At the 2024 CMA Awards on November 20, Zach Bryan could win his first trophy from the annual country music showcase. The 28-year-old is nominated for Musical Event of the Year thanks to “I Remember Everything,” his chart-topping collaboration with Kacey Musgraves. The ceremony airs at 8 p.m. ET Wednesday on ABC.
All the 2024 CMA Award Nominees
What’s next for Bryan remains to be seen. The singer-songwriter released two new songs this month, “The World’s a Giant” and “High Road.” In an accompanying Instagram post, Bryan detailed a recent visit to his late mother’s gravesite and suggested he’ll be taking some time away from the road. He wrote, in part:
“Told her I quit touring because I got accepted to get my masters in Paris next year, I told her I was back in Oklahoma, told her about all my best friends in New York and all the nights we howled with the moon, told her about the immeasurable laughter my band and me have shared these last five years.”
Bryan hasn’t made any official announcements about his 2025 plans and is only scheduled to play three venues so far, including a headlining set at the annual Stagecoach Festival.
As for the new songs, some have speculated the lyrics refer to Bryan’s highly-publicized breakup with Barstool Sports personality Brianna LaPaglia, better known as Brianna Chickenfry, in October. LaPaglia, 25, has since accused Bryan of emotional abuse during their year-plus relationship. He hasn’t spoken publicly about the accusations.
Who Is Zach Bryan?
Zach Bryan is a country music singer and songwriter known for the hit songs “Something in the Orange” and “I Remember Everything,” a Grammy-winning duet with Kacey Musgraves. Bryan first rose to prominence during his service in the U.S. Navy when he began recording songs in his free time and uploading them online. Once his music started to gain widespread attention, he received an honorable discharge to pursue music full-time. His three studio albums—2022’s American Heartbreak, a 2023 self-titled album, and 2024’s The Great American Bar Scene—all reached the top five of the Billboard 200, with Zach Bryan debuting in the top spot. The Academy of Country Music named him the New Male Artist of the Year for 2022.
Quick Facts
FULL NAME: Zachary Lane Bryan
BORN: April 2, 1996
BIRTHPLACE: Okinawa, Japan
SPOUSE: Rose Madden (2020-2021)
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Aries
Where Is Zach Bryan From?
Zachary Lane Bryan was born on April 2, 1996, in Okinawa, Japan. His parents, Dewayne and Annette DeAnn Bryan, were stationed there as part of a deployment with the U.S. Navy. Bryan also has a sister, MacKenzie Taylor.
Dewayne and Annette divorced when Zach was around 12 years old. Zach then lived with his father, who had full custody after the divorce and eventually remarried. However, Zach remained close to his mother, who battled alcohol abuse and died in 2016.
When Zach was in eighth grade, his family moved to Oologah, Oklahoma, near Tulsa. According to his sister, he began playing guitar when he was in middle school. Music wasn’t Bryan’s sole focus at Oologah High School, where he was on the wrestling team and served as student council president, but he was drawn to the idea of telling stories through song. “When I was 14, we started making these dumb songs up, me and my buddies sitting around, and I just never really expected to be a musician, ever,” he told The Oklahoman. “But I always wanted to write songs. That’s what I wanted to do: I wanted to be a songwriter.”
Bryan was also determined to continue a family legacy by joining the U.S. Navy—his parents, grandfather, uncles, and great-grandfather had all served. He enlisted when he was 17.
U.S. Navy Service
After completing high school, Bryan served as an aviation ordnanceman in the Navy. He was responsible for assembling, repairing, and loading weapons. Bryan was stationed in Washington and Florida and did tours of duty abroad in Bahrain and Djibouti. “It’s all I lived, slept, and ate for eight years, it’s all I knew since I was basically a snot-nosed child,” he said of his service in 2021. “It made a man out of me, truly.”
During his free time, Bryan recorded songs. He began posting clips of his music online in 2015. Four years later, he played his first gig, earning $60 for playing nine hours at a Potbelly Sandwich Shop. Also in 2019, Bryan recorded his first album DeAnn—his mother’s middle name—with the help of his Navy friends at an Airbnb in Florida. A year later, he released another album, Elisabeth, which contained his breakout single “Heading South.” The video, which was shot at Bryan’s Navy barracks, received millions of views.
As a rising name in the country scene, Bryan—still an active serviceman—made his debut at the famous Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee, in April 2021. Soon after in October, Bryan announced he had received an honorable discharge from the Navy so that he could pursue a music career.
The singer credited his gunner in the Navy for helping him get discharged and recognizing that his talent would resonate with listeners. “He looked at me one day, and he is like, ‘Dude, you have to do this. If you don’t do this, millions of people who strive every day to do this are going to be disappointed in the fact that you wasted this chance,’” Bryan told Today’s Country Radio. So Bryan inked a deal with Warner Records and hit the road as a full-time performer on his Ain’t for Tamin’ Tour in October 2021.
Music Career and Top Songs
In early 2022, Bryan released a series of singles ahead of his first studio album American Heartbreak. This included “Something in the Orange,” which is one of his most successful song to date. It eventually reached No. 1 on both the Hot Country Songs and Hot Rock & Alternative Songs charts. “Orange” also spent 66 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 10.
An alternate version of the song was also featured on American Heartbreak. Released in May 2022, the 34-track triple album started at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 and set the year’s high mark for single-day streaming on both Spotify and Apple Music, solidifying Bryan as a rising star.
Despite his album’s wild success, Bryan wasn’t nominated at the 2022 CMA Awards in November. Fans were upset at the snub, but the singer bluntly said he never wants to be considered for any Country Music Association honors. “My pride is fine and I appreciate all the love and support and I say it with every ounce of respect to other country artists. Establishments will always be weird,” he tweeted.
Conversely, the Academy of Country Music was quick to recognize the singer, naming him 2022’s New Male Artist of the Year at its annual ceremony in May 2023. With this momentum, Bryan released a self-titled and self-produced country-rock album in August 2023 that immediately went to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and Top Country Albums charts. Similarly, its lead single “I Remember Everything,” a duet with Kacey Musgraves, debuted in the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100.
The Country Music Association couldn’t overlook Bryan’s success again and nominated the singer for New Artist of the Year at the 2023 CMAs, along with eventual winner Jelly Roll, Megan Moroney, Parker McCollum, and Hailey Whitters. Soon after, Bryan received an even bigger honor with three nominations for the 2024 Grammy Awards: Best Country Album for Zach Bryan as well as Best Country Song and Best Country Duo/Group Performance for “I Remember Everything.” The song won for Duo/Group Performance in February 2024, giving Bryan his biggest trophy to date. The track is also nominated for Musical Event of the Year at the 2024 CMA Awards.
Despite his rising popularity on the country scene, Bryan has maintained that he doesn’t want to be typecast into the genre. “I think people understand that I’m not that,” he said in a 2022 interview with The New York Times. “I want to be in that Springsteen, Kings of Leon, Ed Sheeran at-the-very-beginning space.” Bryan counts Bruce Springsteen as one of his heroes partially because people don’t strictly categorize the “Born In The U.S.A.” singer’s sound.
In March 2024, Bryan began a 10-month long Quittin’ Time Tour, also featuring artists such as Jason Isbell and Sheryl Crow. Mid-tour, the singer released his fifth album, The Great American Bar Scene, on July 4. With contributions from John Mayer and Bruce Springsteen among other musicians, it became Bryan’s third No. 1 country album and peaked in second on the Billboard 200. The record’s most popular songs are “Pink Skies,” “28,” and “American Nights.”
Appearance on Yellowstone
Bryan’s music has been prominently featured in the Paramount Network drama series Yellowstone, starring Kevin Costner. The TV show helped boost his popularity as well as several other musicians, including Whiskey Myers, Flatland Cavalry, and Lainey Wilson. Yellowstone first used Bryan’s single “Condemned” in Season 3 in 2020 and has also included tracks like “Whiskey Fever,” “Flying or Crying,” and “The Good I’ll Do” as part of its soundtrack.
In December 2022, Bryan appeared in an episode of Yellowstone’s fifth season, performing three songs—“Motorcycle Drive By,” “Quittin’ Time,” and “Summertime Blues” off his Summertime Blues EP—at a county fair. “Humbled and honored and don’t know what I did to deserve it,” Bryan said of the experience.
Controversies and Arrest
Bryan rarely gives interviews and prefers to stay out of the spotlight. Still, the singer, who describes himself as a “total libertarian,” hasn’t been afraid to wade into of-the-moment political topics.
In April 2023, Bryan called out country artist Travis Tritt on social media for supporting a boycott of the Anheuser-Busch beer company after it featured transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney in an ad campaign. “I just think insulting transgender people is completely wrong because we live in a country where we can all just be who we want to be. It’s a great day to be alive I thought,” he tweeted, apparently taking a jab at Tritt’s 2000 song of the same name. Bryan also said he has family transitioning and, thus, “blood to defend.” A few days later, Bryan and Tritt met in person to discuss the issue and agreed to move forward on friendly terms.
Bryan has also been critical of major ticket vendors, specifically Ticketmaster, for charging fans too much money to attend concerts and events. “I have met kids at my shows who have paid upwards of four-hundred bucks to be there and I’m done with it,” he said in a December 2022 tweet. He also revealed he would play a limited number of headline shows the following year and vowed to do all he can to make prices more affordable. But by September 2023, the singer announced he was again using all ticketing sites, including Ticketmaster.
Bryan made headlines again in September 2023 when he was arrested in Oklahoma after obstructing a police officer. According to a police report, his private security was driving an SUV that was pulled over for allegedly speeding. Bryan left his pickup truck to speak with the officer involved and refused to return to his vehicle as requested.
Zach Bryan Apologizes After His Arrest in Oklahoma
Quickly released on bond, Bryan addressed the incident after his mug shot began to circulate on social media and apologized for his role in the confrontation. “[My behavior] was ridiculous, it was immature, and I just pray everyone knows that I don’t think I’m above the law,” he said. In November 2024, Bryan completed a six-month deferred prosecution agreement, meaning the criminal case against him was officially closed.
Ex-Wife and Past Relationships
Bryan met his ex-wife Rose Madden while serving in the military, according to Page Six. The pair married in July 2020 but divorced a year later in July 2021. However, few other details are known about Madden, including her rank while serving. Although the singer has never confirmed it publicly, it’s believed he named his album Elisabeth after her. Her full name is Elisabeth Rose Madden.
In January 2022, Bryan began dating Deb Peifer, an education program coordinator from Philadelphia. Most notably, the two were involved in a motorcycle accident in summer 2022; Bryan suffered a gash to his right arm and other minor injuries, while Peifer was largely unharmed. After more than a year together, the couple split in May 2023. “Things are mutual between us, we’re leaving with plenty memories and good times. I beg so much that everyone respects her and my privacy through a hard time,” Bryan wrote in a Twitter post.
Soon after, Bryan started dating Brianna LaPaglia. Het met the Barstool Sports personality, better known as Brianna Chickenfry, at the ACM Awards in May 2023. LaPaglia joined Bryan onstage at a concert in New York City and publicly confirmed their relationship in July 2023. LaPaglia revealed in May 2024 that the pair suffered minor injuries in off-road vehicle accident, with Bryan receiving stitches from paramedics at the scene.
In October 2024, Bryan announced that the pair had broken up. “She has loved me unconditionally for a very long time and for that I’ll always thank her,” he wrote on his Instagram. However, LaPaglia painted a different picture of their relationship on a November episode of the BFFs Podcast and alleged Bryan was emotionally abusive during their relationship and had offered her a $12 million nondisclosure agreement. “The last year of my life has been the hardest year of my life dealing with the abuse from this dude,” she said. Bryan hasn’t spoken publicly about the accusations.
Quotes
- Songwriting is such a massive part of this. If you’re missing out on it, what the hell are you doing? You’re just performing. You’re an actor.
- I’ve got no grand explanations for these songs, I got no riddle in reasoning behind writing them. I don’t have a bulls–– rollout plan to stuff it in front of as many people as I can. I just wrote some poems and songs that I want to share because I think they’re special.
- [I] don’t get the whole sitting down to write something… I’ve never done that because it’s so strange. I have to go out and live the best that I can through family or kindness or adventure or heartbreak and all that. And that’s—it sounds weird, but I just, that’s why I write: to understand life myself.
- I never in my life envisioned being a musician. Ever. Period. No. And I was thinkin’ about it yesterday, how crazy my reality is now. Like coming back to Oklahoma and being around people, and people coming to get me in diners and being like, “Take a picture with me.” I’m like, “What is going on, man?”
- I’m like a Kerouac guy. Like, I think life is reckless, and it should be insane. It all ends in agony. It’s all about the outcome, so like, do it, you know? Do whatever it is.
- Mothers are the best thing that’s ever happened to the world. They are just as strong as the dudes, and 10 times as smart.
