:13

yeah of course, yeah. Yeah. Man. That week, I can't

22:15

think anything that good. Nothing,

22:17

I can't think anything.

22:18

I've gotten so good at faking so much stuff.

22:20

I'm telling you.

22:22

Let's take a quick pause for a message from

22:24

our sponsor, and

22:34

we're back on the Bobby Cast.

22:36

So you're in another band at this point. It's another group.

22:39

It's another group dynamic yp were

22:41

the thoughts ever? Hey, I think I can do this

22:43

by myself or I want to

22:46

pursue something not to

22:48

lose the other guys, but something that's more real, true

22:50

and traditional to me, which is you know

22:52

the sound we call your traditional sound? Now, yeah, when

22:54

did that start kind of creeping in that

22:57

was.

22:58

I guess when I started work working

23:00

with Carson Chamberlain, my producer

23:02

and co writer on everything,

23:05

that started to feel like once

23:07

I started working with him, he was really focused

23:10

on trying to like That's

23:12

why from the first times we talked together

23:15

he impressed upon

23:17

me in the importance of that too, Like, all

23:19

right, so we know you love Keith Whitley, and

23:21

you love George Jones, you love Merle Haggard, and you

23:23

love George straight. But when you sing a Keith Whitley

23:26

song, you got to start figuring out how to sing

23:28

like Zach not like Keith Whitley all the time.

23:31

And you know, or

23:33

whoever it was that I was covering the song, and

23:36

so there was a lot of you know, when we would

23:38

be writing, and or even when I just listen

23:40

to demos or whatever it was, it

23:42

was a lot of working on figuring

23:45

out my thing that was, you know, gonna set

23:47

me apart from everybody else.

23:49

And so at that point I think it started

23:52

being like, all right, this needs to be my thing,

23:55

not as much of a The way all

23:57

those bluegrass bands worked was,

23:59

you know, it's a collie of effort. Everybody's got their

24:01

input on what songs they think we should

24:03

be doing and how we should arrange them, and.

24:05

You know, all this different type of stuff.

24:07

And so once I started,

24:09

yeah, focusing in on who

24:12

I was as an artist, then it all of a sudden

24:15

it felt important that it's like, all

24:17

right, I got to call the shots now, sort of like

24:19

when.

24:20

You were seven, Yeah, exactly. North

24:22

Country was North Country bluegrass though. Yeah,

24:24

well so that was a issue.

24:26

Yeah, very much like if you the early skag

24:28

stuff, and you know, even Whitley in

24:30

that last you know thing he did with J. D. Crow

24:32

where it was it was mostly bluegrass

24:35

instruments, but they had some drums on some stuff, and

24:37

some steel on some stuff, and piano I think

24:39

too in.

24:39

There a little bit.

24:40

We loved everybody in that North Country

24:42

band was a big fan of that kind of hybrid

24:44

thing. So we were doing a bunch of country songs. We

24:47

played all bluegrass instruments. It was an entirely acoustic

24:49

band, but we we

24:51

loved, you know, bridging that gap

24:53

a little bit between.

24:54

Since you were the young, they were ten years older or so.

24:57

Generally was their

24:59

mind, Hey, we're just doing this for

25:01

fun. We got jobs and kids.

25:05

Mostly, Yeah, I mean they

25:07

they all loved the music. There was one other kid

25:09

that was he's a couple or yeah, a

25:11

year or two younger than I am. Whose

25:14

phenomenal musicians from up in uh

25:16

Squamish, British Columbia. So

25:18

we were the youngest in the band. And

25:21

but the older guys I think definitely was more

25:24

of a for fun thing.

25:25

It's funny. The other guy that was kind of the

25:27

band leader.

25:28

I started being responsible for a lot of the

25:31

song selection and in uh

25:33

set list or like writing yeah, set list. And

25:36

but this guy, Will mc seventy was

25:39

kind of the band leader. He ran the you know, as far

25:41

as the business side of things and everything. He took care of

25:43

all of that and did some of the co writing on some of them

25:45

songs with me too. He

25:47

was he's here in Nashville now, he's got a little

25:50

he's got a small bluegrass label.

25:51

He's got a few artists signed too.

25:53

So he's kind of you know, I think,

25:56

really enjoys the business side of the thing, probably

25:58

more than the you know, being the

26:00

one on stage making the music. So

26:03

he's in the music business still.

26:05

But I think, yeah, for the rest of

26:07

them, it was more of a you know, it's a fun thing to do on

26:09

the weekends.

26:10

If you're in a band and I

26:13

don't know, did you sneak off and do something by yourself

26:15

for the first time or were you just like, I'm gonna go recorded

26:18

you just like the band's no longer, I'm gonna just

26:21

like the first song you recorded? Was it under

26:23

the because once I snuck and worked at another radio

26:25

station, didn't tell anybody. Yes, yeah, use a fake name,

26:27

because like, let me see if I like it. Yeah, what was

26:29

the first record when it was just Zacktop

26:32

or was it Zachtop? Was that your name? Yeah? Oh

26:34

yeah, okay, Yeah, So what

26:36

was the first song you recorded? And was it when

26:38

you were like, I'm not in the band anymore?

26:41

No, it was so after that

26:43

North Country band, I joined up with another

26:46

group that was I mean they were all scattered

26:49

around. Fiddle player from Murphy's Boro, bass

26:51

player from just outside of Saint Louis,

26:54

mandolin.

26:54

Player still living up there. I was still

26:56

living in Colorado at the time. Yeah, and

26:59

uh, and I don't even know when you moved in

27:01

Colorado. Oh yeah, that was seventeen.

27:03

We played our last show with the Family Band the

27:05

summer of twenty fifteen,

27:08

and you moved to Colorado eventeen for what reason?

27:11

Both my sisters were moving out there. My

27:13

parents kind of shipped me off.

27:15

They wanted me to get out of town. I was dating

27:18

a little gal, and they thought I shouldn't have a

27:20

little business.

27:22

Yes, yes, that's making sure. She's a regular

27:24

side. Okay, regular, God,

27:26

it's making sure. Yeah.

27:29

So they they kind of were like,

27:31

because I thought I was gonna stay there and uh,

27:35

you know, just get married her and get married and

27:37

go to wazoo or something, And anyway

27:39

ended up that's WSU I guess probably

27:42

for Washington people.

27:43

Yeah. Perfect.

27:45

So anyway, they kind of My sisters were going out to Colorado

27:48

to see you, and

27:50

they kind of just shipped me off with them. And

27:53

you living Boulder yep, as a bolder

27:55

for the first it was really fun while

27:57

I was. I was in school there for a year and had

28:00

a blast while that went

28:02

on. As soon as I had decided I was done with school

28:04

and quit that and started working.

28:06

I got pretty tired of it pretty quick. What'd you do for

28:08

work? I started working construction?

28:11

Were you still playing music? Yeah? On weekends

28:14

yep. And what did you think? What

28:16

did you foresee happening within the next five years

28:18

or so once you decided school's

28:21

not for me. Yeah, you still played music, obviously loved

28:23

it. Did you see a future in it for

28:25

you long term? Yeah? Yeah.

28:27

That was the reason that I

28:29

quit school was that was like, hell,

28:32

I'm well, I guess I was only one year away from finishing

28:34

I was a mechanical engineer.

28:36

I was only one year away from finishing my degree.

28:39

Didn't you want to hang another year? Huh?

28:40

No.

28:41

I was just like, I.

28:42

Gotta be done with this, and you

28:44

know it's going into debt on school. I felt

28:46

like I was just digging myself a hole to where

28:49

obviously, knowing what I know now on

28:52

the music business side of things, it's not good to

28:54

start in a hole because you're going to get yourself in more one

28:56

trying to start this kind of career.

28:58

So but the

29:01

yeah, I basically was just like, I got to make some money

29:03

and save it up so I can move to Nashville.

29:05

So that's why you're working.

29:06

Yep, that's why I decided to quit and what

29:08

my parents were thrilled as you can imagine that I

29:10

decided to quit my mechanical engineering

29:12

degree before.

29:13

You know one year, I get it, I get it. I see

29:15

why. Oh I know I quit as a sophomore.

29:18

Yeah no, not a junior senior.

29:20

Yeah, but no, you knew what you wanted to do. You're right,

29:23

and you obviously had a head on your shoulders. It

29:25

was pretty good considering how old you were. That seems

29:27

to be the thing

29:30

that's in common throughout your whole life, if you're seven,

29:32

or if you're nine running the band, or

29:34

if so when you moved to Nashville,

29:36

what was that number you needed to hit, either financially

29:39

or because you're saving up money? But what

29:41

are you saving to have so you can move

29:43

out? Just enough to move to move

29:46

and half five thousand of the bank? Like, what was it?

29:48

I think more than financially,

29:50

it was just like to be in a position where

29:52

I and you know, construction is just

29:54

a thing. You can do that anywhere, So that was

29:56

kind of I'll save up a little money and then I'll move

29:59

to Nashville. I'm sure I can get a construction job out

30:01

there, and that's what I did for the first little bit that I was out

30:03

here. But I

30:05

think more than anything, like I didn't know how to

30:07

get to Nashville, or what the hell I was going to do when I

30:09

got here. I had no clue about the

30:11

music business outside of just you know, the tiny.

30:13

Little world of bluegrass.

30:16

So when I started talking

30:18

to Carson, that was

30:20

Carton Chamberlin yep, Carson Chamberlain.

30:22

Uh Spring of twenty eighteen.

30:24

After Daryl Singletary passed away, I put

30:26

up a video of his song Spilled Whiskey, and

30:29

that thing kind of blew up for me.

30:30

I'd never you know, i'd been.

30:31

I'd started posting some videos just

30:33

pretty much on Facebook. I guess I didn't even have

30:35

a Instagram. I don't think anyway,

30:39

I was. I was posting stuff on Facebook, and i'd got, you

30:41

know, fifteen hundred views on a video before or

30:43

something, and that thing kind of took

30:45

off and shot

30:47

up to three hundred thousand views on it, and

30:50

had a bunch of people reaching out to

30:52

me. Were you living here then or still color

30:54

out? Yes, sir, I

30:58

had a bunch of people. You know, I

31:00

felt like shyster's for

31:02

her a better term. You know, it's the kind of thing whereas

31:05

you can come up with twenty thousand dollars and you

31:07

know, we'll cut your record and put it out. It

31:09

was I didn't know anything, but I knew

31:12

that that didn't feel right, and I was pretty sure that

31:14

wasn't the way it worked. But

31:16

around that same time, Carson Uh

31:19

reached out to me and we started

31:21

talking, and you know, just seeing his resume

31:24

and all the you know, hit songs and people

31:27

he's produced and all the work he's done throughout

31:29

the industry, was like,

31:31

all right, this guy's a real deal. And from

31:34

the you know, moment we first started talking,

31:36

he was much more of a long term, big

31:38

picture. You know, we're not going

31:40

in and cutting next week, We're probably

31:42

not doing it this year. And so

31:44

it was that made sense to me

31:46

that it everything he was saying and

31:49

telling me felt like the way

31:51

to build a career, not just like

31:54

let's capitalize off a little bit of online

31:57

buzz.

31:58

Was that video going a bit viral?

32:01

What was the final part of the catapult that made

32:03

you just go, I got I need to get out there.

32:06

I think it talking to Carson

32:09

was was what kind of he find you?

32:11

Because the video?

32:12

Yeah, yeah, he found me Country Rebel if you

32:14

know that page they had reposted that

32:17

video and Uh and

32:19

so he found it on there and starting

32:22

to you know, I spent better part of two

32:24

years flying in and out of town. I'd come,

32:27

you know, once a month, I'd come in for a week and

32:29

he'd set up co writes for us. I'd stay at his

32:31

house and all

32:33

that. We did that for a little while. But that was

32:35

finally once I started working with

32:37

him, that felt like, Okay, now I've

32:40

got something to move out there for. And because

32:42

as much as bad as I wanted to get out here,

32:45

I didn't feel like there was much point

32:47

in, you know, just coming

32:49

out with nothing to I

32:52

don't know, I guess it just finally validated.

32:54

That's like, all right, this guy wants to work with me a

32:57

shot. Yeah, now, like lend

32:59

you stand his how yeah? Oh yeah, oh yeah.

33:01

He's treated me like another kid to his make

33:04

you do the dishes well sometimes.

33:06

Okay, See that's how you know it's real. Absolutely,

33:09

So you're moving from Colorado to Nashville.

33:11

You just pack up the truck and drive it.

33:14

Were you more excited or nervous

33:17

or were you what was your mindset, like, let's just give

33:19

it a shot and see what happens. If not, worst case, I go back

33:21

home.

33:22

Yeah, I was pumped I was very excited. And

33:24

you know, it was funny when I

33:28

told my parents I was quitting school and coming

33:30

out here, like I said, they were

33:33

not thrilled.

33:33

I was being facetious. They

33:35

were not fans of that. I think we all got that,

33:38

yeah, yeah, yeah.

33:39

And so it was I had

33:41

a bit of a rocky relationship with them for a

33:43

little bit.

33:43

Really. It did create a bit of splinter for a while.

33:46

Yep, it did.

33:47

And then but I think, as

33:50

you know, when I could call home

33:52

and tell him I was working with this Carson Chamberlain guy

33:54

and explain to them, you know, what

33:57

he'd been been doing for the last

33:59

forty years and you

34:01

know, send home some of the songs we've been writing and

34:03

that sort of thing, I think that validated

34:06

it to them as well, and so I think

34:08

they kind of jumped all on board and they were very

34:10

supportive after a minute. So it

34:12

did feel like when I moved out here, it's like, I'm

34:15

gonna go for it. We'll see, I've got a you

34:17

know, safety net I can, I've got family,

34:19

and I felt like I had Carson looking

34:21

after me to where I

34:24

didn't feel like I was just going to be out here on

34:26

my own trying.

34:27

To figure out through the barren tundra

34:29

of Nashville, what was this sound like for you when

34:31

you moved out here, or at least what did it? What was

34:33

your perception of Nashville the first

34:36

six months, because my definite perception was

34:38

different than what it is now. It was dumb.

34:40

I hated it because Carson told me.

34:42

I figured when I'd get moved out here that

34:45

I'd be playing in bars every night and

34:47

writing songs every day. And he

34:49

told me, absolutely not, you don't need

34:52

to do that. We'll write a couple of days a week, and

34:54

you keep working construction. And

34:57

I think, you know, looking back, as a

34:59

ton of wisdom in that, just to keep from

35:02

getting kind of swallowed up in the Nashville machine

35:05

and becoming one in the crowd,

35:08

I think I was able to keep the town just a little bit

35:10

at arms length and keep

35:12

working on, you know, my own thing

35:14

that made it stand out.

35:17

So it was, you know, I moved to spring Hill, Uh

35:20

it was, you know, So I

35:22

was. I wasn't on Broadway every night.

35:24

I didn't.

35:25

I think i've been. I haven't even spent a night on Broadway.

35:28

I didn't have much interest in that I found

35:30

kind of some of the more divy places that were

35:32

playing some old school music that I liked, stuff

35:35

like the local and music city bar and grill

35:38

and.

35:38

Stuff like that.

35:40

But so I was still, you know, I

35:42

was working construction four or five days a week

35:45

and right in two days a week, and it

35:47

was.

35:49

It was work a little

35:51

bit though, Like I'm in Nashville, Dan Man, I

35:53

want to.

35:53

Do more big time and like looking

35:55

at other sort of peers of mine, uh,

35:59

you know that were you know,

36:01

they already had publishing deals or what

36:03

have you, it felt like they're

36:05

doing what I want to be doing. And uh

36:08

and I think it was. It

36:10

was even once I got my first publishing deal,

36:14

I kept working construction and that

36:17

was all you know, Carson kind of urging me to do

36:19

that and not ever play in

36:21

town pretty much. And you know, I had

36:23

a decent little road schedule.

36:25

Still, what kind of shows

36:27

were you playing on the road.

36:29

It was I had a country band at that point and we were,

36:31

you know it just whatever we could

36:33

get into some smaller time festivals,

36:36

you know, play little fairs.

36:38

Just you know, a lot of some bar

36:40

owner saw a Facebook video of mine, and

36:42

so he wants me to come play, and it

36:45

was a bunch of that stuff.

36:46

Did that Facebook video, that Darrell Singletary video, did

36:48

it live a long time before? People were still

36:50

like, dude, I just saw this video and you're like, that's four

36:52

years ago.

36:53

It felt like not that long, but it

36:55

felt like for like the whole year after that.

36:57

Yeah, that thing kept coming back. That's pretty

36:59

cool. Yeah, yeah it was. It was the.

37:01

First kinda I

37:04

kind of I've always begrudgingly used

37:06

the all the social media stuff, and

37:09

that was the first time

37:11

where it felt like, yeah, this is a way you can

37:13

reach a ton of people. And you

37:15

know, when I had nothing else going on, all

37:18

of a sudden, there's a bunch of people that know my name

37:20

and you know, are following me now, and

37:23

I think that, yeah, it's funny. I didn't ever

37:25

want to make a TikTok I didn't

37:27

want to post on Instagram.

37:28

Yeah you're not the guy. To me that seems like he's just craving

37:31

TikTok no, But it has

37:34

now been seen that is, if you don't do it

37:36

cheesy, it's not cheesy NOx And I mean

37:38

now, because there was such a I'm

37:41

not gonna get on TikTok because I'm not doing

37:43

a dance, I'm not being a g But

37:45

now it is what you

37:47

make of it. The band that really switched

37:49

that for me was like, I don't know if you know Red

37:51

Clay Straits. Yeah, man, I had him on my show

37:54

week. I just love love us all Alabama

37:56

boys and it's kind of this mixture of like

37:59

retro rock the country. Yeah, Jerry

38:01

Lee Lewis, Yeah, just awesome.

38:03

So they came up to the show and I

38:05

was like, when next time you guys are in Tennessee, come

38:08

play my show. So they did. They showed

38:10

up, we played, We did the whole thing on the air. But

38:12

I told them they were like the first band to meet

38:14

them in Lake Street Drive Yeah,

38:16

lake Street Diving. Yeah. They

38:20

made it not cheesy yep, because

38:22

they just did what they did. Somebody just

38:24

captured what they were doing and it didn't

38:27

feel like some you know, some strings

38:29

being pulled by someone trying to create the content that

38:31

they think will work. Yep. And those were the

38:33

artists that really made me tell my other artist

38:36

friends, like, shut up, just do

38:38

what you do. Just have somebody recorded. Yeah, yeah,

38:40

use the platform for what you do, don't

38:42

they kill't like, yeah, don't run

38:44

towards the platform exactly. Let the platform

38:46

come to you. And if it doesn't, that's okay. Yep.

38:49

No, yeah, it's just if you're making compelling

38:51

content, people will watch it. You don't have

38:53

to be dancing or you know, doing something funny or whatever.

38:55

That was.

38:56

That's all I've ever posted on TikTok pretty much

38:58

just me sitting there with a guitar dance playing

39:00

an old song.

39:01

No, there was.

39:02

One video that I

39:05

considered not posting, U There's

39:08

I made it.

39:09

Well. I was working on this house up in north

39:11

of Nashville.

39:12

It's I've got my tool belt on, you know, I've got my hammer

39:14

loop in the back, and guys

39:16

will do a trick where they toss the hammer up and

39:19

and it goes in the loop. And so that was the

39:21

closest thing I kind of came to doing a

39:23

dance.

39:23

I guess, yeah, it's not close to doing a dance.

39:25

So you're so good in my.

39:27

Well, there was I mean I was shaking my

39:29

ass around trying to trying to catch the thing,

39:31

you know a little bit. So as it was, I

39:34

think some people enjoy can you dance? I

39:37

can two step a little. I have swing dance a

39:39

little, this swing dance top. My grandma

39:41

taught me a two step. I'm from Arkansas, so you

39:43

know, my grandma taught me to two step. And

39:45

then I also grew up in the you know, nineties,

39:47

two thousands, when music was

39:49

then universally available online now after

39:52

yep, so you could

39:54

really have any kind of music, yeah, at all. So

39:57

I also went to a school that wasn't just all

39:59

white like a

40:01

two step.

40:01

But then I would just grind. Yeah, I

40:03

just get on a button grind. Yeah, that's what

40:06

we did at the dance and then and

40:08

so, but never really had like, you

40:10

know, I wasn't super good at I Want

40:12

to Dance with the Stars. I won that show, but he did.

40:14

Yeah, I didn't know you were on that the mirror balls right

40:17

behind there. But it's like I never was good.

40:19

Yeah, but I really I I enjoyed

40:21

it fine. It was music. Oh yeah. Yeah. My

40:24

point was I line danced a little bit. Yeah,

40:26

I tried to. I never could get into that much.

40:29

When I was out in Colorado, I had a bunch of you

40:31

know, kind of rednick buddies that I lived

40:33

with, and we'd go down to the Grizzly Rose and

40:36

lay there before.

40:37

Yeah, I believe it. Yeah, I love that place.

40:39

We spent a lot of a lot of time in there, and

40:41

I tried the line dancing thing a little bit

40:43

and it didn't.

40:45

It wouldn't my thing if I didn't have a you

40:47

know, i'd like to have.

40:48

I don't think I will girl under three, a

40:50

little girl. Yeah, that's what

40:52

I want to be dancing. If I'm dancing by myself,

40:55

I look dumb as hell. And so I spent

40:57

more time on the pool tables.

40:58

I guess I definitely look dumb. Yeah, but I was

41:00

okay with it. But it's I love it. You know.

41:02

It's like a wedding dance

41:04

party. Like you said, you dance. Oh

41:06

yeah, I'll get out there.

41:07

You're not cool to do it? No, No,

41:09

you got it.

41:10

A couple of beers in me and I'll start taking

41:12

clothes off and doing things nobody's ever

41:14

seen.

41:15

No, I'm good not knowing about that. Yeah, that's all right. In

41:17

college pictures you can find No, I'm good in

41:20

college. I took line dancing, okay,

41:22

because I know all the girls were. It's a class. Yeah,

41:25

just at one of the clubs or something southern Arkansas.

41:27

No, I get class. It was a college class. It was a college

41:29

class. Yeah, like a Tuesday Tuesday

41:31

evenings. I would go and take line

41:33

dancing and I learned the dances because I was

41:35

like this is but really I just wanted to get What

41:38

got me though, was I went. I was like, I'm gonna meat all these

41:40

girls because apparently it's like ninety percent female,

41:43

but it was like ninety percent female, non traditional so they're

41:45

all like fifty Oh there you go. Yeah, so

41:48

I really you'll have that. I really just that was really

41:51

just you just became a really good dancer. Yeah. I just got

41:53

a lot better at life. I didn't have no distraction.

41:56

The Bobby Cast will be right back. This

42:08

is the Bobby Cast.

42:10

The Washington State music

42:13

scene. I'm not gonna even say Seattle because

42:16

Seattle to me, obviously is

42:19

what it's associated with. To me is two things won the grunge

42:21

in the nineties. Yeah, of course

42:23

from Nirvana you can go to and then even

42:25

a bit of a hip hop movement yep, with Maclamore,

42:28

absolutely that what the

42:30

Washington state country scene. Is

42:33

there a country scene

42:36

or is there the bluegrass scene? Even

42:38

bigger? I don't.

42:40

I mean, it's hard to say the bluegrass

42:42

scene was not big out there. We have there's

42:44

a festival in

42:47

Washington somewhere every weekend you can go

42:49

to all summer, and

42:51

a handful of good ones in the winter as well,

42:55

So it felt like it was big at

42:57

the time. I mean, it's nothing like the Southeast.

43:01

And as far as country, there was no like. I

43:03

didn't play any country music up there. I was

43:05

playing country songs in my Bluegras sets. But there's

43:07

no like, there's not a

43:10

circuit of clubs you can play.

43:12

No straight ahead country clubs. No, no,

43:14

not really.

43:16

There's one that Tractor Tavern in uh

43:18

In, Seattle is a pretty strictly country

43:20

spot. I have not played

43:22

there yet, hopefully soon. But

43:26

that was, you know, and even just

43:28

music to country music to see that, you

43:30

know, it was basically when you got the County

43:33

Fair Rodeo, they bring

43:35

in something. I remember the first big show I went to see

43:37

was John Michael

43:39

Montgomery opened up for uh Dwight Yoakum,

43:42

I believe, and I took that little gal I

43:44

was dating that was she.

43:45

Had grown a little by then, she

43:47

had grown, she had gone pretty good. Yeah, yeah,

43:49

absolutely, we were talking about like

43:52

a video going viral, but I saw that

43:54

bad luck had really blown up on

43:56

Yeah, and that wasn't that was just you. That was

43:59

just you doing your thing.

44:00

Yeah, it was me doing a stupid thing. I was laying

44:02

on a dang seat in a pontoon.

44:04

So my jeenst,

44:07

what did you learn from that? Man?

44:10

It's so funny. I don't know, because.

44:14

I don't know what it was about that video that

44:17

was compelling to people, because it was

44:19

like, you know, if I listened back to it, it wasn't

44:22

the best I've ever sang. It wasn't the best I've

44:24

ever played guitar. It was like I was

44:26

sitting in a position where it was difficult to play

44:28

guitar. And I don't know if

44:30

it was just because it was kind of goofy that, you know, I'm wearing

44:32

jeans on a boat, I

44:35

look uncomfortable while

44:37

I'm playing. I don't know if there's something goofy about

44:39

that that kind of made it resonate with people

44:41

or what. But like I can point

44:44

to twenty different videos on my TikTok where

44:46

it's like, no, now that was a compelling

44:48

performance of the song got anywhere

44:50

near the amount of views that one did. It

44:53

feels like such a like it's the wild

44:55

West out there. You don't know what's gonna hit her, you

44:57

know, Even with that song. I've loved that song

45:00

ever since we wrote it. But I figured just

45:02

the type of song it was, the fact that.

45:04

It's so different doesn't sound like anything

45:08

was.

45:08

It felt to me like this is probably gonna be like

45:10

my sneaky favorite on the record, and most

45:13

other people won't pay attention to it, and

45:16

or was I wrong about that? So

45:18

it's it feels so strange to

45:21

I feel like I know a good song when I hear one, and know

45:23

something like that can be a hit. But even

45:27

that one, I didn't call that shot, that's

45:29

for sure.

45:29

And I think because I've also

45:31

seen the video, it

45:34

seemed You're right, I

45:37

don't even know why. I'm comfortable, but it just seemed

45:40

so not shiny.

45:43

Yeah, because it wasn't. No,

45:45

I think that is likeable,

45:47

And I think too, it's just like you

45:49

just do your thing over and over again. Don't don't

45:52

get don't be distraught when it doesn't

45:54

work. You just keep doing it. Because because

45:56

it's not going viral doesn't

45:59

mean that it's not going to connect. No.

46:01

Yeah, like it's almost like you have to keep doing it over

46:03

and over again until

46:05

you catch the freaking algorithm.

46:06

Yep, yep, it's wild

46:08

how that stuff works. Yeah, Like even like reposting.

46:11

We you know, at the beginning of

46:14

my well, I had it when

46:16

we first hired my management team

46:18

hired a company to start running my socials

46:20

because it was you know, it gets to be too much for one

46:22

person to run. They

46:26

you know, they would even repost the same video

46:28

a couple of weeks later and.

46:30

Do totally different numbers, good or bad, right exactly.

46:32

And you know, just keeping on hammering

46:35

that, keep throwing mud against the wall and

46:37

at some point something will stick.

46:39

The dumbest thing. I did a video the other day just

46:41

ad my hair. I

46:43

was growing it out because I thought it was hilarious. Yeah, for no other

46:45

reason. Yeah, my wife wanted to kill me. But

46:47

I put it in like five different little ponytails, which I've never

46:49

done that before. Yep, I'm not ponytail guy. Really

46:52

got I'm positive, yeah, got

46:55

a million strings on

46:57

that video. I didn't do anything.

46:59

Yeah, I had my hair in five ponytails,

47:01

and I was like, hey, hope you guys are having a good day. Yeah,

47:03

that was I mean, that was really nothing. It's

47:06

it's wild and I think if I did it again and make

47:08

it like a thousand, right, it's there's

47:10

no telling there. There's a combination of the two things,

47:13

me being so good looking and so charming, and

47:15

those together really made that video work.

47:17

Those would be the leading factors, no doubt. What does your

47:19

hair look like? It's fluffy. There's

47:21

a lot of it right now.

47:22

Look at you. Yeah, there's you have all

47:24

that. You have all the hair. Oh you have like Aaron

47:26

Tippin hair. Yeah,

47:29

I wish I had these muscles. Yeah, well, I

47:31

saw we can work on that. He like five years

47:33

ago, a pre pandemic.

47:35

He came to the studio and he was in his sixties

47:38

now yep, still pretty jagged. Oh

47:40

yeah, oh yeah, big time still

47:43

Yeah for a sixty year old dude, that

47:46

to me, like that was that

47:48

part of country music. I used to roofhouses.

47:50

We listened to a lot of Aaron Tipping because we felt like we

47:53

felt like he was roofing houses with us.

47:54

Yeah, he's he was kind of the

47:56

blue collar, yeah, working man's

47:59

country guy.

47:59

For like he's working man's PhD. Right, yeah,

48:01

exactly, that's him. I guess his songs

48:04

just told me and I just believed him. Yeah exactly.

48:06

But then I met him and I was like, no, he was telling the truth. Yeah

48:08

exactly, he wasn't because he was

48:11

yeah. Yeah. So what's the like,

48:13

what's what's the goal for you

48:15

in country music? Like?

48:18

What would make you the happiest

48:21

if you had? What? Blank?

48:26

I want to write

48:29

and put out songs that stand

48:32

the test of time that in fifty years

48:34

people are still coming back to them and

48:37

being like this is the gold

48:39

standard in country music.

48:40

But what if they're not successful? Now, what if

48:42

they're just good? But

48:45

in fifty years they're still good? Would

48:48

you give that up to be great for ten and then

48:50

be forgotten after?

48:52

No?

48:53

I would.

48:54

I just the all the icons that I

48:56

like emulated and and

48:58

the guys that I look back to as like that

49:01

was country music at its finest right

49:03

there. You know, if it's Merl Haggard or George Jones or

49:06

whatever.

49:08

You know.

49:08

Gary Stewart, I think, is a great example of somebody

49:10

that didn't have a huge career for

49:13

a lot of reasons. You know, he wouldn't know Garth

49:15

Brooks or George Strait. But

49:18

some of those records and some of those songs, that's like,

49:21

that's the gold standard in country music right there.

49:23

So then I'll go back to those time after time

49:25

after time.

49:25

Yeah, obviously I'd love to be selling out stadiums

49:28

and you know, do all that too, But most

49:30

importantly, I think it just put out

49:32

songs that people will keep coming back to

49:35

and be like that was

49:37

that was as good as country music could get.

49:40

April fifth, the full album comes

49:42

out. Yes, sir, you went with a

49:44

wild name that's totally off brand telling

49:47

you cold beer in country music?

49:49

Yes, sir, is that a track? Yeah?

49:52

I thought it was. That was one of these facts. Yeah, that was

49:54

the first thing. Why did you select

49:56

that as your that because again,

49:59

you can pick there's a lot of that. I mean we could roll

50:01

through that. You could have been cowboys like me do it

50:03

could have been there are a lot bad luck could have been there.

50:06

Why why that sounds like the radio? I

50:09

mean that's just me to a tea right there.

50:11

You see that title, you know what you're getting. You're

50:14

getting the country music here, and you best get the cold

50:16

beer out because you're gonna want so soon as you hear the first

50:18

track.

50:18

What about warm beer? That would

50:21

be fun too, but it's less enjoyable in

50:24

a pinch. I've never drank beer, so I don't I've.

50:26

Drank a warm one before when there would have no cold

50:28

ones to be having a hot beer, I'd

50:31

probably avoid, Like you like tea, like

50:33

it's.

50:35

Lose all the carbonation. That would be horrible. You

50:37

haven't done it right, Maybe not a

50:40

tea beer. I

50:42

don't think i've that's I never had a beer, so

50:44

I can have all the reason they keep it all cold,

50:47

I'm sure. But

50:49

I just think you could just tell people it's different,

50:51

good and they think it was great. We're doing hot

50:53

beer.

50:54

Yeah, I could be a big branding thing

50:56

for me, the

50:58

country music guy.

50:59

So oh, this record's gonna come out. Yes,

51:02

the songs that we haven't heard yet. Because

51:05

by the way you're that this sounds like radio crush.

51:07

That song it was like most added or whatever. Yeah, yeah,

51:09

it was one used added for three weeks straight. I think,

51:12

like that's all. How does that make you feel?

51:14

It's I was blown

51:16

away. It felt like a bit of a sigh

51:18

of relief. It's kind of you know, I knew that

51:20

that song obviously sticks out like a sore thumb

51:22

compared to anything else on the charts right now,

51:25

and uh, I figured, if it

51:27

sticks out that bad, it's either going to be a love it or hate

51:29

it thing. And so I just very

51:31

thankful, felt like we could Okay,

51:34

we weren't making it up, we weren't crazy this, this

51:36

might work.

51:37

Once that came out and it got that response, the

51:39

rest of the songs that we haven't heard yet, h

51:42

sonically, what are they more

51:45

the same? Baby?

51:45

I said that ain't a Billboard

51:47

interview recently, and

51:50

I didn't even think of it when I said it, But when I

51:52

read the ride up after, I was like, ah, it was pretty

51:54

fun.

51:54

It was a pretty good line.

51:55

I said, Uh, for those of you that

51:57

like it, that's great. You're gonna get a hold

52:00

much more of the same. If you don't,

52:02

you're not getting anything different. So it's

52:05

it's more country music, as as

52:08

good as I can manage to make it.

52:10

Do you still listen to any any

52:13

blue grass that's being made like current

52:16

current bluegrass? Not much, that's

52:20

the same sort of thing.

52:21

I feel like if I go

52:23

listen to some bluegrass, it's usually older school

52:25

stuff. Larry Sparks or you know that old

52:27

JD. Crown, the New South stuff. I love bluegrass

52:29

album band stuff. That's where it was at

52:32

for me. Lone from River Band. That was the stuff that made

52:34

me fall in love with it, that I wanted to emulate

52:36

and play Dirks.

52:37

Obviously you're going to do something, yes, sir.

52:40

That dude, Yeah, he'll bluegrass all day,

52:42

yes sir, and legitimately ye, Like it's

52:44

not an act. I mean he went record,

52:46

yeah, exactly, and spend a bunch

52:48

of time and money and energy and just

52:51

because I've he loved to do it. I mean I

52:53

was talking to Dolly and she was talking

52:55

about blue Ger said she had to get rich before she could do something

52:57

that she wanted to do when she was poor, which was make a bluegrass

52:59

record. I think Ricky's Gags had a

53:01

line about that too, something about, yeah, I went

53:03

and made some money in country music so I could afford to keep

53:05

making grass music. Well man, congratulations,

53:08

It's really cool because I mean so many

53:11

just so many of the folks around here that I

53:14

like kind of vouched

53:16

for what you were doing. Sure, because

53:18

I mean there are ten thousand things coming in all of us, every single

53:20

day. Yeah, absolutely, you know with you people

53:23

with me, and so I don't get

53:25

around to everything i'd like to, and I make a note go. But

53:28

there were two or three people that were like, Zach top's

53:30

awesome, like he's like the neck and

53:34

so I was like, well, let me see, and I'd listen. I liked it, but

53:36

then I was like, let me see if this dude's putting on or not, because

53:39

like you know, oh absolutely, you look

53:41

like you could be cosplaying a cowboy, but

53:44

it's really you. Yeah.

53:46

The mustache is not only real, it's

53:49

just af. I mean, if you didn't have a mustache,

53:51

I would go like, you need a mustache. Yeah, yeah, it

53:53

feel it feels like it completes the picture.

53:55

But you're just like a kid. Yeah,

53:58

and my mustache looks like a kid's mustache. Oh

54:00

no, it's good. No, no, it's definitely solidciate.

54:02

Well, man, I'm a big I'm a big fan now, and thank

54:04

you so much. I'm rooting for you. I like anybody

54:06

who it doesn't matter what style you're doing.

54:09

It doesn't have to be a country music can be whatever. I like anybody

54:11

who doesn't

54:13

really change because the temperature

54:16

says so and it can be

54:18

a bit difficult to be doing it one way when everybody says,

54:20

hey, maybe you should just modify slightly, and

54:24

I just don't feel like you've done that. And I feel

54:26

like that's the strongest thing about you, and that's what's gonna

54:29

really propel you, the same way you talk

54:32

about your songs like you gonna love it, You're gonna hte it. You know,

54:34

with you, that's all. That's where, that's where you want everything

54:36

right, because you can't get any traction if you're just pretty

54:38

good. Nobody cares. Yeah, yeah, somewhere

54:40

in the middle of it doesn't do you any at all. And

54:43

so like, I just think you're gonna kill

54:45

it because you're You're the real deal as far as what you

54:47

present, and if you don't like it,

54:49

you're still the real deal. But you

54:51

don't worry about them. There are enough people

54:53

that love what you do. Really cool, man, This

54:56

has been super fun for me. You guys

54:58

can follow Zach at Zach unders or

55:00

top on Instagram

55:02

and then Zach Top on TikTok. But

55:04

you got more TikTok followers and Instagram followers, Yes

55:07

I do. Yeah, TikTok's been good to me. It's

55:09

so funny, isn't that weird? Never one, you are

55:11

the one that TikTok has been good to. Yeah

55:13

it is goofy. It's ironic, dentim

55:16

on dnom that's right, jeans, rolled

55:18

up, mustache, wearing Aaron

55:21

Tipp and hat having Yeah, well he didn't

55:23

have had the hair hair hair hair yeah anywhere. That

55:26

sounds like the radio which is now. But this podcast

55:28

will live on in perpetuity. So whatever

55:30

you're putting out, everybody check

55:32

it out. Zach, top, Mike, anything you want to say

55:35

to Zach here.

55:35

It inspired me to grow a mustache. I've been trying for

55:37

like twenty years.

55:38

Come on, don't stop believing. I have

55:40

a hope now, don't stop believing, all right,

55:42

Zach, good to see buddy, Thank you, Bobby, thanks

55:46

for listening to a Bobby Cast production.