In 2025, Zac Brown (and by extension Zac Brown Band) has fairly a sophisticated historical past. As we all know, the band itself was nothing wanting lightning in a jar early of their profession, starting it with three straight basic albums, The Basis, You Get What You Give and Uncaged, proper out of the gate.
As time has gone on, each the standard of their releases and Brown’s private life have been closely referred to as into query. Within the studio, the previous decade has been tormented by head scratching releases comparable to The Owl and the Georgia native’s solo, pop venture, The Controversy. Out of the studio, Brown has seen himself on the middle of controversies centering round his divorce and following authorized battles together with his ex spouse, Kelly Yazdi.
One factor that can not be denied whatever the present trajectory of each Brown and the band’s profession proper now’s the success that came across the discharge of their debut album, The Basis, and extra particularly with the discharge of their debut 2008 single, “Rooster Fried.”
As some of the widespread nation songs launched within the 2000s, “Rooster Fried’s” accomplishments are nothing wanting spectacular. Past its 9x platinum certification from the RIAA, 859 million streams on Spotify alone and nomination for Single and Track of the 12 months on the forty third CMA Awards, the smash hit additionally grew to become the primary debut single to achieve #1 on Billboard’s Sizzling Nation Songs chart since Heartland’s “I Liked Her First” in 2006.
The story behind the admittedly easy and easy track is far more sophisticated than what meets the attention, nonetheless.
Past the well-documented feud with The Misplaced Trailers who recorded and launched the track as a single towards Brown’s needs earlier than changing it on nation radio, the 47-year-old singer/songwriter not too long ago revealed in an interview with Zach Sang that “Rooster Fried” really took years to completely end.
As Brown remembers, his longtime co-writer, Wyatt Durrette, had the track’s refrain written down on a serviette. Loving the route of the refrain, he and Durrette would start making an inventory of issues that they cherished about being American, which resulted within the formation of the verses.
“It was a course of. The man that I used to be writing with, he had had the refrain of that. It was written on a serviette behind the bar, and I cherished that. So once we type of had an concept of what the refrain was, we made an inventory of all of the issues that we love about being in America and being free. Then we pulled from that record all the issues within the verses.”
The “Colder Climate” singer would then reveal that the track, in its entirety, really took years to completely kind. At one level, that they had a 3rd and closing verse, which he described as “humorous.” Nonetheless, they ended up scrapping it and changing it with the patriotic one everyone knows now.
“For the primary two years, we had a complete one other verse that was type of a humorous verse, however I knew it wasn’t the best one. I knew it; we might beat that one. Then the patriotic verse got here to me, and that’s when [there was a chance] to present props to all of the those that have sacrificed in order that we could be free right here dwelling our American dream. In order that we could be free right here to play music and create and grind and do the issues that we do.”
Wrapping up, Brown would end by calling “Rooster Fried’s” lengthy creation course of a “journey,” noting that the one approach to write a superb track is to push previous settling for mediocre strains.
“That was a journey. I imply, it was years of engaged on that track. I used to be taking part in it in bars. I used to be taking part in it each evening with this different verse in it earlier than we had the ultimate one collectively. I feel it’s simply actually not settling. You don’t accept mediocrity. If there’s a mediocre line in it, you then gotta hold combating and hold going till you discover the best one and simply not settling. I feel that’s the way in which you get to a superb track.”
On condition that “Rooster Fried” shouldn’t be solely some of the recognizable nation songs launched over the previous 20 years but in addition nicely on its approach to develop into one of many uncommon licensed diamond songs within the style, one thing tells me that Brown knew what he was doing ready for therefore lengthy to complete the now-classic observe.
Watch right here:
@zachsangshow You recognize I like my hen fried @Zac Brown Band @Zac Brown #zacbrownband #lyrics #songwriter #zachsangshow #fyp ♬ authentic sound – Zach Sang Present
“Rooster Fried”
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