Taken from JRE #2015 w/Zach Bryan:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/3dMoEHWNNmb9Kb5muLqVK7?si=dad841e2b65b474f

I don't know what you did in your 20s But my 20s have been like this crazy roller coaster That if just like it hasn't stopped and I'm like, holy shit.

This is what they meant by the 20s or yeah psychotic

and you think you know everything man when you're 22 and 23 It's so scary.

Well, I say you were Successful making music while you were still in the military, right?

22 when I started Wow, I started putting videos on Twitter and it was psychotic It was crazy because I did it like I get all these messages all the time from people who are like, hey, man I was around when you release heading south.

I've been here from the beginning and I'm like wow really the very beginning, you know, and I started putting videos on Twitter back in like 2017 and then I just kept doing it and doing it doing it cuz I was in the Navy had a lot of shit going on I'd like I didn't believe in therapy because that's crazy in the Navy, you know, and I Started just making music and I started posting them on Twitter and people I'd get like 5 or 6 likes and I didn't care It was nice.

It was nice to go home It was nice to go home and feel the way I did and write and put music on Twitter.

I don't know it's kind of my validation in the world of I can write a song at least.

And then man, I was training in Florida and 1 day I put like 4 or 5 videos up and they just went like crazy viral and I was like cool neat And then my life just kept going up and up and up.

time, did you have any, what were your aspirations about recording?

That's why all my beginning records are shitty.

thought shitty, but See when I recorded this when I recorded this I was about to like Go inside.

I'll just throw this on the internet And it was like an iPhone uh-huh and it was like the number 1 voted Reddit video in the entire world, I think, I don't know.

But I was getting calls from people, I'm like, what the hell's going on?

Everyone at work's like, you're going viral.

And we're literally learning how to load missiles and shit.

And I never in my life envisioned being a musician, ever.

I thought I was gonna- my old man was in the Navy for 25 years, he was a Master Chief, my mom was in the Navy, my grandpa was in the Navy.

And I was like, I'm gonna be in the Navy till the day I die probably until I retire at least and that was it that was gonna be my life and I was thinking about it yesterday how crazy my reality is now like coming back to Oklahoma And being around people and people like coming to get me in diners and me like take a picture of me I'm like what is going on?

It is yeah and being in the Navy for like 9 years beforehand is even crazy because no 1 ever talks about that I'm like bro I busted my ass man I was I was like in Africa and fucking Bahrain and stuff and I was like what'd you do in Africa and Bahrain I was a this is a this is a crazy story in itself but I won't tell the whole thing

okay so I open a second Bud light yeah like I said about my dad He was in the Navy for like 25 years So I was hey, man,

Hey, man dork, bro I've always loved dress blues though.

You ever that song dress blues by Isabel?

No, you gotta look it's beautiful it's beautiful, but my dad was in the Navy for like 25 years and my mom was in the Navy, like I said earlier, my grandpa was in the Navy.

And so growing up when I was like 14 years old, I was like, man, I'm going to be in the Navy.

It's best country in the world I want to be in it.

I want to experience that whole like Empire State Building thing where yeah, you're devoted to something.

And so I turned 17 and my dad was a recruiter in Oklahoma, and I was like, okay cool So he like helped me get recruited and I was supposed to go in the Navy as a diver but Shit fell through my dad was like it'll be fine You'll get to boot camp and they'll ask you if you want to be a diver and then you could just say yes And I'll be fine So okay Sick, it's like get on a fucking bus and I'm like, let's do this and I was nervous I was scared man.

I was terrified because I was like a kid.

You don't really know what to expect in the military and I Like end up at boot camp, which is crazy and I was terrified and then I realized it was all just kind of routine and stuff like that.

And I got out of boot camp, actually no that's not the whole story, I was trying to be a diver and and 1 day they were like hey you're gonna get to you're gonna get to reclass what you're doing and they gave me like 2 options and it was like be a master at arms which is like a cop in the military or be a aviation ordnanceman which is like the dudes who like load the bombs and things on planes and I was pissed at my dad I was like what the hell man I thought you said I was gonna get to be a diver I called him I'm like dude you suck man and so my buddies were all AOs which in the Navy they're all fucking made fun of because they're all like big old dumb idiots and then I became an AO and I went to a school to be an AO and it was amazing man I met some of those beautiful people I've ever met I've learned more than I've ever learned but while I got stationed in Nebraska and and I hate I hate this I'm not gonna I'm not gonna oversell this because I don't want to sound tough, but I trained to be a SEAL for like 2 years with this guy named Senior Chief Lundquist out of Omaha, Nebraska.

I took a bunch of these PSTs And I would call my mom like every day.

She would ask me how far I ran, how far I swam, how much I lifted and shit.

And then, I don't take it lightly either.

But I wanted to go to Bud's really bad because like I said, I wanted to do something that was a greater than myself and then the day the day my package came back for the seal the buds thing my mom had died and I was like oh fuck man this sucks this is crazy and all the while I was an AO and I hated I hated it I was like oh shit now I got to be an ordinance man and when she passed away I was like man I don't want to do that I don't want to I don't really want to pursue that.

And I wish I wouldn't have sometimes, but, like, life is crazy.

And my chief my chief, who's, like, high-ranking, he looked at me and he was like, man, you want to go out there and Die or something.

And I was like, I guess you're right and That's 1 of those stories in my life where I kind of I look back and I'm like man if things would have been different what would have happened but she passed away and then I moved to Washington to be an ordnance man.

And as soon as I fucking landed in Washington, they sent me to the desert, this Bahraini desert, to learn how to build missiles and load missiles.

to build missiles, as in like load them, or as in like disassemble and reassemble?

There's explosive ordnance disposal, and then there's AOs, which AOs are kind of just like the little tiny baby cousin of not even they're not even connected EOD There's some badass guys AOs are just the do to build load arm and dearm the bombs that are on the planes that are taken off

I was fucking like 19 years old like oh shit.

Okay, I'm here and I was like I was a sandsailor for sure.

I never I never like was on a ship And so that was my first deployment and I fell in love with it.

I wanted to do it like always I was like this amazing.

I had this really great gunner gunner It's like you're your officer above you and he just inspired me so much to be the best that I could be like every day So I go into work and dude I was a fucking kiss-ass Like in the Navy everyone hated me.

and we were just doing simple shit like eating dinner, you know and But I fell in love with it and I wanted to do it forever and so We would like launch Planes out and like do the keys and shit to arm the missiles that took off and things like that and I forgot what your name question was.

I Don't remember what the exact question was either.

Oh, yeah, just being in the Navy in general And

We're talking about something in specific.

exactly And I said I didn't want to tell the whole story and then

Oh, I was just saying that I was in for like 9 I was in for like 9 years and no 1 ever talks about that shit now and I was like But and then I went to Djibouti Africa, which was crazy.

That's right I asked you about Africa and I want to ask you about Bahrain.

And then I was in Africa for like Dude, I've been in Africa for like a year of my life.

I was deployed there twice, and it's like I loved every second of it because I'd wake up at 5 a.m.

Every morning and go eat breakfast, go load your plane, go eat lunch.

it's like right on the edge either top or I'm gonna say like an idiot.

That's all you do, and you're as happy as fuck, because it's so simple.

And you go to breakfast, work out, go do your job, work out.

man is cool And so you're just on the base and that's it

yeah And then every every more like whether there's like cluster bombs or whatever, you'd like go, you'd go assemble them or load them and shit.

And then, like I said, 1 day I just like ended up like, it was overnight.

1 day I just went to fucking Jacksonville, Florida and was playing my guitar on Twitter And it's like blew up and then my chief was like hey, man.

You got a fucking This is a this is a conflict of interest man famous.

Yeah, I was like I think they were scared that I would show up to work and just be like You know never happened I would never do that cuz I was so devoted to being in the Navy

But they thought you they were losing all power over

exactly which is Crazy to think about man, and I had this fucking My my gunner 1 day comes up to me, and he's like hey man.

You got to get out of the Navy I'm like okay, whatever do I have to and he's like yeah And I was like I'd rather not and he's like okay too bad and then he was like okay you'll be out of the Navy next week and I'm like that's crazy all right been doing this for 8 years now and then it took 8 months to process me out of the Navy And it was crazy because every day I would go into work and think like I was my last day in the Navy cool For 8 months.

This is my last day You gotta work as hard as you possibly can man make it count make it count make it count and every day I'd go in and just bust my ass and then Dude fine like 6 months in I'm like I'm in the fucking Navy forever man sounds good.

She's you know Christ Why is that is that just standard for paperwork?

It's never happened It's never like I think don't quote me But like Elvis Presley was the last guy who got like honorably discharged out to make music And I'm not I'm not like being arrogant in that either.

There's been a lot of stuff with like NFL players who are like at the academy, the Naval Academy, who like are really good at football and getting drafted to the NFL.

They have to like get transferred out and stuff like that, but it's never happened like some Joe shit the ragman Ayo, like me and that's what I knew it that wouldn't do when my gunner called me that day and he's like pack your bags I was like, holy.

I called my dad I thought he was gonna be disappointed because He was a master chief and stuff and I was supposed to be a master chief My dad had like a bottle of whiskey when I was a kid That said master chief Brian on it for me when I made master chief Wow I thought when I called my dad he'd be disappointed, but he was like I might come home Do it And I thought it would flop.

Yeah, exactly exactly But I still I still I never like played a show or anything and then we went like I got out of your first 1 0, yeah, what was it was a the pageant in st.

There wasn't a very first 1 This is unfair to say like my best friends in Washington when I was in the Navy.

I used to play at this place called I used to play like shitty acoustic sets at this place called Off the hook where I got all the sailors went like on the weekends and shit.

They had like and My best friends Austin and Kramer.

They used to come to the bar and watch me these 2 fucking dudes Just Looking at me play and every time I finish a song they clap for me man cuz they're they're real friends, you know And that was like the very first show I ever played but the pageant in st.

I got out of the Navy and Here's what's weird for me because musicians have a I'm talking way too much.

Musicians have usually a pipeline, which drives me crazy, I don't know why, but they have a pipeline of like, oh man, I played small bars, and then I played bigger small bars and then I played the bigger bigger small bars then I went to medium venues and then I went to bigger medium venue and they have this like thing where they're proud of it of course

which I would be too that's a journey But when I got out of the Navy, I was already like...

So I like hopped on a fucking tour bus, like, hey, you're going to the Padgett in St.

Which was crazy for me, because I never played a shit, and people blame me a lot for this shit like they get mad at me and I'm like bro I didn't fucking do this I didn't mean for this to happen and


Speaker 0: The Joe Rogan experience. I don't know about your 20s. I don't know what you did in your 20s But my 20s have been like this crazy roller coaster That if just like it hasn't stopped and I'm like, holy shit. This is what they meant by the 20s or yeah psychotic

Speaker 1: I mean, you're just over being 10. Yeah, literally 10 17 years ago

Speaker 0: and you think you know everything man when you're 22 and 23 It's so scary. Of course It's crazy

Speaker 1: you got into, you got into making music. Well, I say you were Successful making music while you were still in the military, right?

Speaker 0: Yes. How old

Speaker 1: were you?

Speaker 0: 22 when I started Wow, I started putting videos on Twitter and it was psychotic It was crazy because I did it like I get all these messages all the time from people who are like, hey, man I was around when you release heading south. I've been here from the beginning and I'm like wow really the very beginning, you know, and I started putting videos on Twitter back in like 2017 and then I just kept doing it and doing it doing it cuz I was in the Navy had a lot of shit going on I'd like I didn't believe in therapy because that's crazy in the Navy, you know, and I Started just making music and I started posting them on Twitter and people I'd get like 5 or 6 likes and I didn't care It was nice. It was nice to go home It was nice to go home and feel the way I did and write and put music on Twitter. I don't know it's kind of my validation in the world of I can write a song at least. And then man, I was training in Florida and 1 day I put like 4 or 5 videos up and they just went like crazy viral and I was like cool neat And then my life just kept going up and up and up.

And I was like, oh, this is- At that

Speaker 1: time, did you have any, what were your aspirations about recording?

Speaker 0: None, I didn't even know what it was. That's why all my beginning records are shitty.

Speaker 1: You never

Speaker 0: thought shitty, but See when I recorded this when I recorded this I was about to like Go inside. I was like whatever. I'll just throw this on the internet And it was like an iPhone uh-huh and it was like the number 1 voted Reddit video in the entire world, I think, I don't know. But I was getting calls from people, I'm like, what the hell's going on? Everyone at work's like, you're going viral.

I was like, what? And we're literally learning how to load missiles and shit. I'm like, cool. Sick, man. And it's been crazy.

And I never in my life envisioned being a musician, ever. Really? Period. No. I thought I was gonna- my old man was in the Navy for 25 years, he was a Master Chief, my mom was in the Navy, my grandpa was in the Navy.

Both- yeah, just that like, whatever. And I was like, I'm gonna be in the Navy till the day I die probably until I retire at least and that was it that was gonna be my life and I was thinking about it yesterday how crazy my reality is now like coming back to Oklahoma And being around people and people like coming to get me in diners and me like take a picture of me I'm like what is going on? There's like 700 people hate me online. I'm like brah. I didn't fucking mean to do this.

I Don't I'm sorry. It's crazy Wow. I just kept going. It's crazy. It's absolutely crazy

Speaker 1: Yeah, this is a crazy story, right?

Speaker 0: It is yeah and being in the Navy for like 9 years beforehand is even crazy because no 1 ever talks about that I'm like bro I busted my ass man I was I was like in Africa and fucking Bahrain and stuff and I was like what'd you do in Africa and Bahrain I was a this is a this is a crazy story in itself but I won't tell the whole thing

Speaker 1: tell the whole thing shit

Speaker 0: okay so I open a second Bud light yeah like I said about my dad He was in the Navy for like 25 years So I was hey, man,

Speaker 1: look at you.

Speaker 0: Hey, man dork, bro I've always loved dress blues though. That is sick. You ever that song dress blues by Isabel? No, you gotta look it's beautiful it's beautiful, but my dad was in the Navy for like 25 years and my mom was in the Navy, like I said earlier, my grandpa was in the Navy. And so growing up when I was like 14 years old, I was like, man, I'm going to be in the Navy.

That's all I want to do. I want to like die for this country man. It's best country in the world I want to be in it. I want to experience that whole like Empire State Building thing where yeah, you're devoted to something.

Speaker 1: Yeah

Speaker 0: And so I turned 17 and my dad was a recruiter in Oklahoma, and I was like, okay cool So he like helped me get recruited and I was supposed to go in the Navy as a diver but Shit fell through my dad was like it'll be fine You'll get to boot camp and they'll ask you if you want to be a diver and then you could just say yes And I'll be fine So okay Sick, it's like get on a fucking bus and I'm like, let's do this and I was nervous I was scared man. I was terrified because I was like a kid. You don't really know what to expect in the military and I Like end up at boot camp, which is crazy and I was terrified and then I realized it was all just kind of routine and stuff like that. And I got out of boot camp, actually no that's not the whole story, I was trying to be a diver and and 1 day they were like hey you're gonna get to you're gonna get to reclass what you're doing and they gave me like 2 options and it was like be a master at arms which is like a cop in the military or be a aviation ordnanceman which is like the dudes who like load the bombs and things on planes and I was pissed at my dad I was like what the hell man I thought you said I was gonna get to be a diver I called him I'm like dude you suck man and so my buddies were all AOs which in the Navy they're all fucking made fun of because they're all like big old dumb idiots and then I became an AO and I went to a school to be an AO and it was amazing man I met some of those beautiful people I've ever met I've learned more than I've ever learned but while I got stationed in Nebraska and and I hate I hate this I'm not gonna I'm not gonna oversell this because I don't want to sound tough, but I trained to be a SEAL for like 2 years with this guy named Senior Chief Lundquist out of Omaha, Nebraska.

And I trained really, really hard. I took a bunch of these PSTs And I would call my mom like every day. She would ask me how far I ran, how far I swam, how much I lifted and shit. And then, I don't take it lightly either. I never, I'm not tough.

It never happened. But I wanted to go to Bud's really bad because like I said, I wanted to do something that was a greater than myself and then the day the day my package came back for the seal the buds thing my mom had died and I was like oh fuck man this sucks this is crazy and all the while I was an AO and I hated I hated it I was like oh shit now I got to be an ordinance man and when she passed away I was like man I don't want to do that I don't want to I don't really want to pursue that. So I bitched out, for sure. And I wish I wouldn't have sometimes, but, like, life is crazy. And my chief my chief, who's, like, high-ranking, he looked at me and he was like, man, you want to go out there and Die or something.

Why do you want to do this so bad? And I was like, I guess you're right and That's 1 of those stories in my life where I kind of I look back and I'm like man if things would have been different what would have happened but she passed away and then I moved to Washington to be an ordnance man. And as soon as I fucking landed in Washington, they sent me to the desert, this Bahraini desert, to learn how to build missiles and load missiles. It's crazy. And it was sick, man.

It was beautiful. So, and I was- You had

Speaker 1: to build missiles, as in like load them, or as in like disassemble and reassemble?

Speaker 0: And this is different from EOD. There's explosive ordnance disposal, and then there's AOs, which AOs are kind of just like the little tiny baby cousin of not even they're not even connected EOD There's some badass guys AOs are just the do to build load arm and dearm the bombs that are on the planes that are taken off

Speaker 1: Just but just build bombs. No big deal.

Speaker 0: Yeah, it's cool, man. It's neat and but fucking It's crazy. So I was in the desert man. I was fucking like 19 years old like oh shit. Okay, I'm here and I was like I was a sandsailor for sure.

I never I never like was on a ship And so that was my first deployment and I fell in love with it. I wanted to do it like always I was like this amazing. I had this really great gunner gunner It's like you're your officer above you and he just inspired me so much to be the best that I could be like every day So I go into work and dude I was a fucking kiss-ass Like in the Navy everyone hated me. So I was like, let's

Speaker 1: do it. Let's go to war man. Let's go

Speaker 0: and we were just doing simple shit like eating dinner, you know and But I fell in love with it and I wanted to do it forever and so We would like launch Planes out and like do the keys and shit to arm the missiles that took off and things like that and I forgot what your name question was. I'm so sorry Like at the very beginning.

Speaker 1: I Don't remember what the exact question was either.

Speaker 0: Oh, yeah, just being in the Navy in general And

Speaker 1: what was it? What were you talking about? We're talking about something in specific. I know civic story

Speaker 0: exactly And I said I didn't want to tell the whole story and then

Speaker 1: I thought damn it

Speaker 0: Oh, I was just saying that I was in for like 9 I was in for like 9 years and no 1 ever talks about that shit now and I was like But and then I went to Djibouti Africa, which was crazy.

Speaker 1: That's right I asked you about Africa and I want to ask you about Bahrain. Yeah. That's what started it.

Speaker 0: Yeah. And then I was in Africa for like Dude, I've been in Africa for like a year of my life. I was deployed there twice, and it's like I loved every second of it because I'd wake up at 5 a.m. Every morning and go eat breakfast, go load your plane, go eat lunch.

Speaker 1: What part of Africa were you in? Djibouti and where's that the horn

Speaker 0: it's like right on the edge either top or I'm gonna say like an idiot.

Speaker 1: Was there a lot of wildlife?

Speaker 0: No, we were stuck on the base. The whole time. You can't even go off the base. It's crazy. It's called Camp Lumineer.

But it's

Speaker 1: cool though, because there's

Speaker 0: like 8 gyms, man, and like food. That's all you do, and you're as happy as fuck, because it's so simple. That is wild. And you go to breakfast, work out, go do your job, work out.

Speaker 1: That's what it looks like there.

Speaker 0: No way Little shittier where we were

Speaker 1: man is cool And so you're just on the base and that's it

Speaker 0: yeah And then every every more like whether there's like cluster bombs or whatever, you'd like go, you'd go assemble them or load them and shit. And it was, it was really crazy. Yeah. And then, like I said, 1 day I just like ended up like, it was overnight. 1 day I just went to fucking Jacksonville, Florida and was playing my guitar on Twitter And it's like blew up and then my chief was like hey, man.

It's crazy. You got a fucking This is a this is a conflict of interest man famous. Yeah, I was like I think they were scared that I would show up to work and just be like You know never happened I would never do that cuz I was so devoted to being in the Navy

Speaker 1: But they thought you they were losing all power over

Speaker 0: exactly which is Crazy to think about man, and I had this fucking My my gunner 1 day comes up to me, and he's like hey man. This is getting crazy. You got to get out of the Navy I'm like okay, whatever do I have to and he's like yeah And I was like I'd rather not and he's like okay too bad and then he was like okay you'll be out of the Navy next week and I'm like that's crazy all right been doing this for 8 years now and then it took 8 months to process me out of the Navy And it was crazy because every day I would go into work and think like I was my last day in the Navy cool For 8 months. This is my last day You gotta work as hard as you possibly can man make it count make it count make it count and every day I'd go in and just bust my ass and then Dude fine like 6 months in I'm like I'm in the fucking Navy forever man sounds good.

Speaker 1: She's you know Christ Why is that is that just standard for paperwork?

Speaker 0: It's never happened It's never like I think don't quote me But like Elvis Presley was the last guy who got like honorably discharged out to make music And I'm not I'm not like being arrogant in that either. I think that's true. And it just never happens like that. There's been a lot of stuff with like NFL players who are like at the academy, the Naval Academy, who like are really good at football and getting drafted to the NFL. They have to like get transferred out and stuff like that, but it's never happened like some Joe shit the ragman Ayo, like me and that's what I knew it that wouldn't do when my gunner called me that day and he's like pack your bags I was like, holy.

Oh, this is that serious. I called my dad I thought he was gonna be disappointed because He was a master chief and stuff and I was supposed to be a master chief My dad had like a bottle of whiskey when I was a kid That said master chief Brian on it for me when I made master chief Wow I thought when I called my dad he'd be disappointed, but he was like I might come home Do it And I thought it would flop. I thought I thought it'd be nothing

Speaker 1: in the year. You were already successful online

Speaker 0: Yeah, exactly exactly But I still I still I never like played a show or anything and then we went like I got out of your first 1 0, yeah, what was it was a the pageant in st. Louis, Missouri How many people? There wasn't a very first 1 This is unfair to say like my best friends in Washington when I was in the Navy. I used to play at this place called I used to play like shitty acoustic sets at this place called Off the hook where I got all the sailors went like on the weekends and shit. They had like and My best friends Austin and Kramer.

They used to come to the bar and watch me these 2 fucking dudes Just Looking at me play and every time I finish a song they clap for me man cuz they're they're real friends, you know And that was like the very first show I ever played but the pageant in st. Louis. I got out of the Navy and Here's what's weird for me because musicians have a I'm talking way too much. I apologize.

Speaker 1: No, you're

Speaker 0: not at all. Musicians have usually a pipeline, which drives me crazy, I don't know why, but they have a pipeline of like, oh man, I played small bars, and then I played bigger small bars and then I played the bigger bigger small bars then I went to medium venues and then I went to bigger medium venue and they have this like thing where they're proud of it of course

Speaker 1: uh-huh

Speaker 0: which I would be too that's a journey But when I got out of the Navy, I was already like... There. So I like hopped on a fucking tour bus, like, hey, you're going to the Padgett in St. Louis.

Speaker 1: Wow. How many people is that?

Speaker 0: I think 2,000, 2,500. Wow. Which was crazy for me, because I never played a shit, and people blame me a lot for this shit like they get mad at me and I'm like bro I didn't fucking do this I didn't mean for this to happen and

Speaker 1: why are they mad at

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Zach Bryan on Becoming Famous While Still in the Navy