Who is Zach Bryan and why is half of Ireland trying to bag tickets to his three Phoenix Park shows next year?
Zach Bryan, the 28-year-old former US navy enlistee from Oklahoma, is one of the biggest breakout country superstars of his generation. With songs such as Something in the Orange and I Remember Everything, he’s sold 30 million-plus albums and has nearly 30 million monthly listeners on Spotify – almost 10 million more than U2. He’s an everyman mega-star.
A country artist playing multiple nights in Ireland ... Is this the second coming of Garth Brooks?
Yes and no. There is no question that Bryan is wildly popular in Ireland. In 2025, he will play two London Hyde Park shows and those three June dates in Dublin – two have sold out already. So, just like Brooks, he has an outsize fan base in Ireland owing to the special place country music occupies in the hearts of many Irish music fans.
Does he have a song as mind-blowing as Friends In Low Places?
Eh ... not really. Aside from their popularity in Ireland, he doesn’t have much in common with Brooks, who was always a bit of an easy target for critics. Bryant, by contrast, has been acclaimed since his 2022 breakout LP, American Heartbreak – a two-hour, double-disc epic that clocked in at a hefty 34 tracks and which drew on such credible influences such as Americana songwriter Jason Isbell.
The New York Times praised it as a “bracing and shaggily elegant” collection of “rock, folk, and country”. GQ heralded his “simple and relatable” lyrics about “family, growing up, falling in love, and hanging out with the boys”.
The Music Quiz: Who is Kayleigh Rose Amstutz better known as?
Oscars 2025: Kneecap shortlisted for best international feature film and best original song
‘My dad managed the Pogues. I’ve refused to let the sense of loss take over at Christmas’
The 2 Johnnies Christmas Party at 3Arena: It’s easy to sneer at the triteness and crudeness, but are 13,000 happy fans wrong?
He has lots of famous fans too. Niall Horan has covered Something in the Orange. And in October Rolling Stone facilitated a sit-down between Bryan and Bruce Springsteen where they bonded over their love for songs that articulated the struggles of the blue-collar masses.
Sounds like a nice guy, without any controversies?
Well, not quite. Since American Heartbreak made him famous, Bryant has displayed a talent for getting into scrapes and generating negative publicity. In October, he broke up with his girlfriend, podcaster Brianna Chickenfry (Brianna LaPaglia), over Instagram without telling her first. “I just woke up to Zach posting on his Instagram that we broke up, and I had no idea that post was going up,” she said in a video. “He didn’t text me, he didn’t call me.”
That was just the latest heading in a series of headline-grabbing stumbles. In September 2023, Bryan was arrested in his home state following an “incident with the Oklahoma Highway Patrol”. He had become involved in a dispute with a police officer during a traffic stop involving Bryan’s bodyguard. Bryan ignored orders to stay in his car, saying, “I’ll go to jail let’s do it.” He later apologised, saying, “I was just an idiot ... I shouldn’t have behaved like that, and it won’t happen again”.
He also made a controversial Instagram post claiming Kanye West was a superior artist to Taylor Swift. “Eagles > Chiefs, Kanye > Taylor, who’s with me,” he wrote. As the wrath of Swifties across the world descended on his social media, he deactivated his account and then apologised, saying he was drunk when he posted the message.
Dissing Taylor Swift, rowing with cops – wow. Is he a loose cannon?
He is undoubtedly a straight-shooter. So much so that he’s gone where many other artists would not dare by criticising Ticketmaster. His 2022 live album is called All My Homies Hate Ticketmaster and he has criticised the absurd cost of live music.
“I have met kids at my shows who have paid upwards of four-hundred bucks to be there and I’m done with it,” Bryan tweeted that December. “I’ve decided to play a limited number of headline shows next year, to which I’ve done all I can to make prices as cheap as possible and to prove to people tickets don’t have to cost $450 to see a good and honest show.”
So he’s boycotting Ticketmaster on his Irish tour?
Alas not. Such is the way of the world, the only way you get tickets (assuming any more become available) is through the Live National monopoly. But at least he seems to hate them as much as fans do, so that has to count as progress. What perhaps doesn’t count as progress are the ticket prices to see him in Ireland – which range from €121.25 to €156.25. Someone fetch the smelling salts.
Will this be his first time in Ireland?
He previously played the Helix at DCU in Dublin in April 2023. Its capacity of 1,800 is obviously a lot less than the 100,000 who will flock to Phoenix Park to watch him next year. The 28-year-old is a superstar going supernova in real-time.
- Sign up for push alerts and have the best news, analysis and comment delivered directly to your phone
- Join The Irish Times on WhatsApp and stay up to date
- Listen to our Inside Politics podcast for the best political chat and analysis
