- 1 day ago
Zach Top joins Katie Neal to talk about his upcoming projects both in and out of the studio, including renovating a new property, working on his third album, and elk hunting. Plus, the “Good Girls & Cowgirls” singer talks about his CMA Award nominations and the stories behind a few of our favorite tracks.
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00:00How are you, Katie?
00:02I'm good. How are you, Zach?
00:03Just wonderful.
00:04Where are you in the world today?
00:07Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
00:09And it is cold and rainy and gloomy.
00:13And I bet the scenery is just gorgeous.
00:16Indeed.
00:17It is wild. I've driven through South Dakota before and it is so crazy.
00:20You're just like driving in a straight line for hours and hours and hours.
00:23For a long time, yeah, until you've hit the Black Hills.
00:27Then it starts to get pretty out there, but yeah.
00:30Fun, fun, fun.
00:31Well, it's good to see you again.
00:32Thank you for hopping on this week.
00:33We really appreciate it.
00:34I think last time I saw you, you were like looking at buying a house.
00:37Did that happen?
00:38Yes.
00:39Yes, I did in fact buy a house.
00:41Fixing to get moved in there.
00:42I'll move in, I think, at the latest before the end of November.
00:47But yeah, still getting a little bit of work done out there before I move in.
00:52So yeah, see how I'll go.
00:54Are you doing like some custom stuff to the house?
00:56Or like what did you need to have done?
00:59Just kind of cleaned up.
01:00It's pretty dated and it's funny.
01:03It's got the house on it and then it's got this little cabin on the other side of the
01:06property that I'm actually, I'm getting the cabin fixed up first.
01:09I'm going to move in there.
01:11It's just a little two bedroom thing.
01:13And then once I get moved in there, I'll kind of take my time figuring out how deep I
01:19want to get into the house and when I want to start that project and all that.
01:22So just getting into the cabin first and yeah, we'll see where it goes from there.
01:27That's fun.
01:27And then you've got a guest house.
01:28So when people come stay, you're like, this is where you go.
01:31Exactly.
01:33Mom and dad, y'all can stay up there.
01:35Exactly.
01:36Give me a little bit of space.
01:37So you've been out most of this year on the Cold Beer and Country Music Tour, which is going
01:40to like wrap up here at the end of the month.
01:42So crazy.
01:43What have been some of the like standout moments from this tour?
01:46Anything like particularly wild or stressful stuff that's happened that comes to mind?
01:50Nothing really super wild and stressful, I wouldn't say.
01:56Some of the standouts.
01:59We've got to be we got our first like legitimate Canadian run on this tour, which was super fun.
02:06We played Edmonton and let me see where else Saskatchewan and or Saskatoon, I guess, in Saskatchewan.
02:15And then Diet, New Brunswick.
02:20And I feel like I'm missing one other, which will make me feel bad.
02:24Well, we got to do two shows in Toronto at Stapleton.
02:27Anyway, whatever the case, the Canadian people knocked our socks off.
02:32It was we had just a bunch of awesome, awesome shows for our first time being up there.
02:37Anyway, we played Vancouver before and we've been in Toronto before, but never done our own headline shows.
02:42Yeah, it was.
02:44Yeah, it was pretty cool to see getting up in some places we've never been and having a whole lot
02:48of folks come out and be, you know, just doing backflips, going crazy about our show.
02:53So that was that was a lot of fun.
02:55And then, I mean, the crowds everywhere have been phenomenal.
02:58It's been it's been a blast.
03:00We've covered it all.
03:01We did a whole California run out west and all the way.
03:06We spent a bunch of time in the northeast, which was super fun.
03:10Loved our we played Bangor, Maine and Guilford, New Hampshire.
03:14Those were a couple of kind of highlights.
03:16Got to eat a bunch of lobster up there.
03:18So that was that never hurts.
03:20So, yeah, no, never.
03:22It's got to be so wild as like your career gets bigger and bigger and you get further and further
03:26from home.
03:27Like seeing people singing your songs back has got to be still I imagine such a surreal experience.
03:31Yeah.
03:32Yeah, it's wild, especially it's, you know, I don't know.
03:36Every night it's amazing to me.
03:37But then, you know, especially like I mentioned, when you get up someplace where you've never been, let alone never
03:41played a show.
03:43And there's folks there that, yeah, that know the music and love it and want to come see the show
03:48is.
03:48Yeah, exactly.
03:50Like you said, pretty surreal feeling.
03:51How were the shows that you got to play with Stapleton?
03:54Awesome.
03:55He is the man.
03:57They were so much fun.
03:58Him and Morgan are so sweet.
03:59Their whole crew is great.
04:01Yeah, it's super, super fun.
04:03Get to know them a little bit and get to make some music together.
04:06Yeah, it was a great, great time.
04:08Wait, make some music together.
04:10Is there like some songs coming with Stapleton?
04:12Oh, I was just referring to.
04:14Oh, okay.
04:14I was like, what?
04:16No, he just had me up on his show every night.
04:18We kind of swapped out and did a few different things and, yeah, had a bunch of fun, so.
04:22It's so fun to get to do that.
04:23What are you looking forward to, like, once tour is wrapped?
04:26You're, like, going to, you know, have some time back in your schedule before the end of the year?
04:30What, like, what have you, I know you've got a house that you're probably working on, but what do you
04:33have planned?
04:34Yeah, I'll spend some time there for sure.
04:37I'm going back to, but me and my dad have a place in Oregon.
04:43Going to go elk hunting for the first time up there, which I'm pumped about.
04:48Oh, wait, first elk hunt or first elk hunt in Oregon?
04:51No, just first period.
04:53Wow, that's exciting.
04:55Yeah, yeah, it'd be kind of wild.
04:56I've never, I've become a somewhat avid bird hunter in the last few years.
05:03Of course, you know about Otis, a little bird dog, so run around with him and chase ducks and pheasants
05:10and, you know, whatever, whatever flies, I guess.
05:13So that's been super fun for the last few years.
05:15But, yeah, this will be an interesting, I'm super excited about it.
05:18It'll be fun to kind of do it on our own land and, yeah, see if we can put some
05:22meat in the freezer.
05:23That's exciting.
05:24I have recently learned, like, the thing with elk hunting that is so hard is that, like, you are on
05:28foot for most of this, right?
05:30Like, it's a lot of, like, up and down and creeping around.
05:32Like, I think Riley was just posting about this.
05:34He's, like, 10,000 steps at whatever elevation.
05:36And I'm like, it's not an easy thing.
05:38Well, yeah, and then especially if you end up, if you end up getting one in a somewhat remote location,
05:44then packing it out of there is, you know, you think, you put in a bunch of work, just getting
05:49to one and then let alone packing it out is, yeah, aggressive.
05:53So, I've been putting in a little work, trying to make sure I'm in good enough shape so I don't
05:57kill myself out there.
05:59Right.
06:00I just saw Luke Combs posted something saying that he was like, I dropped 30 pounds, you know, to be
06:06in shape, but also mostly for this elk hunt.
06:08And I was, like, cracking up that that was the reason.
06:10Absolutely.
06:11Not with anybody in the shape.
06:12Absolutely.
06:13You celebrated a birthday this month, 29.
06:16What did you guys do to celebrate?
06:19We played San Antonio that night.
06:22So, that was super fun.
06:24Had a big old sold-out show and had a bunch of friends out there, which was great.
06:29My crew is awesome.
06:30We had all kinds of fun celebrations all night long.
06:35So, that was super, super fun.
06:37And then I ended up meeting up with a bunch of my family and some friends in Colorado and did
06:45just, like, a quick little two-day golf trip.
06:48Fun.
06:49So, that was super fun.
06:50Yeah.
06:50Great time.
06:51Had a couple groups out there and, yeah, just goofed off and, yeah, gambled our money between each other and
06:58played some golf.
06:59So, it's great, great.
07:00I love to hear that.
07:02When you finish tour, we'll be going into Halloween weekend.
07:04Do you have any plans for Halloween?
07:06Are you dressing up this year?
07:08I don't know.
07:09I have gone back and forth a number of times because, obviously, we'll wrap up our last show is the
07:1630th there at Bridgestone.
07:19And I'm trying to figure out.
07:21I'm trying to project what my future self will feel like after we, I know we'll have a big show
07:29at Bridgestone.
07:29And I'm sure it'll be a big after party as well.
07:33So, trying to figure out if I'm going to end up wanting to commit myself to some plans that I
07:39need to go be alive for Saturday night.
07:42Or if I want to keep it low-key.
07:44And I know my parents and some of my siblings are coming in.
07:48So, we'll definitely be hanging out with them that Saturday.
07:51So, we'll see if we get into any wild Halloween shenanigans or if we just lay low and make some
07:56food at the house or something.
07:58Right.
07:58I feel like it'll be fun because I do feel like I've seen people already posting that they'll be dressing
08:02up or their kids are dressing up as Zach Topp for Halloween.
08:05And there's got to be such a funny thing for you to see.
08:08That's one thing you never imagine is going to happen when you get into this.
08:12Yeah, it always cracks me up and gives me a good chuckle whenever I see folks posting, especially when they've
08:19got their little kids and whatnot, put fake mustaches on them and all that kind of thing.
08:22Pretty entertaining.
08:23And like you said, if you would have asked me 10 years ago how I saw my career going, I
08:31would not have included folks dressing up as me for Halloween.
08:35I know. It's so funny.
08:37And then looking ahead to 2027, you've got some pretty big things on the schedule like headlining stagecoach.
08:41I imagine it's got to be pretty wild to see your name like up there next to Garth Brooks.
08:45Yeah, crazy.
08:47Yeah, it almost feels like sacrilege.
08:49But yeah, I'm really, really pumped about that.
08:53Very honored that they picked us to close down the show Saturday night.
08:57Getting to go headline a bunch of festivals that I've kind of had on my bucket list.
09:03Some of the ones that have just been around forever and they're kind of iconic.
09:06Obviously, stagecoach kind of being the top of that list.
09:09But yeah, a few others that I think were Windy City Smokeout, Gulf Coast Jam, some stuff like that.
09:16So that should be a blast.
09:19Yeah, it's going to be a great year.
09:20I'm excited.
09:21Yeah, a lot of big stuff.
09:22You recently put out two new songs, one of them, Good Girls and Cowgirls.
09:25Talk about the story behind that song.
09:28Well, if you listen to it, I don't know if you can draw much of a story out of it.
09:33It's I think we were just goofing off.
09:35It was another one of those Carson, my producer, will come in every now and then.
09:42He'll come in and he's just like, well, boys, I got us our new hit idea.
09:45And I've seen it on a T-shirt.
09:48It's funny.
09:48He had that.
09:50That's where Cold Beer and Country Music came from, for starters.
09:54That was it was either on a sign or on a shirt or something.
09:58And he was like, we got to write that.
10:00So we wrote that.
10:01And then I think Good Girls and Cowgirls was the same thing.
10:03The way that hook goes, Good Girls are made of sugar and spice and cowgirls are made of whiskey and
10:07ice.
10:08It was they didn't put it that whatever you saw on the T-shirt was not exactly that line.
10:13We tweaked it up a little bit and made it to where it sounded like a country song.
10:17But same thing.
10:19Just saw it on a T-shirt.
10:20He came into the writing room the next time we had it booked.
10:23And that, well, I got our new hit idea.
10:26So anyway, we've had that written and recorded for a while and been looking forward to putting it out.
10:33So excited that it's out there.
10:34It seems like folks are enjoying it so far.
10:37And yeah, excited to see what that thing keeps doing.
10:40Yeah, so fun.
10:41And then you, South of Sanity, climbing up the charts right now.
10:44Talk about that song a little bit and just like how it's changing, like seeing it at live shows and
10:48people singing the song back to you.
10:50Yeah, it's I love that thing.
10:53It's one of my favorite songs I've written.
10:55It's I think the.
10:58The biggest reason just just for the pure writing of it, I think that the the whole magic to writing
11:06a hit song is taking a really specific.
11:11Not really introspective, but almost like that, like just a really specific story to yourself and being able to turn
11:20that into a universal kind of message that a lot of folks can relate to, because we're all you know,
11:27we all live a similar experience in a lot of ways.
11:30And so taking a really, I don't know, specific, specific story like that and making it appeal to all kinds
11:38of people, because obviously it's written from a from the perspective of a touring musician.
11:44But it's been fun to hear people say how they connect with the song.
11:48Basically, just anybody that's got to be away from home for work at all, you know, which is a lot
11:56of folks traveling nurses and folks in the military, long haul truck drivers, you know, whatever it might be.
12:03There's a lot of occupations where you end up being pulled away from home a lot.
12:06And so it seems as though it's that song is connected with a lot of people in that type of
12:11situation.
12:12And it's fun. It's always funny because obviously the song is kind of a ballad, but when we were on
12:18the live shows and people sing that, you know, kind of a sad ballad, like it's an anthem is is
12:24always fun.
12:25It's it's cool that just I don't know. Yeah, even sort of a sad story is something that pumps people
12:29up and gets them excited to listen.
12:30And yeah, it's awesome. It's country music. Everybody loves a sad song in this genre, man.
12:35Yeah. Yeah, exactly. They're my favorite for sure. You got to got to have the the fun and the upbeat
12:40and all that.
12:41But yeah, it's it's I love how people all gravitate towards a sad song in this genre.
12:47For sure. And then you are nominated for two CMA Awards next month. What was your reaction to that news?
12:53Yes. I'm obviously super excited again. It's it's a funny I still feel so much like a newcomer, like I'm
13:00just getting onto the scene.
13:03And so, you know, it's like I was pumped obviously last year to win the new artist of the year
13:07and that's where it felt like I belonged.
13:09So getting getting nominated in in these kind of marquee categories, you know, with the album of the year and
13:16male vocalist and whatnot is pretty exciting, humbling.
13:20I'm very honored to be in that group. Yeah, it's it's pretty wild to.
13:27Yeah, just in a few short years, it feels wild to be a sort of perennial name that comes up
13:32in that crowd.
13:34I'm very, very thankful and not sure how I got here, but hopefully I'll hang on to it for a
13:39little while.
13:40I'm very excited to be here.
13:41You mentioned last year when you won a new artist, you accidentally took your beer up on stage with you
13:47and you were kind of like, I don't know if I'm going to get in trouble for this or not.
13:50And it ended up becoming this like really funny, iconic moment.
13:52But I was curious. Did you get in trouble for that? Did anybody say anything about it?
13:56I never heard anything. Maybe my manager did or I'm not sure.
14:01Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
14:04Nobody's going to complain about a little free advertising, I suppose.
14:07Absolutely.
14:08But but yeah, no, I never, never heard a word, never got a slap on the wrist about it.
14:14So we'll see if I run it back this year or not.
14:17I love that. CMAs are always great because it's like the one time like everybody's in town.
14:21Everybody's like home from touring.
14:23Who are you looking forward to like maybe running into when you're on the floor at CMAs or just like
14:28doing stuff that you haven't seen in a little while?
14:31Absolutely. I don't know.
14:33Shoot, everybody, I guess.
14:35I feel like I'm it's so funny because you're exactly right.
14:39I feel like people think that, you know, in the community of country artists, everybody's pretty well close knit and
14:46everybody's friendly with each other.
14:49So you'd think we'd see each other more when we're, you know, most of us live right around Nashville and
14:53all that.
14:54But everybody's on their own, you know, touring schedule and got their own thing.
14:58It's like ships passing in the night most of the year.
15:02And so it's always fun.
15:04Yeah. Get back to CMAs and getting to run across people and catch up just a little bit.
15:08And who knows who you might run across at an after party or whatever.
15:12It's always always a blast getting to catch up with some folks and kind of pick up the old threads
15:16wherever you left them off.
15:18Absolutely. And then it's been it's so crazy.
15:20It's been a little over a year already since In In It For My Health came out.
15:23And obviously you've got two new songs that you just dropped.
15:25But like, where are you at in the process for next record?
15:28Have you started thinking about that? Are you writing for that now?
15:31Oh, yeah. We've been in the studio this fall a good bit already.
15:34Wrote a bunch at the beginning of this year.
15:36So we cut a good handful of those songs this fall.
15:40And we're going to yeah, we're going to start feeding new music out at the top of the year and
15:43and new record coming next spring.
15:46That's exciting. Yeah, I'm pumped.
15:48But yeah, some of the it's funny, it's as you I'm sure everybody has a similar sort of experience through
15:57their career arc.
15:59But, you know, we put out that first record and it turned out to be a big hit.
16:04And it was, you know, it almost feels intimidating where I wasn't sure how we're going to follow that up.
16:13And and then we made the second record and it felt like, oh, my gosh, I think we did it.
16:20I think we beat the first one. You know, that that's how I felt personally.
16:23Just felt like the writing was better. The songs were better.
16:27I was it just felt like it was more me, I guess, in a lot of ways.
16:30And and, you know, sure enough, won a Grammy with that.
16:33So that felt like it was like, all right, we're good.
16:36And then, you know, here comes third record again.
16:39And and you get that same sort of like nervous feeling of, shoot, how are we going to beat that?
16:46You know, and not that you need to beat what you've done before.
16:49But but once again, as we're, you know, getting some mixes back and and listening to these songs,
16:56it feels like once again, it's like, oh, yeah, it's even more me.
16:59It's like I just keep getting more dialed in on what my thing is.
17:07And yeah, that's pretty fun on the writing side of things and production.
17:11And yeah, just just the whole scope of the music just feels like it's it's more me and and more
17:18unique and identifiable, I guess.
17:21So hopefully folks don't mind that. Maybe they're tired of me.
17:25But anyway, no, no, no, never.
17:28So far. Yeah, I'm really proud of the music and super excited for folks to start hearing it.
17:34So that's awesome. Before I let you go, I do want to do a couple of stories behind the songs
17:37just because we're playing so many of your songs this week.
17:39Could you just walk me through real quick the story behind Good Times and Tan Lines?
17:44Yeah, Good Times and Tan Lines.
17:46I can't remember whose idea that was.
17:49I know we wrote it, wrote it with Carson and and then Wyatt McCubbin, who's shoot.
17:54He's been a writer on half the stuff I put out.
17:56I think he's one of my favorite co-writers seems like he and I are just kind of kindred spirits
18:03as far as he's about my age.
18:05He's a year older than me or something.
18:06But anyway, you know, younger guys and but still just cut from the same cloth, just grew up on all
18:12the old stuff.
18:12So it's always fun getting to write with him and clicking on that kind of stuff.
18:19And and then Carson obviously is the old guy in the room that can kind of bring the bring that
18:26perspective.
18:27But anyways, yeah, we I kind of it's funny.
18:32I don't believe the song was my idea that the title was my idea.
18:35But when it I can't remember, they had kind of a little bit of a chorus started before I showed
18:41up that day.
18:42And when they played it for me, I was like, oh, my goodness, yes, let's write this.
18:47And it kind of turned into for me, here's what I feel like I should have my high school experience
18:54should have been.
18:55I was you know, I was homeschooled and I was playing bluegrass festivals.
18:59And so anyway, for whatever reason, I was not chasing girls and, you know, just making enough money to put
19:08gas in the truck.
19:09And, you know, basically what the song says was not exactly my high school experience.
19:14And so I feel like I missed out on the quintessential American young man's high school experience.
19:20Let's write the song.
19:24So that's kind of where that how that song turned out.
19:28I love it. That's that's one of the ones that.
19:32Yeah, I don't know. People light up on as soon as they hear the first couple notes of that, you
19:35know, big guitar intro on it.
19:37We're playing it at the live show. They they go crazy for it.
19:40So it's always fun. Yeah.
19:43And then what about Sounds Like the Radio?
19:45Yeah, Sounds Like the Radio.
19:47That felt like the obviously that was the first single we put out to country radio.
19:54And, you know, a little helpful, a little shameless pandering never hurts.
19:59Put the title for a song you're putting as a radio single.
20:03But, yeah, that felt like ever since we wrote it, I want to say we wrote it in like twenty
20:09twenty one might have been twenty two.
20:11But it's you know, it had been around for a minute.
20:15And I remember the day we wrote it.
20:18And me and Carson looked at each other.
20:20That's another one with Wyatt McCubbin again.
20:22But me and Carson looked at each other and was like, you know what, this song feels like it'd be
20:26a great introduction to, you know,
20:28whenever we put the first record out and start going to radio, this feels like this might be a good
20:33first move.
20:34And so, sure enough, lo and behold, when we came around and it was time to put out a radio
20:40single, that was the first one.
20:41And thank goodness got to have a I believe it was a top 15 reach number 13 or something on
20:47my first radio single.
20:48So I was pretty pumped about that.
20:50And yeah, I don't know.
20:52We'll keep on trucking up from there.
20:54For sure.
20:55And then last one is Flip Plop, because I love that song.
20:58Yeah, I it's funny.
21:00I introduced that on stage is here.
21:05Let me play you the dumbest song I ever wrote.
21:09But it's I don't know.
21:10It makes me laugh.
21:11And so I figured it'd make other people laugh, too, as a goofy.
21:15We wrote that with with Paul Overstreet.
21:17And he's it's he's such a funny dude because he's, you know, written so many.
21:23He wrote somebody's doing me right.
21:25And when you say nothing at all.
21:27And like all these really heartfelt, huge songs, massive hits.
21:32And then, you know, so he can do that.
21:34And then he, you know, he wrote like Dirt Turns to Gold with us.
21:37So that's kind of like a heartfelt, meaningful song.
21:39They turn around the next day and sit there and write something goofy, like flip flop with them.
21:45That's always.
21:46Yeah, always a fun one every night.
21:50And yeah, I don't know.
21:51That's once again, not a huge story behind it.
21:54Just a funny line.
21:56And we decided to to run with the ball, I guess.
21:59So ain't going to change the world.
22:01But but it might change your mood.
22:03Exactly.
22:04Listen, Zach, thank you so much for the time today.
22:06I really appreciate it.
22:07I know how busy you are.
22:08And we, again, appreciate it.
22:09Good to see you.
22:10I think we'll see you again in a few weeks or see you guys.
22:13Absolutely.
22:13Looking forward to it.