April 3, 2025 • 23 mins
Zach Top is the real deal among new country artists and is skyrocketing! Lorianne and Charlie get Zach's take on real country, beer on morning cereal, and lyrics that matter - minus the trendy cuss words.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, Lauren and Charlie Here Crook and Chase Nashville chats
with a new krooner in country music. Zach top Here's
a guy who will briefly let you know. Grew up
in Washington State on a family farm town of Sunnyside.
Nice place to be from. He was performing in a
(00:20):
bluegrass band at the age of seven with his siblings.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
And bars come up, well, probably dead festivals bar.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
But it was interesting because Zach always thought that music
would be just a sidebar. It came so naturally. So
he went to college thought he'd be a mechanical engineer,
until in the middle of college he was like, uh,
this is kind of boring. Music is more exciting. He
moved to Nashville and Charlie Chase. Within a couple of
(00:50):
years he has exploded.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Well, there's kind of a phenomenon thing going on here.
See I talk with a lot of these people who
book artists for shows and things like that, and they
said they've never seen anything like this in a long time,
because he has gone from zero to one hundred really quickly,
and it's tough finding dates to book the guy. He's
already booked. He's been on tours. He's doing his own headline,
(01:15):
doing this, that and the.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Other, running his own songs. Oh my gosh, I.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Think it all boils down to the music. People have
been hungry for his style of music, traditional country music.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Right and he's already he has sold out the Rhyman Auditorium,
two back to back shows, sold out in two hours.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Yeah, the whole thing.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
So no wonder this guy walked into our morning interview
drinking a beer. Hey, I mean his album in his
life philosophy is cold beer in country music. So hey,
this is how Zac Top became the hot news star
with the throwback style. This is our conversation. You know,
can I tell you something? Come on this This might
(02:00):
be a first drink. And during an interview.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Oh no, we did it with Willie.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
We were doing whiskey shots with Willie Nelson.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Definitely ago.
Speaker 4 (02:08):
Well, I'm proud to be in the company with Willie Nelson.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
We were speaking foreign languages after.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
That, Yeah, speaking tongues.
Speaker 5 (02:14):
Willie will bring that out in you.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Have you been around Willie Nelson?
Speaker 3 (02:19):
No, I've not yet.
Speaker 5 (02:20):
I'm friends with his son Lucas, but yeah, no, I've
not been around Willie. Lucas said he sent we last
year we did a bunch.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
We covered.
Speaker 5 (02:33):
Last thing I needed, first thing this morning, a bunch
and Lucas said he showed that to his dad and
he loved it and said it was great.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
So that was so Willie knows who you are.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
I guess I don't know.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Have you ever thought about what you want to ask
these people that you've idolized if you do run across them,
and you will eventually, you.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
Know, I have thought about it.
Speaker 5 (02:53):
When I get in their presence, I mostly just act
like an idiot and can't remember my own name.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
So I tell him that beforehand.
Speaker 5 (03:00):
So you're saying, Hi, Yes, I have a plan, and
I'm going to act like an idiot.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
I warned him beforehand.
Speaker 5 (03:05):
Hi, I'm Zach, I'm a big fan, I'm starstruck, and
I'm probably gonna act stupid.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
So please forgive me, and I hope we can still
be friends.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Exactly where's you look them in the eye and say
tell me something I need to know that I will
remember for the rest of my life.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
I like it. That's beautiful, isn't that great?
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (03:24):
Willie would probably just say.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Tell him something he remember.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Yes, Oh, okay, you're full of wisdom.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
I am full of wisdom.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
Yeah, and I'll tell you why.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
I'll tell you why in a minute. As much as
people are probably already pulling and pushing you, take your
space to enjoy it. Soak it in and don't let
it run by you.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
That's that's smart.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
I'm very slowly learning that.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Yes, I was say, well, and so here this is
what this brings up. Just a couple of years ago,
in this very room, Lany Wilson, who was a friend
of yours now obviously was so frustrated we were playing
her music, but hardly anybody else was because they told
her she was too country. So do you feel like
(04:22):
even before you met her, she was paving the way
for the style of music that you love and you
do today.
Speaker 5 (04:30):
Yeah, I feel like we definitely have a sort of
parallel trajectory.
Speaker 4 (04:36):
For sure.
Speaker 5 (04:37):
She's got a you know, a fresh, new, unique way
of yeah being super country, and I think I have
my own little, you know, slice of that too. And
but yeah, definitely that was like that was the first
thing in a long while. I feel like that was like,
oh my goodness, that's that's country music.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Used some confidence to keep that what you wanted to do.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Yeah, yeah, ready for my words of wisdom. Oh, I'm
always have a couzie on hand because that corse is
going to be warmly.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
Now that's wisdom you can take to the bank right there.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
And you're welcome.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Mine is a total fail.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
When when was it? Think back, when were you discovered?
And I used that term, I guess in a generalized
sense in this question when when when it clicked? What happened?
Speaker 5 (05:33):
I think there's two different things there for me when
I was discovered that made me feel like, uh, this
could be realised.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Like I played.
Speaker 5 (05:45):
And sang since I started taking guitar lessons when I
was five. I'm like, I've done this forever. And I
always kind of felt like, well, my parents have no
they have no musical background, they don't know anything, didn't
know anything about the music business when I was growing
up and stuff. Their advice always to me was to
get a good job and make enough money you can
(06:07):
afford to go play for fun on the weekends. So
that was my plan forever. And in twenty eighteen, I
had been a little bit before that. I dropped out
of school. I was going to see U Boulder to
be a mechanical engineer. I had one year left all
my degree. I decided to drop out. I want to
(06:27):
go to work, save some money, and move to Nashville
and see what I can make happen there. I didn't
know anybody. I didn't know what to do when I
got here. There was no plan. It was just kind
of like, I want to try, you know, if it's
not discovered yet.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
No, not discovered yet.
Speaker 5 (06:43):
In I dropped out of school after the spring semester
of twenty seventeen. I went to work for a construction company.
Did that all through the rest of twenty seventeen and
then early in twenty eighteen. I think it was February
of twenty eighteen. Darryl Singletary, I'm sure y'all remembered. He's
(07:03):
one of, you know, I don't know, one of the
coolest voices since like Haggard Jones.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (07:09):
Absolutely, and I was a huge fan of him. Anyway,
he passed away. I believe it was February twenty eighteen,
and I posted a cover of his song Spilled Whiskey
on My Eyes. I always loved that song, and anyway,
put a little I just I found out that he
passed away. I got home from work that day and
(07:30):
sat down in my overalls on the side of my
bed with my phone in front of me, and did
a little version of his song Spilled Whiskey. And that
was the first thing that kind of blew up for
me online. I'd been posting some videos on Facebook, and
you know, they get fifteen hundred or two thousand.
Speaker 4 (07:43):
Views or something, and there wasn't many people playing attention.
Speaker 5 (07:46):
That one blew up to a few hundred thousand views
in a couple of weeks, and there was I got
some calls and some emails from some people in Nashville,
mostly shyster types. It was like, Hey, you can come
up with twenty grand, come to town. We'll cut your
record and make you a star. I didn't know anything
about the music business, but I was pretty sure that
(08:07):
wasn't how it worked and exactly so anyways, somewhere in
that mix a couple of weeks of like my inbox
being full and my voicemails being full, I kind of
got burnt out of it. And this guy, Carson Chamberlain
emailed me. And if you know Carson for a minute,
it makes perfect sense that this is the email he
(08:29):
would send. He was just like, Hey, my name's Carson Chamberlain.
I've been in the music business a little while. I'm
not much for tooting my own horn, but you can
probably look me up if you want to give me
a call sometime.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
Here's my number. I'd like to talk about working with you.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
And no money involved. No, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
I didn't pay no attention to it.
Speaker 5 (08:48):
I'd like I'd answered a bunch of these calls, answered
a bunch of emails. I was kind of burnt out
and just like nah. And anyway, the gal that I
was dating at the time, a couple weeks after he
had sent that email, I was out on some gig.
I was playing bluegrass music at the time, and I
was out on some show. She called me and was like, hey,
you remember this Carson Chamberlain. Guy said, I don't know
(09:09):
who's that. All right, he emailed you. I'm sending you
a Wikipedia link. You need to check this guy out.
So anyway, she sent the Wikipedia link. I've seen all
this stuff where he was Keith Whitley's band leader and
steel player. Keith Whitley was one of my first favorites
as a singer, probably the biggest influence on my singing
and then you know, tour managed Alan Jackson and Clint
(09:30):
Black and was a producer on early Mark Wills hits,
Billy Currington, Easton Corman, a bunch of stuff that I
was a big fan of, and you know, a co
writer on a list of hit songs a mile long.
And that was like, dang, this is if this guy
thinks I got something, maybe I got something.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
And so we started. I called him, we talked.
Speaker 5 (09:53):
On the phone, some hit it off, became buddies first
really and then kind of started working. The fall of
twenty eighteen, I started flying into town and he'd set
up a few co writes for us. Uh. He you know,
introduced me to some business people around the industry and
he's been, you know, ever since, a big mentor to
(10:14):
me in uh in almost a second.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Father figure for the launcher.
Speaker 5 (10:20):
That was yeah, that was the first thing that kind
of yeah, got me noticed. And Carson was the first
one that was like, all right, if this guy thinks
I might have something, I might have something. And that
was kind of that felt like my first foot in
the door. That it was like, all right, I can
get out of the bluegrass thing. And because that was
that was kind of how I grew up playing, and
but my heart was always in country music and wanted
(10:41):
to wanted to do that for sure, And yeah, that
was kind of the first That's okay, maybe we can
make this happen.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Think about it. You have learned so much so fast now.
You obviously then had connections and you were put in
writing sessions with some of the guys we've known forever. Yeah,
Tim Nicol, taul Over Street, one of our good buddies. Yea,
So I mean these are the masters, so we can
understand what you get out of working with them. What
(11:12):
have they told you they get out of working with
the new guy like you?
Speaker 5 (11:18):
Yeah, I think like I came into those at least
probably for the first six months. I don't know if
I said a word in those writing sessions. You know,
I was so intimidated being in rooms with those guys,
and I felt very confident, like I'll play and sing
in front of everybody. I knew I was pretty good
at that, and but writing was kind of a new
(11:39):
thing to me. And so being in the room with yeah,
the ultimate masters of that craft, it was just like
I tried to be a sponge soak up every little
thing they did, and you know, try to pay attention
and uh and absorb that and uh slowly, you know,
kind of found my own voice too and started to contribute.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
I feel like.
Speaker 5 (12:02):
But I think what I've heard from a couple of
those guys, and I think most of them appreciate, is
like I grew up on songs that they had written,
and that was the stuff that made me fall in
love with country music. And so then for me to
come in and what comes out of me when I
(12:25):
write and sing and play is that style of old
traditional country music that all of those guys came to town
for as well.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
That's what they were in love with.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
And it's like circle for them in a way.
Speaker 5 (12:36):
Yeah, it's kind of like a revitalization of what they
came to town for too, and an opportunity to like, dang,
young people are into this again. This is you know,
as obviously it was huge in the nineties and everything
that country music had a big old boom, and then
to come around to and have you know, what I
(12:58):
would consider the the gold standard of country music kind
of to come around a little bit again and I
get to be lucky enough to be kind of the
avenue that that comes around in I think they they
get pretty excited about that.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
You're turning the Golden Age into the Platinum age, sir.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
Trying to hope.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
So, cold Beer in Country Music, that's the ultimate title.
Alternate titles.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
No, that was we wrote that song.
Speaker 5 (13:28):
That's a few years old too, But yeah, we wrote
that song as that was the first single I wanted
to put out. That was the first thing we put
out streaming platforms. That was, And I was like, I
don't know, we got to call the first album that
we got to call the first tour that we got. Heck,
I might just keep calling tours. That next one will
just be Cold Beer in Country Music two point oh,
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Well, Charlie wants to know something, and so do I
Come on, So was the beer on the cheerios just
kind of a fun thing? Or did you? You don't
really have that for breakfast, do you?
Speaker 5 (13:56):
I don't really have that for breakfast. Also, Yeah, it
was a fun thing. It's not the worst thing I've had.
I've eaten worse things.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Jack Daniels on your Coco Pops.
Speaker 4 (14:05):
No, No, that sounds like it would work too.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, Hey.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
You had a hand in writing let's go back to
the songwriting. You had a hand in writing all these songs, right,
What is you would say the most revealing, never known
before thing about you that comes out in your songwriting? Hm,
out of all these songs, something there's true, something you're
you're guilty of suffering.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
And all of them.
Speaker 5 (14:34):
Yeah, I'll say, uh, the kind of woman I like,
that's yeah, that's good.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Is good?
Speaker 2 (14:42):
We're looking for trash?
Speaker 5 (14:44):
Yeah, yeah, something revealed never before until you've wrote about it.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
In one of these songs. I use me, we will.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
That's all I'll say about that.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
Oh okay, all right, I mean a song title.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
I know, but I'm gonna have to go back and
dissect those lyrics then to try to figure that's out.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
I'll get back. Don't dissect him too much.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
That's ok.
Speaker 4 (15:04):
It's not a proud moment.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
But in every song there, oh yeah.
Speaker 5 (15:09):
Every song, for sure, you gotta find I feel like
that's kind of the art of songwriting is taking some
piece of a very real, lived experience, putting that into
a good idea, and writing about it in a way
that's not too specific an introspective, a way that's universal
(15:31):
in like appealing to everybody. Because there's you know, we
all share a pretty common lived experience. There's love, and
there's loss, and there's heartache, and there's fun and there's party.
You know, like we all experience a lot of the
same things. So you got to take uh, yeah, a
very intimate experience that you had that probably a lot
(15:54):
of other people have had a similar experience, and put
it into universal language that everybody can relate with. And
the intimate, like personal part of it, I feel like,
is what makes what puts the soul and the feeling
and the truth into a song, and then the universal
language of it is what lets everybody else live through
(16:16):
that song too.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
It's like, yeah, I felt that too.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Man, you've earned a different kind of degree, haven't you.
Don't you have to in a way in order to
relate to people on this deep level that you're talking about,
you have to be a psychologist in a way, do
you think a little bit.
Speaker 5 (16:34):
I don't know if I am a psychologist. I've talked
to him before, but I don't know if I am one.
But no, it's I would say, you know, that's one
of my favorite things about music. If I'm just going
to go listen to music, you know, pull up an
old dang Marl Haggard song or something that dude knew
how to put feelings into wards like no other you know.
(16:57):
And there's a bunch of great ones Hank Cockran, Ordy Schaeffer,
Dean Dealing or whatever. Some of the guys I Mark Nesler,
Tim Nichols, they Paul over Street, they know how to
put that do just what I was saying. Take that personal, deep,
you know, feeling, and put it into language that everybody
(17:18):
else gets to say.
Speaker 4 (17:19):
Yeah, that that's what I was feeling.
Speaker 5 (17:21):
I didn't know how to say it, but that song
makes people feel understood or seen.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
All right. The current single is I Never.
Speaker 4 (17:30):
Lie, which is a lie.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
So what's the girls? So give me one truthful line
out of I don't lie, I never lie.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
There aren't any. I can't think of one in that
song because it's all Yeah, every line is a lie.
Speaker 4 (17:58):
Yeah, so you did good the whole thing.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Yeah about the whole song.
Speaker 4 (18:02):
Yeah, the whole thing is a lie. That's the point
of a charge.
Speaker 5 (18:07):
I don't sleep, I do drink whiskey.
Speaker 4 (18:12):
I've showed up late for work before.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
It's it's all lies. It's one of my favorites.
Speaker 5 (18:19):
I'm a really sarcastic person by nature, and so those
are some of my favorite, like, you know, old songs
that I grew up on. That's some of my favorite stuff.
Is like to take it's a very sad song. It's
you know, it's it's a hurtful song. Yeah, but to
like put that sense of humor in it, and the
whole thing is sarcastic, and the whole thing is.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
A lie sad song. You gotta smile on your face.
Speaker 5 (18:40):
Yeah, yeah, it's I don't know. Something about that just
tickles me.
Speaker 4 (18:44):
It's yeah, it's I don't know what I say.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
It hurts so good, Yeah, exactly exactly, it's so Goodlie.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Did your work construction here?
Speaker 3 (18:52):
Yeah? I did.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
Is there anything standing that will take a good breeze
right now that you were involved in?
Speaker 5 (18:57):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, there's a house on the market
up north of Nashville and the Whites Creek area.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
That's what was your specialty besides showing up on time?
Speaker 4 (19:07):
Besides showing up on time?
Speaker 2 (19:09):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
I did a little bit of everything.
Speaker 4 (19:12):
I started out, I worked for a deck.
Speaker 5 (19:14):
Building company back in Colorado. That was my first job.
When I dropped out of school, but I did a
little bit of everything. I loved doing finished carpentry, like
some of the finer stuff, making.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
It look really pretty.
Speaker 5 (19:25):
I loved, you know, framing a house too that's cut
some rafters that come together just right, and yeah, I
loved it.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
You're a detail guy, which is which is really an
asset in this business. That's working for you here as well.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Yeah, I think so. Yeah, how do you think you
learned the most about nineties country? How did you educate
yourself on that?
Speaker 5 (19:44):
Well, I grew up on the same stuff that the
nineties guys grew up on. I think the nineties stuff
was the first thing that kind of caught my ear
as a little kid.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
And made me delve deeper into it.
Speaker 5 (19:57):
But then, like as I started playing and singing and
taking seriously and trying to get better at it, I
went way back deeper than ninety stuff. I was listening to,
you know, well everybody else was listening to Katie Perry
and Kesha and you know, stuff like that on the radio.
I had George Jones box sets on my CD player
in my room, and I was my parents had like
(20:18):
a remember those it looks like a briefcase but opens
up and there's a bunch.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Of slots for cassette tapes.
Speaker 5 (20:24):
They were one of those in the basement, and a
tape player machine too, and I would take them tapes
at one by one, stick them in that machine and
sit there in front of it with my guitar and
try and learn every song was everything when there was
Dan Seal's stuff, Leroy Parnell, a bunch of George Strait stuff,
Sam Alan Jackson, you know, and there was some like
I don't know, classic eighties rock and stuff like that too.
(20:45):
And that was the first place I heard that Don't
Close Your Eyes album. They had that on tape from
Keith Whitley. But I think that's kind of how I
arrived at who I am today. The sound that I
put out today is, you know, obviously very sonically reminiscent
of a lot of the nineties guys because I grew
(21:06):
up on and was influenced by the exact same guys
that they were.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
I'm so glad, and as we wrap, I will say this,
thank you for a couple of things. For singing with
passion and with your soul but not screaming at us.
And the fact that we can understand every single word
that you sing.
Speaker 4 (21:26):
I have Marie Parks to thank for that.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
Music teacher. She beat that into me and my siblings.
Speaker 5 (21:36):
We were, you know, had a little family bluegrass band
and stuff, real little and she it was always it
was like she was teaching us breathing technique and then
enunciate your words. You gotta have people understand what you're saying.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
The trend.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
Now, how many times, Charlie Chase do I call you
and say, I'm listening to this new single. I'm listening
to the new album. I can't even tell what it's about.
I've got to put my ear up to the speaker
and try to figure out what the words are. Like,
what's the use of writing great songs like you do
If we can't get it, we can't understand anyway.
Speaker 4 (22:10):
Thanks you appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
I forgot to cuss words too, I forgot to cuss.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
I get it.
Speaker 5 (22:18):
I get a damn or a hell in there every
now and then, but for the most part we keep
it pretty clean.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
Thanks for your time. Man.
Speaker 4 (22:25):
Absolutely, the first time.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
We heard in one of your songs, we're going to
wash your mouth out with so personally.
Speaker 5 (22:31):
Try and beat my mom to it because she will too.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
You know, my mom always threatened me with that too,
wash your.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Mouth out, So it's like that movie A Christmas Story. Yeah,
I just put big old bar soap in his mouth.
But no, no, what a really great guy. And I
just love the fact that he is so in tune
with the core of what country music always has been
and what is it still is today.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
And by the way, just to be on his side,
maybe he was having a beer late morning, but that's
okay because he'd been up really early and to him
it was like five o'clock.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
That's what it is, right, rhythms.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
And you know, his latest single is on ever Live.
But he does and I just wanted to point that out. No,
he does know O.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
Listen the Great Zach Top one of our newest stars
in country music. Hey, we have Zach and all of
your country covered. Listen to the Crook and Chase Countdown
every weekend on hundreds of radio stations across America, also
streaming on iHeartRadio
Speaker 2 (23:32):
And follow us on Facebook x Instagram at Crook and
Chase
Hello, Lauren and Charlie Here Crook and Chase Nashville chats
with a new krooner in country music. Zach top Here's
a guy who will briefly let you know. Grew up
in Washington State on a family farm town of Sunnyside.
Nice place to be from. He was performing in a
(00:20):
bluegrass band at the age of seven with his siblings.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
And bars come up, well, probably dead festivals bar.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
But it was interesting because Zach always thought that music
would be just a sidebar. It came so naturally. So
he went to college thought he'd be a mechanical engineer,
until in the middle of college he was like, uh,
this is kind of boring. Music is more exciting. He
moved to Nashville and Charlie Chase. Within a couple of
(00:50):
years he has exploded.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Well, there's kind of a phenomenon thing going on here.
See I talk with a lot of these people who
book artists for shows and things like that, and they
said they've never seen anything like this in a long time,
because he has gone from zero to one hundred really quickly,
and it's tough finding dates to book the guy. He's
already booked. He's been on tours. He's doing his own headline,
(01:15):
doing this, that and the.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Other, running his own songs. Oh my gosh, I.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Think it all boils down to the music. People have
been hungry for his style of music, traditional country music.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Right and he's already he has sold out the Rhyman Auditorium,
two back to back shows, sold out in two hours.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Yeah, the whole thing.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
So no wonder this guy walked into our morning interview
drinking a beer. Hey, I mean his album in his
life philosophy is cold beer in country music. So hey,
this is how Zac Top became the hot news star
with the throwback style. This is our conversation. You know,
can I tell you something? Come on this This might
(02:00):
be a first drink. And during an interview.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Oh no, we did it with Willie.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
We were doing whiskey shots with Willie Nelson.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Definitely ago.
Speaker 4 (02:08):
Well, I'm proud to be in the company with Willie Nelson.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
We were speaking foreign languages after.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
That, Yeah, speaking tongues.
Speaker 5 (02:14):
Willie will bring that out in you.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Have you been around Willie Nelson?
Speaker 3 (02:19):
No, I've not yet.
Speaker 5 (02:20):
I'm friends with his son Lucas, but yeah, no, I've
not been around Willie. Lucas said he sent we last
year we did a bunch.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
We covered.
Speaker 5 (02:33):
Last thing I needed, first thing this morning, a bunch
and Lucas said he showed that to his dad and
he loved it and said it was great.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
So that was so Willie knows who you are.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
I guess I don't know.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Have you ever thought about what you want to ask
these people that you've idolized if you do run across them,
and you will eventually, you.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
Know, I have thought about it.
Speaker 5 (02:53):
When I get in their presence, I mostly just act
like an idiot and can't remember my own name.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
So I tell him that beforehand.
Speaker 5 (03:00):
So you're saying, Hi, Yes, I have a plan, and
I'm going to act like an idiot.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
I warned him beforehand.
Speaker 5 (03:05):
Hi, I'm Zach, I'm a big fan, I'm starstruck, and
I'm probably gonna act stupid.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
So please forgive me, and I hope we can still
be friends.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Exactly where's you look them in the eye and say
tell me something I need to know that I will
remember for the rest of my life.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
I like it. That's beautiful, isn't that great?
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (03:24):
Willie would probably just say.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Tell him something he remember.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Yes, Oh, okay, you're full of wisdom.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
I am full of wisdom.
Speaker 3 (03:36):
Yeah, and I'll tell you why.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
I'll tell you why in a minute. As much as
people are probably already pulling and pushing you, take your
space to enjoy it. Soak it in and don't let
it run by you.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
That's that's smart.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
I'm very slowly learning that.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Yes, I was say, well, and so here this is
what this brings up. Just a couple of years ago,
in this very room, Lany Wilson, who was a friend
of yours now obviously was so frustrated we were playing
her music, but hardly anybody else was because they told
her she was too country. So do you feel like
(04:22):
even before you met her, she was paving the way
for the style of music that you love and you
do today.
Speaker 5 (04:30):
Yeah, I feel like we definitely have a sort of
parallel trajectory.
Speaker 4 (04:36):
For sure.
Speaker 5 (04:37):
She's got a you know, a fresh, new, unique way
of yeah being super country, and I think I have
my own little, you know, slice of that too. And
but yeah, definitely that was like that was the first
thing in a long while. I feel like that was like,
oh my goodness, that's that's country music.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Used some confidence to keep that what you wanted to do.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Yeah, yeah, ready for my words of wisdom. Oh, I'm
always have a couzie on hand because that corse is
going to be warmly.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
Now that's wisdom you can take to the bank right there.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
And you're welcome.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Mine is a total fail.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
When when was it? Think back, when were you discovered?
And I used that term, I guess in a generalized
sense in this question when when when it clicked? What happened?
Speaker 5 (05:33):
I think there's two different things there for me when
I was discovered that made me feel like, uh, this
could be realised.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Like I played.
Speaker 5 (05:45):
And sang since I started taking guitar lessons when I
was five. I'm like, I've done this forever. And I
always kind of felt like, well, my parents have no
they have no musical background, they don't know anything, didn't
know anything about the music business when I was growing
up and stuff. Their advice always to me was to
get a good job and make enough money you can
(06:07):
afford to go play for fun on the weekends. So
that was my plan forever. And in twenty eighteen, I
had been a little bit before that. I dropped out
of school. I was going to see U Boulder to
be a mechanical engineer. I had one year left all
my degree. I decided to drop out. I want to
(06:27):
go to work, save some money, and move to Nashville
and see what I can make happen there. I didn't
know anybody. I didn't know what to do when I
got here. There was no plan. It was just kind
of like, I want to try, you know, if it's
not discovered yet.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
No, not discovered yet.
Speaker 5 (06:43):
In I dropped out of school after the spring semester
of twenty seventeen. I went to work for a construction company.
Did that all through the rest of twenty seventeen and
then early in twenty eighteen. I think it was February
of twenty eighteen. Darryl Singletary, I'm sure y'all remembered. He's
(07:03):
one of, you know, I don't know, one of the
coolest voices since like Haggard Jones.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (07:09):
Absolutely, and I was a huge fan of him. Anyway,
he passed away. I believe it was February twenty eighteen,
and I posted a cover of his song Spilled Whiskey
on My Eyes. I always loved that song, and anyway,
put a little I just I found out that he
passed away. I got home from work that day and
(07:30):
sat down in my overalls on the side of my
bed with my phone in front of me, and did
a little version of his song Spilled Whiskey. And that
was the first thing that kind of blew up for
me online. I'd been posting some videos on Facebook, and
you know, they get fifteen hundred or two thousand.
Speaker 4 (07:43):
Views or something, and there wasn't many people playing attention.
Speaker 5 (07:46):
That one blew up to a few hundred thousand views
in a couple of weeks, and there was I got
some calls and some emails from some people in Nashville,
mostly shyster types. It was like, Hey, you can come
up with twenty grand, come to town. We'll cut your
record and make you a star. I didn't know anything
about the music business, but I was pretty sure that
(08:07):
wasn't how it worked and exactly so anyways, somewhere in
that mix a couple of weeks of like my inbox
being full and my voicemails being full, I kind of
got burnt out of it. And this guy, Carson Chamberlain
emailed me. And if you know Carson for a minute,
it makes perfect sense that this is the email he
(08:29):
would send. He was just like, Hey, my name's Carson Chamberlain.
I've been in the music business a little while. I'm
not much for tooting my own horn, but you can
probably look me up if you want to give me
a call sometime.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
Here's my number. I'd like to talk about working with you.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
And no money involved. No, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
I didn't pay no attention to it.
Speaker 5 (08:48):
I'd like I'd answered a bunch of these calls, answered
a bunch of emails. I was kind of burnt out
and just like nah. And anyway, the gal that I
was dating at the time, a couple weeks after he
had sent that email, I was out on some gig.
I was playing bluegrass music at the time, and I
was out on some show. She called me and was like, hey,
you remember this Carson Chamberlain. Guy said, I don't know
(09:09):
who's that. All right, he emailed you. I'm sending you
a Wikipedia link. You need to check this guy out.
So anyway, she sent the Wikipedia link. I've seen all
this stuff where he was Keith Whitley's band leader and
steel player. Keith Whitley was one of my first favorites
as a singer, probably the biggest influence on my singing
and then you know, tour managed Alan Jackson and Clint
(09:30):
Black and was a producer on early Mark Wills hits,
Billy Currington, Easton Corman, a bunch of stuff that I
was a big fan of, and you know, a co
writer on a list of hit songs a mile long.
And that was like, dang, this is if this guy
thinks I got something, maybe I got something.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
And so we started. I called him, we talked.
Speaker 5 (09:53):
On the phone, some hit it off, became buddies first
really and then kind of started working. The fall of
twenty eighteen, I started flying into town and he'd set
up a few co writes for us. Uh. He you know,
introduced me to some business people around the industry and
he's been, you know, ever since, a big mentor to
(10:14):
me in uh in almost a second.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Father figure for the launcher.
Speaker 5 (10:20):
That was yeah, that was the first thing that kind
of yeah, got me noticed. And Carson was the first
one that was like, all right, if this guy thinks
I might have something, I might have something. And that
was kind of that felt like my first foot in
the door. That it was like, all right, I can
get out of the bluegrass thing. And because that was
that was kind of how I grew up playing, and
but my heart was always in country music and wanted
(10:41):
to wanted to do that for sure, And yeah, that
was kind of the first That's okay, maybe we can
make this happen.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Think about it. You have learned so much so fast now.
You obviously then had connections and you were put in
writing sessions with some of the guys we've known forever. Yeah,
Tim Nicol, taul Over Street, one of our good buddies. Yea,
So I mean these are the masters, so we can
understand what you get out of working with them. What
(11:12):
have they told you they get out of working with
the new guy like you?
Speaker 5 (11:18):
Yeah, I think like I came into those at least
probably for the first six months. I don't know if
I said a word in those writing sessions. You know,
I was so intimidated being in rooms with those guys,
and I felt very confident, like I'll play and sing
in front of everybody. I knew I was pretty good
at that, and but writing was kind of a new
(11:39):
thing to me. And so being in the room with yeah,
the ultimate masters of that craft, it was just like
I tried to be a sponge soak up every little
thing they did, and you know, try to pay attention
and uh and absorb that and uh slowly, you know,
kind of found my own voice too and started to contribute.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
I feel like.
Speaker 5 (12:02):
But I think what I've heard from a couple of
those guys, and I think most of them appreciate, is
like I grew up on songs that they had written,
and that was the stuff that made me fall in
love with country music. And so then for me to
come in and what comes out of me when I
(12:25):
write and sing and play is that style of old
traditional country music that all of those guys came to town
for as well.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
That's what they were in love with.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
And it's like circle for them in a way.
Speaker 5 (12:36):
Yeah, it's kind of like a revitalization of what they
came to town for too, and an opportunity to like, dang,
young people are into this again. This is you know,
as obviously it was huge in the nineties and everything
that country music had a big old boom, and then
to come around to and have you know, what I
(12:58):
would consider the the gold standard of country music kind
of to come around a little bit again and I
get to be lucky enough to be kind of the
avenue that that comes around in I think they they
get pretty excited about that.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
You're turning the Golden Age into the Platinum age, sir.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
Trying to hope.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
So, cold Beer in Country Music, that's the ultimate title.
Alternate titles.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
No, that was we wrote that song.
Speaker 5 (13:28):
That's a few years old too, But yeah, we wrote
that song as that was the first single I wanted
to put out. That was the first thing we put
out streaming platforms. That was, And I was like, I
don't know, we got to call the first album that
we got to call the first tour that we got. Heck,
I might just keep calling tours. That next one will
just be Cold Beer in Country Music two point oh,
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Well, Charlie wants to know something, and so do I
Come on, So was the beer on the cheerios just
kind of a fun thing? Or did you? You don't
really have that for breakfast, do you?
Speaker 5 (13:56):
I don't really have that for breakfast. Also, Yeah, it
was a fun thing. It's not the worst thing I've had.
I've eaten worse things.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Jack Daniels on your Coco Pops.
Speaker 4 (14:05):
No, No, that sounds like it would work too.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, Hey.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
You had a hand in writing let's go back to
the songwriting. You had a hand in writing all these songs, right,
What is you would say the most revealing, never known
before thing about you that comes out in your songwriting? Hm,
out of all these songs, something there's true, something you're
you're guilty of suffering.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
And all of them.
Speaker 5 (14:34):
Yeah, I'll say, uh, the kind of woman I like,
that's yeah, that's good.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Is good?
Speaker 2 (14:42):
We're looking for trash?
Speaker 5 (14:44):
Yeah, yeah, something revealed never before until you've wrote about it.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
In one of these songs. I use me, we will.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
That's all I'll say about that.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
Oh okay, all right, I mean a song title.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
I know, but I'm gonna have to go back and
dissect those lyrics then to try to figure that's out.
Speaker 3 (15:01):
I'll get back. Don't dissect him too much.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
That's ok.
Speaker 4 (15:04):
It's not a proud moment.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
But in every song there, oh yeah.
Speaker 5 (15:09):
Every song, for sure, you gotta find I feel like
that's kind of the art of songwriting is taking some
piece of a very real, lived experience, putting that into
a good idea, and writing about it in a way
that's not too specific an introspective, a way that's universal
(15:31):
in like appealing to everybody. Because there's you know, we
all share a pretty common lived experience. There's love, and
there's loss, and there's heartache, and there's fun and there's party.
You know, like we all experience a lot of the
same things. So you got to take uh, yeah, a
very intimate experience that you had that probably a lot
(15:54):
of other people have had a similar experience, and put
it into universal language that everybody can relate with. And
the intimate, like personal part of it, I feel like,
is what makes what puts the soul and the feeling
and the truth into a song, and then the universal
language of it is what lets everybody else live through
(16:16):
that song too.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
It's like, yeah, I felt that too.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Man, you've earned a different kind of degree, haven't you.
Don't you have to in a way in order to
relate to people on this deep level that you're talking about,
you have to be a psychologist in a way, do
you think a little bit.
Speaker 5 (16:34):
I don't know if I am a psychologist. I've talked
to him before, but I don't know if I am one.
But no, it's I would say, you know, that's one
of my favorite things about music. If I'm just going
to go listen to music, you know, pull up an
old dang Marl Haggard song or something that dude knew
how to put feelings into wards like no other you know.
(16:57):
And there's a bunch of great ones Hank Cockran, Ordy Schaeffer,
Dean Dealing or whatever. Some of the guys I Mark Nesler,
Tim Nichols, they Paul over Street, they know how to
put that do just what I was saying. Take that personal, deep,
you know, feeling, and put it into language that everybody
(17:18):
else gets to say.
Speaker 4 (17:19):
Yeah, that that's what I was feeling.
Speaker 5 (17:21):
I didn't know how to say it, but that song
makes people feel understood or seen.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
All right. The current single is I Never.
Speaker 4 (17:30):
Lie, which is a lie.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
So what's the girls? So give me one truthful line
out of I don't lie, I never lie.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
There aren't any. I can't think of one in that
song because it's all Yeah, every line is a lie.
Speaker 4 (17:58):
Yeah, so you did good the whole thing.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Yeah about the whole song.
Speaker 4 (18:02):
Yeah, the whole thing is a lie. That's the point
of a charge.
Speaker 5 (18:07):
I don't sleep, I do drink whiskey.
Speaker 4 (18:12):
I've showed up late for work before.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
It's it's all lies. It's one of my favorites.
Speaker 5 (18:19):
I'm a really sarcastic person by nature, and so those
are some of my favorite, like, you know, old songs
that I grew up on. That's some of my favorite stuff.
Is like to take it's a very sad song. It's
you know, it's it's a hurtful song. Yeah, but to
like put that sense of humor in it, and the
whole thing is sarcastic, and the whole thing is.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
A lie sad song. You gotta smile on your face.
Speaker 5 (18:40):
Yeah, yeah, it's I don't know. Something about that just
tickles me.
Speaker 4 (18:44):
It's yeah, it's I don't know what I say.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
It hurts so good, Yeah, exactly exactly, it's so Goodlie.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Did your work construction here?
Speaker 3 (18:52):
Yeah? I did.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
Is there anything standing that will take a good breeze
right now that you were involved in?
Speaker 5 (18:57):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, there's a house on the market
up north of Nashville and the Whites Creek area.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
That's what was your specialty besides showing up on time?
Speaker 4 (19:07):
Besides showing up on time?
Speaker 2 (19:09):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
I did a little bit of everything.
Speaker 4 (19:12):
I started out, I worked for a deck.
Speaker 5 (19:14):
Building company back in Colorado. That was my first job.
When I dropped out of school, but I did a
little bit of everything. I loved doing finished carpentry, like
some of the finer stuff, making.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
It look really pretty.
Speaker 5 (19:25):
I loved, you know, framing a house too that's cut
some rafters that come together just right, and yeah, I
loved it.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
You're a detail guy, which is which is really an
asset in this business. That's working for you here as well.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Yeah, I think so. Yeah, how do you think you
learned the most about nineties country? How did you educate
yourself on that?
Speaker 5 (19:44):
Well, I grew up on the same stuff that the
nineties guys grew up on. I think the nineties stuff
was the first thing that kind of caught my ear
as a little kid.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
And made me delve deeper into it.
Speaker 5 (19:57):
But then, like as I started playing and singing and
taking seriously and trying to get better at it, I
went way back deeper than ninety stuff. I was listening to,
you know, well everybody else was listening to Katie Perry
and Kesha and you know, stuff like that on the radio.
I had George Jones box sets on my CD player
in my room, and I was my parents had like
(20:18):
a remember those it looks like a briefcase but opens
up and there's a bunch.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Of slots for cassette tapes.
Speaker 5 (20:24):
They were one of those in the basement, and a
tape player machine too, and I would take them tapes
at one by one, stick them in that machine and
sit there in front of it with my guitar and
try and learn every song was everything when there was
Dan Seal's stuff, Leroy Parnell, a bunch of George Strait stuff,
Sam Alan Jackson, you know, and there was some like
I don't know, classic eighties rock and stuff like that too.
(20:45):
And that was the first place I heard that Don't
Close Your Eyes album. They had that on tape from
Keith Whitley. But I think that's kind of how I
arrived at who I am today. The sound that I
put out today is, you know, obviously very sonically reminiscent
of a lot of the nineties guys because I grew
(21:06):
up on and was influenced by the exact same guys
that they were.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
I'm so glad, and as we wrap, I will say this,
thank you for a couple of things. For singing with
passion and with your soul but not screaming at us.
And the fact that we can understand every single word
that you sing.
Speaker 4 (21:26):
I have Marie Parks to thank for that.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
Music teacher. She beat that into me and my siblings.
Speaker 5 (21:36):
We were, you know, had a little family bluegrass band
and stuff, real little and she it was always it
was like she was teaching us breathing technique and then
enunciate your words. You gotta have people understand what you're saying.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
The trend.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
Now, how many times, Charlie Chase do I call you
and say, I'm listening to this new single. I'm listening
to the new album. I can't even tell what it's about.
I've got to put my ear up to the speaker
and try to figure out what the words are. Like,
what's the use of writing great songs like you do
If we can't get it, we can't understand anyway.
Speaker 4 (22:10):
Thanks you appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
I forgot to cuss words too, I forgot to cuss.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
I get it.
Speaker 5 (22:18):
I get a damn or a hell in there every
now and then, but for the most part we keep
it pretty clean.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
Thanks for your time. Man.
Speaker 4 (22:25):
Absolutely, the first time.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
We heard in one of your songs, we're going to
wash your mouth out with so personally.
Speaker 5 (22:31):
Try and beat my mom to it because she will too.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
You know, my mom always threatened me with that too,
wash your.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Mouth out, So it's like that movie A Christmas Story. Yeah,
I just put big old bar soap in his mouth.
But no, no, what a really great guy. And I
just love the fact that he is so in tune
with the core of what country music always has been
and what is it still is today.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
And by the way, just to be on his side,
maybe he was having a beer late morning, but that's
okay because he'd been up really early and to him
it was like five o'clock.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
That's what it is, right, rhythms.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
And you know, his latest single is on ever Live.
But he does and I just wanted to point that out. No,
he does know O.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
Listen the Great Zach Top one of our newest stars
in country music. Hey, we have Zach and all of
your country covered. Listen to the Crook and Chase Countdown
every weekend on hundreds of radio stations across America, also
streaming on iHeartRadio
Speaker 2 (23:32):
And follow us on Facebook x Instagram at Crook and
Chase
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