Kelce Tahoe Tales, Zac Brown on Sphere Residency, His New Album and Why We’re Pro-Nagging | EP 148

27:12Like what motivates you? How has your wife and or significant other gotten you to do something without nagging? My name is Audra. I am 30 from Washington. Would love to hear how you guys have handled that. All right. The flag goes fly. Let's go. from Washington. Yeah, there we go. I'll say this. I think that what I respond to really well is nagging. Please nag the fuck out of me. Tell me to get my lazy ass up and take the goddamn trash out. I don't like, if you tell me to take the trash out, I'm not gonna be like, oh, I can't believe she's telling me to take the trash out. I'm like, yeah, you're right.

27:55I should be doing that. Okay, I'm sorry. I like the nagging and I need it because I get caught in my own thoughts and I forget to do things. I'm like, Oh, I'll get that later. I'll go do this. I'll do it in an hour. I'll do it in two hours. It's the Kelsey way. We're thinking, we think a lot about shit that kind of doesn't really matter. But in our mind, uh, we wander, we wander into possibilities. And I am constantly telling Kyla, please like, just tell me to do these things. And she's like, Jason, I don't want to tell you to do these things. And I'm like, I get that. I'm just like, you know, it's not going to get done unless you tell me to do it.

28:27Like, if you're like, Jason, I got a bunch of trash bags. Can you please take them out? I'll take the trash out and I will have zero like I can't believe she's making me do this I'll be like thank you okay yep you're right I should go do this so I am pro nagging I think nagging is a great thing to do if you're have a like a spouse that is against nagging of things that he should be doing you probably you got a shitty husband I'm I don't know what you want me to say like if if he's already had things that he's supposed to be doing and he's not doing them he's the issue You tell him to do his fucking job.

29:00I like coaching. I've been coaching my whole life. I want people to tell me, otherwise, I need that. I need that coaching. I need, I should be better. We're coachable guys. I acknowledge Jason should understand when there's full trash bags on the fucking kitchen floor that I'm supposed to pick them up and take them outside. But sometimes Jason says, I'll get to that later. I'll get that in a couple minutes, which is not right. If you have a spouse that is, you know, grew up on sports, a big, you know, big believer in being coached, just get a whistle. Get a whistle. Snap him out of his fucking, his thought process.

29:37I kind of like this idea. Everybody knows a whistle in like somewhere like a house is like an alarming thing. Like, what the fuck is this? It's like, yo, trash. Yeah. I told you about three times, son. get your ass over there and get the trash yeah and a lot of times just the first time if you just tell me it's there that's the the cue to me of like okay jason do your fucking job take this goddamn trash out yeah that's not your job as a spouse at all get a whistle i wouldn't be worried about being nagging now if you're nagging about things that you shouldn't be nagging about then yeah that could probably get a little annoying to the husband but if it's this is things that he or boyfriend or whoever you got going on or i don't know what what your situation is lady but i think that i mean i don't think it's nagging when you just remind somebody that they should be doing something i i say this though i have never ever and i will never ever tell cali to do something around the house because it's like i don't know she does enough so it's like yeah if something doesn't get done it's like yeah well i should be helping out on this tell me what i can do because i am worthless unless you tell me that oh man that was great thank you thank Thank you for that call.

30:47Get a whistle. I like this whistle idea. I really do. I'm going to get Kylie a whistle. I'm going to start getting it for my kids, too. These were like... The girls have just used it as a toy. They'll be like, oh, nice. We are allowed to make obnoxious noises in the house. That's what I will know. I'll shut that down real quick, too. But they're so bad. Like, ADHD, right? Our whole, like, the way TV is set up, games, all this stuff. It's set up to like, these kids are on like crack nine times, like all day. They're just like, boom, boom, boom. They're eating sugar all day. You know how many times I have to tell them when I'm talking to them, look at me.

31:24And they'll look at me for a second and I'll start talking to them. They'll start to avert their eyes. I'm like, right here. Look right here. Do not look away. I am fucking talking to you. Stop it. Stop this right now. I am too. If these little shits, I don't know. I don't know what kind of medication they're giving these kids today. I'm giving them the Ed Kelsey medication look at my goddamn eyes when I'm talking to you boom lock in stop hitting your sister you hear me you do it again you're going on the stairs alright where we at I don't know where we went with that one thank you for that that does it for Heights Hotline brought to you by Audible and let's get to our convo with the man the myth the legend Zach Brown baby yeah baby Our guest today is from Lumpkin County High School in Georgia.

32:20He's a two-time Academy of Country Music Award winner. Two-time. A four-time CMT Award winner and a three-time Grammy Award winner. Best new artist, country collaboration with vocals, and best country album. Yes, sir. You know him from his hits Colder Weather, Toes, Knee Deep, a little bit of Chicken Fried. I just call it Chicken Fried. I don't know why it's in there. Is that it? 90 % of us, please welcome from the Zach Brown band, Zach Brown himself. Yeah, baby, we got him. We got him. Thank you, fellas. My dog. It's so exciting to have you on. Likewise. Thank you, brother. Appreciate you giving us the time, man.

33:00And a football guy. Yes, sir. You forgot to throw that in. I'm a football guy. That's right. Can you let the people know that don't know the story of your football journey and how you got into music real quick? Yeah, for sure, man. I started playing football when I was five, like Pop Warner Leagues. Damn. Oh, yeah. Down there in Georgia. I played 11 years until I moved up to Dahlonega. You know, I played in South Forsyth and Mashburn growing up. And then, like, one of my favorite movies of all time is The Waterboy. Come on now. Yeah. Come on now. So when I moved from South Forsyth up to Lumpkin County and started playing ball there.

33:41Like South Forsyth had like great facilities, great everything. When we moved up to Dahlonega, man, it was like the water boy. It was like, there was no grass, no grass on the field. Like you're running in dirt clay, you know, dirt devils, like running laps. Oh gosh. And so I only did that for a couple of years in that kind of scenario. But, you know, as far as music goes, man, music was my first love. I was like two, three years old, like hearing jingles on tv singing along with everything i was the kid that everybody was like my brothers were like shut up stop singing you know and then i started playing guitar when i was about seven and i carried my guitar every day as school with me every day to football practice but it was great because when i got into when i got into high school you know i'd sit around and play for the guys and that kept them from like rubbing being gay on my balls and stuff too everybody everybody else that was freshmen getting hazed but i can play some k floyd and sit around with him and so it kind of kept me out of trouble that's epic man it's actually killer we gotta we gotta hang out with this guy more that's awesome no we gotta keep him happy we gotta keep him happy you know what i'm saying we gotta keep him happy keep him real comfortable dude that's absolutely epic yeah yeah did you start on guitar is that the first instrument you took to that's the first one yeah i mean i was about seven and i was just found my love man and anywhere i was if i had my guitar in my hands i was at home i was comfortable hell yeah the guitar has been a really good you know friend to me for a lot of years my dad played a little guitar like around the campfire I would go to hunting camp with him and his buddies on the weekends every other weekend during hunting season and then my brother was 21 years older than me my dad my dad was older when he had me I was like the last hoorah but my oldest brother was 21 years older right there and he uh he got me into like 70s music and got me into bluegrass and like so all of that like Big singer-songwriter era from the 70s, like James Taylor, Jim Croce.

35:40Oh, hell yes. So cool, man. Dan Fogelberg, Gordon Lightfoot, like to the Eagles, to Pink Floyd, to the Allman Brothers, to Steve Miller Band. Oh, yeah, Pops has some taste. I wanted to say this. I mean, I'm a huge fan of your music. I'm a huge fan of your albums and the music that you've went and done. But one of the things I love about going to one of your shows, to be honest with you, is that love of music really comes across. At each one of your shows that you do live, you have different musicians come out with you guys. You're doing songs that I've never heard. It's the best, man. You can tell that you guys are actual lovers of all these genres.

36:16It ain't just country. It ain't just this specific spot. You're very, very talented, man. Pulling in covers from left and right. And everybody gets a chance to be the lead singer and have the moment, man. It's so cool. It's one of my favorite shows to tell people to go and see, man. And actually, I think I think that leads us into our next segment, a little new news. OK. All right. Good transition. There's a good transition right into this because you got you got a new gig out in Vegas that we want to talk about. But we start off every new news segment by hitting everybody with the new news call.

36:49It's not going to go well. This is not going to happen. This isn't going to go well. But Jason usually starts it off. Then I hit it and then our guest hits it. All right. we have tried to harmonize Travis and I we cannot harmonize to save our asses we can

37:07he's the only music talent in the family there is a bit of like a delay so you're the musical expert normally we'll hit it with like a new news is like the melody of the chime what is the best way to try and harmonize this if we were going to try and do it alright so if you want to get a triad which is a three notes in a chord that harmonize. It's something like this. It's like one. So whatever you end on the last note. So one, three, five. So if one of us is holding down the one, one's holding the three, one's holding the five, we're going to have some three-part harmony. All right. I'll be the one.

37:42You just made that sound so much. You hit me the one. What's the one? What am I hitting it? So if we went like new news and the next would be new news and then new news. You got to hold out whoever's holding out that first one. So you hold out the first one. Yep. And then I'm going to tell you what your part is. And then you sing the second one and hold it down. And then I'll jump up on the fifth. All right. I'm going to fill up with air. I got a big okay. All right. Let's see if we can do it. Come on. Okay. New news. New news. New news. That's it. Oh, we did it. Yay. You did it. I found that as well.

38:16Hey, that was good. That's what I'm talking about. Travis is right on the third, man. He's got an ear too, man. That's good. Come on now. I got a little pitch, baby. Let's go. I just needed somebody to actually help me out with that. That was fun, man. Thank you for that, dude. An actually good musician to help me out. Exactly. Not your brother. All right. Well, let's get into the new news. Jason, go ahead and hit them. So the new news is, Zach, you're starting your Love and Fear residency at The Sphere in Las Vegas. The first two weekends of December 2025, as well as you guys have a new album coming out, Love and Fear, which is going to release night one of The Sphere residency.

38:53Ooh. Woo, baby. Wow. And all this is announcing July 15th. Am I correct? Yes, sir. That's right. Perfect, perfect. Dude, congratulations. This is epic. Thank you. How excited. First of all, I'm assuming you have, but have you been to a show at The Sphere? I've been to every one that I can make it to. I've been to five shows there so far. Just seeing what's really working and what maybe could be done a little bit better or, you know, just the way that it's utilized in the building. But so for the last, like, three years, I've been looking for something to do. I've been looking to create a spectacle.

39:25Yeah. To do something where the production's so big. Because if you think about a couple moments, like when Pink Floyd came out with The Wall and they went on tour with it and their production was just massive. It wasn't just like a little video thing in the middle. It was like all the way stretched around. Or when the Eagles came back with their Hell Freezes Over tour, it revived everything. So this is like, this is my baby. This is what I've been working on. And so like a year and a half of trying to figure out what the spectacle was going to be, my agent rob light was like you need to see this place in vegas that they're building and so i went to see it while it was being constructed and i was like this is the home for the spectacle and so we've been working on it for 14 months already making all the content making everything and it's like it's literally like making a movie as well oh yeah it's putting the story together writing this album threading it together having a real story inside of it we filmed a 40-piece orchestra we filmed a 20 piece choir um lots of stuff man i've been a stunt man i've been jerked around on stunt wires and drug across the ground and thrown up in the air it's uh it's gonna be it's gonna be wild man but this is like the greatest canvas for creativity that's ever been made the sphere hell yeah four they have to measure the video in acres in acres oh my god yeah there's four acres of video that's insane that's insane i knew they had to create like a new byte like there's i forget what the byte is but they had for the amount of data well it's not even terabyte another one past the terror it's like something yeah the amount of data that's going through that thing just at one moment right well it's exponential So when you go from four to eight is exponential and then eight to 12 and to 16.

41:08So 16 K video is all. So it takes a month to render 30 seconds of 16 K video a month. Wow. One computer. It's nuts. That's crazy. But everything's going to get faster. You know, the computers will get faster over time and kind of catch up. But this, but right now this is like a Marvel. Like this is like a$3 billion video audio system. Crazy thing. It's insane, man. I love that you're a student of the game too, man. You're like, no, I want to go see what's capable, how I can make this thing the best when I come in here. That's how you know it's going to be an amazing show, not just because of your catalog and how amazing your music already is, but I can tell right now how excited you're getting it.

41:48This is going to be a masterpiece, man. This is my baby, man. A lot of people that might know our songs on the radio, like our band is a hard one to understand until you see it live. So y 'all have seen it. So we love the curveballs. We love throwing things in that nobody would ever expect. And then over the years, we've done some really cool stuff with costuming and black lights and huge inflatable things and things like that. But this is our first masterpiece. It's our first time to really lay our nuts out there. It's all self-funded, so we had to pay for making everything completely ourselves, renting the venue, and be off of touring.

42:24The contract means you can't tour, so you're missing the whole year of touring. So I did a little spring tour, which is like in off in smaller markets, you know, like like in Maine and New Hampshire and and around everywhere. But we're staying out of major markets. You know, when this gets announced, I pulled every favorite from every human that I know that's a part of a company or part of everything. Like, hey, we need we need some help. So I'm hoping everything comes together. Like we got we got a new song with Snoop. Oh, let's go. that's on this album and that's getting ready that'll that'll be released too oh i can't wait to hear it man yeah it's called let it run and that's that's that's gonna be awesome like so july 20th we're filming the music video for that one and then i got a song with dolly on this album hell yeah are you kidding me yes she murdered it man i sent her the song let's go and i was like i just want you to sing whatever you feel like and i sent her several songs and she was like this is the one this is the one that i want she said don't you give that song to anybody else honey we got us a big hit here yeah but she got i got back you know the stem of her vocals of her singing on it man and it was just like chill bumps down in my toenails man she just absolutely murdered it so there's some great surprises on this record i'm super proud of it i produced this album myself hell yeah man and it's uh we're doing all independent so there's no labels there's no It's just all betting on ourselves this year and just pulling every favor.

43:57So I appreciate you guys letting me talk about it on New York City. Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me, man? It's a fucking honor, dude. This is awesome, man. I cannot wait to go check this out. So I tell everybody. Dude, I'm keeping it in the holster. I haven't gone to this fear yet, dude. I'm fine. This is my first experience, dude. Travis knows this because I saw you two when Trav played in Vegas, the Super Bowl. And this is when it had just started. and i'm like dude the opportunities with this place are wild like the visuals and the way they kind of did it like the first half of the show was very uh you know it's crazy it's like a lot of patterning things and it's kind of very trippy and then the second half of the show it's very scenic and then all it feels like you're outside so like it's nuts like you're at one point i remember just looking around and like dude it feels like we're at an outdoor venue and we're inside.

44:51That's how crazy the technology is. And I can't wait to see what you guys do with that thing. That's going to be awesome, man. How many shows, how many shows is this residency? Do you know? Well, we're, we're going up for sale with four and as those sell out, we'll be adding more. So, you know, depending on how everything goes, hopefully we'll be able to come back later next year and do another batch up and do another round. Cause they got a big, some big releases and stuff coming up that are coming in in February. Uh, but it'll be December and January, man i'm so excited it's a it's a lot though from like crazy wardrobe to the choreography to where we're moving to how we're interacting with the screens there'll be parts where we're actually able to like you know if i can like literally lift my hand up and take and move a giant wave up behind me on the screen to the you know what it's it's wild yeah this is insane man wait till you check this place out this that venue there's nothing like that thing in the world i think they're building another one like in london or something like that yeah they're talking about London and Dubai, a couple other spots, man.

45:51It's nuts, man. Dude, you want to talk about toes in the water, ass in the sand. You're going to legitimately be freaking in that shit. I don't know what you got planned, but it's going to be epic. Yeah, man. That's awesome. Yeah, it's going to be great. Yeah, we're stoked to have you guys. Congrats on it, brother. I can't wait to fucking get out there and see you do your thing and see the masterpiece you put together. Yes, sir. So you started your music career. um you were playing bars or how'd your music career jump off yeah so I started playing at coffee houses when I was like 14 so I was playing you know because you couldn't really be you know playing in bars and stuff when you're that young so um I started playing at coffee houses but I was in choir since first grade so music programs in schools is a big deal man because that's really where it was reinforced for me you know learning harmony learning vocal arrangements and stuff started when I was in first grade.

46:44And then as I got up in high school, you know, I was, I was playing, um, coffee shops and a couple of different buddies of mine, Kurt Thomas, I was playing with him and my buddy Radford Windham that I went to high school with. Um, and then as soon as I graduated from high school, I went straight to West Georgia. So that's where I went to college. And then I started playing in bars. So I got a gig at like the Taco Mac, like playing, you know, backup for a dude for like a hundred bucks playing guitar for him and then I started like singing they let me sing every once in a while and they're like oh wow he can sing too so um so I was I was hustling bar gigs and then man I I never graduated from college I took off to go play I got a gig in Panama City me and my drummer took off we had I sold my life insurance policy my dad had bought for me I bought a like an old 78 Dodge Good Times band like bubble windows oh my god dude yeah oh yeah and so this you're living the dream me and my dog my i had a jack russell puppy at the time i think i was 19 we took off for for panama city and me and a drummer we were playing as a two-piece so we just set up drums and guitar but we we got a gig oh yeah so we were down there playing at this place called joey's and we were we play out on this deck and we auditioned to the get for the guys but our first auditions was six nights a week six hours a night for 150 bucks a night oh my god we were so stoked we've been like setting up at some dude's daiquiri shack trailer that he's selling like you know stuff out of anybody that would give us a power outlet to plug in so then after that when i when we left panama city we did that for a few summers and then what i figured out is i could go to a sports bar that didn't have live music and i'll just tell them i'm gonna come in and play for free and let us and let us have the door once we start bringing people in then let us just take so it didn't cost them anything so like you're betting on yourself you're like we know that we're gonna get people in here yeah we created we created our own business model because if you go try to get a gig somewhere where people already do like in nashville you can make i mean 100 bucks a night is a decent gig in nashville but we would go to these sports bars and we play there every week so after a couple months we'd have like two or 300 people coming in on a Wednesday night, like college towns.

49:02And then we're making three to five bucks at the door. So we were making like 12, 1500 bucks. So I could pay a good drummer. I could pay a sound man. And then we did that. We, we rocked that circuit for seven years. Yeah. Playing like three nights in Panama city, two nights in Birmingham, two nights in around Atlanta. And we did that for like 10 years, man. So 10 years of grinding five, six nights a week and I was playing anything I could play anybody people pay me for like a bar mitzvah or a birthday party or whatever it was man I was we were we were hustling man and and that's really that's really where we learned to appreciate people sure every single person the person cleaning the bar at the end of the night sometimes they'd be the only person listening and so I love that we cut our teeth doing it that way and it wasn't just like overnight we just became successful we thought we were we had our cds and we went to Panama City really like we're gonna be big next year like it's but 10 years later we finally made the right album we got chicken fry was on the radio that took off and then i was able to travel on a bus after that and i could lay down and sleep while we're traveling man and that was back in the days when we were pretty rowdy man we were sponsored by jaegermeister it was like oh yeah it was it was wild it was wild that was my hustle man so we hustled like that for 10 years and then all while we're traveling riding together being together and a lot of my crew man from like seven years in is still with me you know it's like that album's like almost 20 years 20 years ago man which is crazy because i don't feel any different man i look in the mirror i feel better now actually than i did then because i'm i'm running clean now i eat clean i exercise there we go there you go on the program now but it's been a blessing yeager isn't in the diet anymore no no no i had my share man i had a great career yeah i had a great there we go i had a good run at it yeah you're right it does not feel like that long ago the foundation came out i still remember when chicken fried first came out we were at cincinnati and travis were you at cincinnati you were at cincinnati you were still in high school i think i was just at the tail end of high school yeah but i remember and i think spotify had just like started to take off too and i remember showing all these guys like bro have you heard this fucking song like This thing is like the dopest thing I've ever come across.

51:15And it was like the anthem for a number of years. I mean, and that whole album and everything since then, you've just continued to kill it. But it feels like that was just yesterday, but it wasn't. Like, I just had a whole NFL career, and you're still releasing songs and still doing live shows. Well, at the same time, I'm such a fan of you guys too, man. I watched the journey of you guys as well. So it's much props. I know the amount of discipline it takes. And, you know, I mean, you look lean now too, Jason. I'm trying. I'm still on, I'm still doing the alcohol, but I've definitely cleaned up the diet a little bit.

51:49It's less though. It's less. It's less. I knew that there would be a day, you know, I was like, there'll be a day when it's time to, you know, put it down. And my warranty ran out when I turned 40 and I was like, you know, it was a couple of years before that when I decided, but I'm like, man, if I don't invest in feeling good, then yeah. Cause I love to, you know, I love to be out in the woods and on the water under the water, you know, spearfishing is my favorite activity in the world. you're efficient yeah free dive that's cool so i do that all over the world i want to be able to do that when i'm old well i sound like i need to be talking to you exactly yeah i need some of this stuff yeah this is great but we can't just let spearfishing just slide by like this hold on so how how far down is like the furthest you've ever like spirit like you'd like because you can You can get down to like 50 feet, maybe even further.

52:38I don't like how. Yeah, I've shot stuff down to 80. What? Yeah, but I got homies, man. Like my buddy Justin's, my buddy Justin Lee, he's like my hero. Jason, imagine holding your breath and going down 80 feet. Travis, you know I'm a terrified shark. You know the number one thing to like get those sharks over there is spear fishing. Blood in the water. There ain't no fucking chance I'm doing spear fishing, but this is. I'm very jealous. They're there every time, man. it's part of it man i'm cringing it's part of it and when you're in an area when you start seeing sharks you know there's going to be other good fish around too and then but you got to watch their body language it's like a dude in a bar that's like kind of antsy he's like you can tell somebody's like spun up you watch their body language most times they're just chill man they're trying to get some bait you know i don't really i don't spearfish where there's great whites very often where there's like things that are used to eating things our size so most of like the the Caribbean and the Gulf, Mexico, like most places that we go, and even in Hawaii, you know, they're not, they're not eating sea lions and seals because that's what you look like in a black wetsuit.

53:42So a great white would be a thing, but you also have a, you also have a weapon. So if they, if they keep coming around and they, and they have a body language that you don't like, then you just kind of, you go down and you, you poke them in the nose. Yeah. And poke them and they're like, well, I know that's, yeah, well, that's it. You don't see them coming. You can tell Jason has a lot of dreams. He has a lot of nightmares. I'm terrified. I'm very jealous though. That's so badass though. 80 feet. Yeah, I can make, I don't have a lot of bottom time once I get down, but like my buddy, Justin Lee, who's my hero doing it.

54:19He can free dive 200 feet down and, and, and hunt something free dive. Oh my gosh. It takes him a full minute to swim back up 200 feet. So he's got like his timer on his watch. And so I go with guys that are, you know, He can hold his breath like seven and a half minutes. Seven and a half minutes? So he goes down, chills for like five minutes, and then comes back up? He can. He can go down. Well, when you're exercising, it's a little bit different. But I think he can easily get like four minutes of bottom time, no problem. No way. But he's like, yeah, he's one of the greatest dudes ever, man. Great family, man.

54:54Got to start working on my lung capacity. Yeah. And there's technique too, man. I've been doing it. I did it wrong for my first 10 years of doing it. but the last 10 years I've been doing it, I've been going with him. I've been going with Cameron Kirkconnell, who's another guy. But these guys are legends, man. They hold a bunch of world records. So dope. But going with them has been a whole life-changing thing. But dude, it is an avatar world under there, and there's no telling. Every time you go, you see something that you've never seen before. Aliens, dude. Aliens, though. You can't convince me it's not.

55:21Do you have a fish that is like, I want to get one of these? What is your ultimate fish you want to get spearfishing? One that I haven't gotten a marlin yet. Oh, my gosh. That would be insane. That's one. And in Hawaii, I just have to be able to put in the time in Hawaii to be able to do it, to get a big blue marlin. That's on my list. I did get my big dogfish tuna, which was like my bucket list. Yes, there you go, baby. Hang on. I'll show you a pic of this one. I was going to say, she tastes good or what? Oh, yeah, they're delicious. They're delicious, but there's one. Oh, my gosh. Look at how monstrous that thing is.

56:00Dude, no way. That's insane, though. That's amazing. I don't even know how you would get something like that back up to the top. Shit. Well, they float a little bit, you know? That's so fucking badass. Goddamn. I didn't mean to get off topic, man, but that is so goddamn cool, man. That was very interesting to me. So I've messed around with music. I played saxophone growing up. I'll mess around on guitar. I do not consider myself a musician, but I like messing around with music. What goes into writing a song for you? Do you have like a process? Do you start with the melody? Do you start with like some type of lyric or theme?

56:38What's Zac Brown's methodology? Man, it happens all different kinds of ways. Sometimes it's a melody that you put words to. Sometimes it's like a guitar riff that you're playing and something kind of a sound or melody pops out. sometimes it's just like something that you hear you'll hear somebody say something or you'll hear something that's like that's a song and so that can happen in the middle of the night like i can i can literally wake up from a dream and like and you got to write it down like right then you might not work on it then but but just capturing it and then for me it's like really don't not settling for anything because i can hear on the radio there's lots of songs that you can tell it just they wrote that because it rhymed sure you really don't want to mail it in so i have songs like goodbye in her eyes is one of my songs it took 11 years to find the right bridge for that song so i knew it was good but i didn't want to just throw something in there to get it done yeah but some songs you'll write in an hour like yeah it just it happens quick just like happens right it happens fast but the deeper like philosophical songs and really trying to put the poetry into it to make it poetic there's lots of different ways to say something and i love the collaboration of writing with people that are really talented too and where there's no ego involved where when the right idea pops up whoever said it it doesn't really matter who said it it's you both can agree like that's the one that's the one we've been missing and and i used to be able to test them out live you know i'd play at a bar full of people and i'd play a song and you could tell by how they reacted but these days because everybody's filming everything so yeah if you play a shitty version of the song that you just wrote the first time you play it it's on youtube and then it's out there like that song is released you know yeah so you have to sit on them so like right now sitting on all these babies that i made for this new album for love and fear we released the first one a couple weeks ago i ain't worried about it as the new one new jam and then the one with snoop's coming out next it's called let it run my kids are older they're playing music now too i'm sitting and playing guitar with my kids that's awesome it's fun i got five kids too so half the time i'm i'm just there like i'm their house bitch and i love it i'm taking them everywhere going to their games going to their events doing their things Like that sounds like a great dad, man.

58:49That's half my life. So that's priority one. And then after that is like being creative, obviously connecting with my band, writing songs. And then the rest is adventuring, you know, being in the mountains or under the water and exploring. But I've been so blessed to do what I love to do, man. I know you guys have to feel the same way. Like, you know, you know, it's a wonderful country, man. You've gotten to work with a lot of artists. I mean, just to name a few, we got some here. James Taylor, Blake Sheldon, Avicii, Alan Jackson, Kenny Chesney, Jimmy Buffett, R.I.P. The Legend. Who is like the one of your favorite artists that you've collabed with or one of your favorite collabs that you would love to do again?

59:29All of those are so weird because I was such a like people that I was a big fan of their music. Same thing with with like football, like you idolize somebody and then all of a sudden you're on the field with them. yeah it's crazy like yeah and you climb on a stage and i'm like i'm singing a song with one of my musical heroes so they're they're literally like batman to me yes oh yeah and so those moments for me have been some of the most surreal things like playing on stage with james taylor was like how did i how did this happen dude one of my favorite songs by your brother i don't mean to cut you off man but jason introduced this one to me i didn't even know it was it was a song overnight with Trombone Shorty.

1:00:09Trombone Shorty. I was thinking of the exact same song, Travis. I love Trombone Shorty. I don't know where this R &B, like, super smooth song comes on. Smooth as shit. Yes. Such a groove. You got the trombone back there going crazy, dude. That was one of my favorite collabs ever. And it's just the range that you have. You can tell you like to show your creativity. You like to show just your enjoyment of music and everything like that, man. It's just so fun. And I cannot wait to see. I mean, you said Snoop Dogg. I'm just like, man, you just keep coming with surprises, man. It's badass. Well, I love that about Snoop too, man, because he's always relevant.

1:00:44Yeah. Always. Always, dude. He just keeps going, keeps stepping in, keeps going. So, so much respect for people like him that hold up their relationships and their vibe. And, like, everybody's stoked to see Snoop, man. Hell yeah. You can't go wrong with Snoop. It doesn't matter. So this is definitely an Herb-themed song. And I was like, I got to get Snoop on it, man. What's it like living on a tour bus? We never got to experience like life on the road. You talked a little bit about it with the van and like, what, what is that like? The first five years, we were on a 12 bunk bus. So there's 12 of us living on one bus with one bathroom and like one little spot in the back to, you know, to change or whatever.

1:01:26OK. Wow. You got to learn how to kind of internalize your your your BS, you know, or whatever you're going through, because I don't know if y 'all are like me. But some days I wake up and I'm like, I can hold all this shit up. You know, I'm like energizing. And some days you wake up and just your chemistry's off and like everything. You're just like a little bit, but learning how to like really live in such tight, confined spaces. It's like being an Aztec or a Mayan where you're like living in one of those places. It's like dug into the bank, like stacked on top of each other. But you got to you got to learn how to like, you know, manage yourself and your own whatever you're going through.

1:02:00And then holding space for everybody, because like your drummer and your percussionist is normally just walking around tapping on everything. So they're just like middle of the night. They're tapping, banging on things. So for me, like having a noise maker, a white noise, I use the white noise app, but I use, I also got a company called Deemer box that makes these, I was going to send y 'all some. It's a, it's a dry box, like a Pelican box, but it's got two silicone speakers in it. So it's completely waterproof, but it holds all your stuff in there. There's a battery charger for your phone inside.

1:02:29Oh, hell yeah. So I plugged that thing in when I'm in a hotel or on the, on the bus, I plug that thing in and I just, that thing just rips like brown noise, super loud. So it drowns out. Everybody's like, yeah, here's one right here. Oh, hell yeah. That's all you need right there. Yeah. So that's all you like when I'm traveling or whatever, all your gear goes in here. I'm about to say that thing keeps some beers cold or what, dude. So anyway, that's that's part of it. Having the white noise and and being able to drown everybody out is a big part of being able to sleep. Or if you're in a hotel and there's Ferraris going by, if you're in L.A.

1:03:01or, you know, construction or whatever it is. But the culture, man, it's all led from the top, man. And you can't buy culture and momentum and you got to create it and you got to lead it from the top. And the people that I that I travel with and the people in my band are unbelievable human beings first. And then they're incredibly talented. So you have to really learn how to how to like support each other and how to you know, if you're having a rough day to kind of squash it a little bit, you know, kind of. There's a lot of emotions in 12, 12 people in one bus. And then and then there's and then there's 12 of those, you know, there's 12 buses.

1:03:32Yeah. Yeah. You mentioned playing with like your heroes. My first guy I ever snapped the ball to was Michael Vick. And that was like a moment when I got to the NFL, like, dude, I can't believe I'm freaking playing with freaking Michael Vick. Like what the heck is going on right now? I know you've, you've, you've sung at all these venues. You've, you've got all these musics and all this, all these genres, but what's it like to sing a national anthem? Is it, how different is that? Well, normally, as soon as you sing a word, you're hearing that word back like two seconds later. Oh, no. So it's before I did it within air.

1:04:08So the first time I sang an anthem, it was at a Braves game. I was 14. Oh, no. I was 14. That's crazy. In high school. And me and my buddy Radford used to sing together. We did. We would sing. I would sing the bass harmony. And then he would he would sing the lead. And and as soon as you sing a word, you're hearing the next word back to you that you just sang. And so it's hard from that standpoint. There's a lot of echo. But once you kind of get past that, so now I have my in-air monitors in. So now that blocks out a lot of the wash. But, man, I like singing it just kind of OG, man. I like just singing it up high enough where you can get up on the high notes, but not really changing it a whole lot.

1:04:47And me and my band, we're doing some coming up here soon. Getting to sing four-part harmony with my band, kind of like barbershop style. I sing in barbershop quartets all the way through. Let's go to court. Let's go. Yeah. That's so fucking badass. Yeah. But I love this country, man. And there's a lot of people that I don't think really appreciate the amount of sacrifice that it's taken from. Come on, man. For us to be able to have what we have here. And so we have a big mission supporting our veterans. We got the camp that we built. It's actually right over there. You know, we do 34 weeks of veteran programs throughout the year and working with such incredible people, man.

1:05:27people that have real servants hearts and do whatever they're told so that we can keep our freedom and be able to pursue our dreams and live the American dream. Like we owe a lot to them. So yeah, that's something, you know, every night we, we get a soldier to come up on stage when we do chicken fried and come out and, and, uh, and do a salute and just remind everybody, you know, what a blessing it is. Got a pretty good. All right. We got our last segment. We got to ask, you don't have to answer these. You can tell us to, you know, Just fuck off. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Here we go. Is it true that you have 11 siblings?

1:06:00Is this accurate? You said you were the youngest. Yeah. Well, growing up, I had four stepsisters. I had two stepsisters from my dad's side, two stepsisters from my mom's side. I have two half brothers, two half sisters. And then from the time I was three years old, I've had brother-in-laws and sister-in-laws that have been like parents to me. Like my brother, my brother, David, he's actually my brother-in-law. But since I was three years old, he taught me how to ride a bike. He co-signed with me to get my first truck and trailer, like first loan I ever had. He was like, he's been a dad to me. I've had I've been adopted and taken in by a lot of people over the years, by a lot of different people.

1:06:37And yeah, so that so I don't have any that are full mom, full dad. So I'm the only one for my mom and my dad. But I grew up in the middle of all of them. so it's you know it's seven sisters and and now i got four girls i got four four daughters hey and the son i got the son last he's 11 but my girls are 14 15 17 18 we're in a similar spread right now but we're way we got five four two and we just got a newborn i've been there man i've been there the change table dude the change table is still sitting where right there there you go it's still out it's still out 18 years later man 18 years later that's great but i can relate man but it's beautiful and every every phase it kind of feels like it might be wearing you out or whatever man you'll miss that the most you gotta just just like soak that in while while they're little man because they they grow up so fast absolutely i appreciate it yeah man we were just on the beach today it was a freaking it's a trip man but yeah i'm definitely looking forward to being out of diapers there's no question about that diapers and brushing their teeth every night like wrestling them down and brushing their teeth yeah but that honestly man like that was hard but i miss it i miss all those things i miss every one of those things that's that is like feels like a struggle at times just the the groundhog day of all of it bath time you know it's it's nuts dude throwing them all every night is chaos like it i don't know how long it's going to take it could be 30 minutes it could be two hours and they're like puppies too you get you get them out of the water and dry them off and they want to take off dude they're just like little naked bodies running around the house like a aquarium dude it's wild but i miss i miss all those phases man it's uh it's such a blessing to get to to be a parent and um and get to be around for for that absolutely back to a little bit of a mute of music um i want to know Who was your first like concert that you went to when you were younger where you were like, oh, yeah, this is what I want to do this.

1:08:43So I was 14. We had opened up for Sean Mullins and Matthew Kaler. They were like two guys that were like troubadours playing by themselves. And when I was 14 and I saw them perform live, I was like and I love music. I love to sing, but watching them play and I was like, this is what I want to do. So same thing with like the summer camp thing. I would go to summer camp when I was 14 at camp. I was like, I want to build one of these one day. I want to build a camp and I want to play music. And I knew that from the time I was 14. And that's a blessing because a lot of people have like four degrees and they still don't know what they want to do.

1:09:17Like I had a path, like I knew what I wanted to do. And I and so I was able to follow what I loved and then figured out how to, you know, hustle enough to make a living doing it. So you got a camp to what is it? Is there an age limit on this camp? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you could come, you could come counsel or drop in anytime. It's, yeah, so it's called Camp Southern Ground. Okay. And nine weeks of summertime, we have about 115 kids that come in to sleep away for a week at a time. Damn! Okay. And it flips over. And then the other 34 weeks out of the year, we do veteran programs. And then we do vision development for the corporations and stuff like that.

1:09:57But we got a 16-acre organic farm. It's farm to table. The kids learn how to pull stuff out of the ground. They learn how to plant things. We've got, you know, a big aquatic center over there. We've got zip lines. We've got we got all the things that camp happens. You know, I had transformational experiences at camp when it was like a molded little cabin with no air conditioning. But we built like a university to do this. Like the buildings are wrapped in zinc. They're going to be there for a thousand years. But the difference that that it makes in a kid's life, a kid that doesn't have a mentor and a kid that comes.

1:10:29We bring underserved kids in that are in the same group with kids that are on the spectrum with kids from military families that might have lost a parent or had a parent dismembered in service. And then you have mainstream kids which might have a poverty of spirit where they don't even know how to appreciate anything they have. They have everything. They don't know how to appreciate it. So you mash them all together in one group and you help them through a week of like learning how to rely on each other and learning to be like an advocate for each other. Oh, yeah. And it changes lives. And that's that that's what I've experienced as a kid.

1:10:58That's what we experienced too, man. I hear everything you're saying. I'm just like, man, you're doing it right, brother. It's giving me flashbacks. Hell yeah. And we remember those camps and all the different social, economic, and racial, like the melting pot that we grew up in and getting to experience everybody for who they are and their culture, man, it's the best. We had a Camp R. It was our overnight camp growing up. Camp R. Shout out to Camp R. Yeah, that's right. Dude, you want to talk about no AC in the middle of the summer? moldy ass cabins fucking mice and roaches running across my chest at night baby you already had a the the stories and the the memories that you get them but it was awesome they just throw you in the in the woods with a bunch of high school and college kids like like looking as your chaperones man is the best i know it's so fun zach we learned we learned you make knives yes sir how did this come about how did this even start so i fell in love with knives as a kid my dad traveled with Coca-Cola for like, I don't know, 15 years.

1:12:01And he would go to Mongolia and China and all these places. And he would bring me back a knife from all the places that he went. Oh, that's badass. And I started throwing knives when I was about four. So, okay. I haven't, I got an indoor throwing range here at the house. If y 'all, I got a four year old. I could not imagine giving her a freaking knife to throw. That's amazing. Jason was stabbing kids with forks.

1:12:29that sounds like a true story it was a sport technically it was a sport okay all right doesn't count Kentucky Fried Chicken spoon fork thing man yeah I love knives I was drawn to them just like as a kid and then when I was 18 um I lived in a trailer in Carrollton when I was going to West Georgia and my neighbor's granddad had a knife shop and he was taking like old buck knives and taking apart and making them automatics like making them switch blades so I that was my first experience when I was about 18 working on knives and being in his shop and then after that I just became friends with a bunch of other knife makers and then so now I've got a shop here at my house where I make Damascus and I forge and did you oh dude that is I want to hang out with you so bad I can't even describe it.

1:13:19You're in GA. Come on down. Come on down. I didn't know nothing about bladesmith and knife making, sword making, any of it. And I am such a huge fan of the show Forge and Fire. And it's like all I want to do now is go into a forge and actually make something with some steel. That is the coolest thing ever. We could do that. All right. All right. So Neil Kamamura is one of the Forge and Fire champions. Absolutely. Yes. And so Neil lives on our farm on Big Island in Hawaii. and his knife shop is there on the farm and forging with him has made me so much better dude he is an absolute animal that is so fucking awesome man he's like half hawaiian half japanese i know exactly what you're talking about because i was i was trying to link up with him if we were going to go out to hawaii a couple years ago because i'm like dude i would love you'd be staying in my place man you go go do it okay all right all right all right yeah neil manages the farm and his family lives there man but just salt of the earth people man that the people we have in hawaii are just so sweet.

1:14:18Justin Lee, the guy that spearfishes, man. You know, that's my Hawaii family. There's nobody better to learn how to forge from. I mean, I can show you. We can make something here for sure. But Neil's on another level, man. So he's like my hero in knife making and forging. Sheesh. But I can show you. I did this basket weave one. Hang on. Let me show you. Oh, hell yeah. What can't he do? It is amazing how many things you're good at. this is three to three days of work to fold the steel into the pattern that kind of looks like a like a basket weave like that oh that looks so dope though is that that's fucking hard right there and when you smash it all out it um it comes out good man it's it's i learn a lot every time so this is the step before that yeah and you weld all that together and then you forge it together and then you draw it out and then you slice it and that's what makes those little tiles and so So making mosaic is like an art, man.

1:15:17And there's a guy, Marekka Mommasi, that I've learned a lot from. That guy is such a wizard at making Damascus. Sounds like you're the wizard, man. My wintertime program, man, be able to go out and get in the shop. And it's also cool because anytime I need to make something, man, you got some rebar you can make about anything that you need. That's fucking dope. Yeah, just freaking melt it down. As long as it's heartable steel, you get it done. That's awesome, brother. Yeah, for sure, for sure. Quick question for you before we wrap with your brother. We got to ask, we ask everybody what their welcome to the NFL, to the music world, to the movies.

1:15:49What was your welcome to the music industry moment? Man, the first time that we played the CMAs, they let us play. And I was good friends with Charlie Daniels. He was such a sweet man, dear friend. Yeah. They let us do our version of Devil Went Down to Georgia on the CMAs. Dude, I watched it live. Yes, absolutely. And I remember looking out and seeing like getting a standing ovation from like Chris Christopherson and all the other country artists that were there. And I just remember thinking like, wow, because we just been humping bars, man, grinding, grinding, grinding as everything took off.

1:16:26Like, I feel like some of those moments like on those shows where there's so many artists that are there together and they know who you are. And, you know, it's just a surreal, surreal moment. And then any night I still never get used to going out like I'm literally I'm a servant when I'm at my house and I love it. I love it so much. And then when I step out on a stage, man, and those people are there every single night that I step out there. It's not I don't take that for granted because I remember what it was like playing to two people in a bar. You know, I remember the journey. I remember the whole thing.

1:16:59But being out there where there's all these people that are singing all the words back and like I feel a big responsibility. Like I want to be like Willie, man. I want to be as long as I can sing. I just saw Willie play in Austin like a couple of months ago. It was unbelievable. But just to like, you know, I think the music gives us like this life force. And if we can help somebody in one night to just have something they can put in their pocket for a rainy day or to help to make music that helps people get through things like it's such a such an honor to get to do that, man. That's my favorite part about it is just connecting and making people feel good.

1:17:33yeah well absolutely you've you've done that brother i i still remember the day i got to see you live man so can't wait to see uh how this fear goes can't wait to listen to the new album um and appreciate you coming on baby 92 percenter zach yeah baby hell yeah all righty that does it for our interview with zach brout man dude dude i i'm going I'm going spearfishing. I'm going spearfishing. I'm not. Well, I'm definitely not doing that. But I am going to go Forge a Blade in Hawaii. I guarantee you that. Dude, I have always been a Zac Brown fan. And one of the reasons I've always loved him, we talked about it just a few minutes ago.

1:18:11But I love, you could tell how great of a musician he is and how much he loves music in every live show I've ever been to his. Like he embraces musicians in that area. He brings people on stage. He's doing different. Like he's just the pinnacle of what I think. He's a showman, man. Well, just what a great artist is. Like this is a guy that's always trying to get better, always trying to do new things. I'm very excited to see what he's doing over here at the Sphere. Cannot wait, man. Dude, he's got all these other things going on too. Spearfishing. He's got a ranch. He's forging knives. He's got a fucking box that you charge.

1:18:45I mean, what the fuck? I think it's incredible the amount of things that this guy's got going on. And it was a joy talking to him. I hope you guys all enjoyed getting to know Zach Brown a little bit more. Yeah. And make sure you get to the sphere and check out his new album, baby. All right. That wraps up another episode of New Heights. Thank you to Zach Brown for joining us on the show. Make sure you're subscribed in YouTube to the New Heights channel and follow New Heights on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes of New Heights early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.

1:19:20Once again, New Heights, a Wondery show produced by Waze Sports and Entertainment and brought to you by General Mills' favorite cereal brands. Every single one that you love is always going to be General Mills because they make the best. Follow the show on all social media at New Heights Show with one S for fun clips throughout the week. 92 percenters. We appreciate you guys for tuning in each and every week into our production and crew. We appreciate you guys making us look way better than we are. So true.

1:19:51Oh Oh