Sunnyside, Washington native Zach Top is without a doubt one of the biggest emerging stars in Country music right now.
His 2024 album ‘Cold Beer & Country Music' garnered plenty of attention and critical acclaim, but with his 2025 album “Ain't In It For My Health” he's rocketed to international stardom. Recently Top won his first Grammy – he was the inaugural winner of the Grammy for ‘Best Traditional Country Album' – and he's currently in Europe for shows ahead of his headline appearance at C2C in March.
I caught up with Zach to discuss his recent Grammy win, talk about his rise to stardom, and to find out what fans can expect when he makes his UK debut at C2C next month…
Zach, welcome to the UK!
Thank you very much. I'm glad to be here. I appreciate that.
Congratulations on winning a Grammy recently. What was that experience like for you?
I don't even know if I know what it's like yet. It's funny. It feels surreal still, for sure. I think the one thing that has stuck with me, that feels really cool is no matter what happens for the rest of my life, I get to be introduced on stage as a Grammy Award winner. That's kind of the pinnacle. There's a lot of cool awards to win and, and stuff that feels really nice, but winning a Grammy is about as good as it gets. I'm really thankful and super excited about it but I don't even know if it's hit me all the way yet.
You were nominated for three Grammys this year and during your acceptance speech you could tell how shocked you were, and you mentioned it was ‘insane'. Did you have any idea that you were going to win?
I really didn't. I'm in the category with Willie Nelson for crying out loud. Charlie Crockett's hotter than fire right now and Tyler Childers (was nominated too) . There's a bunch of stuff out there represented and Willie's boy, Lucas, who I'm buddies with too. A bunch of great, great music, and great artists. It's still a little baffling that they picked me outta that group but I'm really thankful for it. (I was) Blown away that we were nominated for three and really proud too. If I could have picked one to take home, (it would have been) the one for the whole album and especially for the first year of that new category. That felt like a really cool statement type of win on that. I'm really excited about that.
You are the always going to be the first person that won ‘Best Traditional Country Album' so that category is yours and you'll always be the inaugural winner…
Yeah, yeah (laughs).
We have a mutual friend. My dear friend Hannah Dasher was the first person to put me onto your music…
Oh, no kidding.
I stayed with Hannah during CMA Fest in 2024 and she was telling me how great you and your music are…
That's very kind of her. I love Hannah. She's a talented, talented gal, and she's always been super, super nice to me.
Hannah has always said you're going to be huge and you are one of the biggest stars in the genre now with so much buzz around you. What has that journey been like?
It is crazy. I haven't gotten out of the mindset of being the outsider or the underdog, you know, 'cause I still sound so much different than the rest of what's going on. It feels kind of wild that it's caught on this well and that I am one of the, I guess, more prominent figures in the genre feels kind of crazy to me. I'm very humbled by it and very thankful, and overjoyed that this many people have caught on and fallen in love with the music as much as they have, when it sticks out like a sore thumb from the rest of what's on the radio and everything. It's a cool place to be. I'm very thankful that I hit the cycle at the right time where it's swinging back toward the traditional thing, like it's done so many times before. It's just another iteration of the cycle but I'm glad I showed up at the right time and that people are hungry for my sound at the moment.
I grew up on the Country music of the 90s, which to me feels like the golden era. It feels like artists such as yourself are taking us back to that more traditional sound that was on the radio then. Is that they way you think the genre is heading?
I think so. I feel like fans of country always find something new that comes along that's a little different, a little wacky, and they go chase that. The industry goes and chases that for a while until it's kind of played itself out. Then it always swings back to the traditional, what we've always known and loved to be country music. It's funny. I think this latest cycle has been a long one, starting back in I think 2010 when ‘Cruise' came out from Florida Georgia Line. That felt like the big shift toward this hip- hop influence into country. Obviously, Morgan Wallen is at the peak of his powers in that same type of vein as well. It feels like the hunger from fans has turned somewhat toward a return to the roots and traditions of country music. It's just so funny to watch it 'cause back when George Strait and Randy Travis came around, they had to save country music after Kenny Rogers ruined it. I feel like these cycles have been going on as long as country music has been around. There's always been something new and a little different and edgy that goes on for a little bit and then people return to something traditional and familiar feeling.
‘Cold Beer & Country Music' was your first album release on Leo33 and it garnered a lot of acclaim and buzz. Your current album “Ain't In It For My Health” seems to have really built on that and expanded your audience outside of the US. What's it like to see that support building across the globe?
It's wild. It still blows my mind that this far away from home, that people are hearing that music, relating to it and it makes 'em feel something and they love it. The only real international stuff we've done was Australia this past year, Spring of '25. We Had an amazing experience down there and that kind of fueled my fire a little bit too. If there's a fan somewhere, anywhere in the world that wants to see a show, I gotta get a show there so they can come see the live thing. It's crazy. All these countries – Switzerland, Denmark, and Sweden – all these places that English might not even be primarily the first language, somehow they're hearing the music and relating to it and feeling it. It's a wild thing and it's fun to see. It feels like country music has had a big uptick in the last, I don't know, five or 10 years or something. It's gained a lot of popularity for a while and it's kind of been happening in the States that it's gained popularity as well. It's cool to see that happening internationally and people all over the world falling in love with that music.
We've seen it grow massively here in the UK. I've been covering C2C since the very first one and it was there I discovered there's a Country line-dancing craze in Germany, which you wouldn't necessarily expect…
Yeah, that's crazy!
We're 13 years in from the first C2C and now you're going to be headlining it at The O2 Arena in London. This is also your first time playing over here so how are you feeling ahead of that?
It's wild to think that there's enough people to, to fill up an arena over here that enjoy my music that way. Having never been over here, I guess the power of the internet and streaming services and social media, you can get a foothold somewhere before you ever make it over to a place in person. I'm so thankful that we've got those tools to reach people farther away. For whatever reason, people are loving the music and it's making 'em feel something. That makes me really proud and really thankful, and excited to get over here and do our thing and make the people go crazy.
We have the likes of Luke Combs and Morgan Wallen now selling out stadiums in the UK. The only place for you to go after arenas here is stadiums. Is that something you've got your sights set on?
Oh yeah, absolutely. If there's fans anywhere in the world, I want to go play shows for 'em and hopefully we just keep making more and more people fall in love and keep coming out to the shows. That'd be big goal of mine.
“Ain't In It For My Health” came out in 2025 but are you already planning for the next record?
Yeah, the wheels are always turning. It was April of '24 that we put out ‘Cold Beer and Country Music' so it's about a year and a half before “Ain't In It For My Health” came out and that felt like a nice amount of time to me. It felt like it gave the first record its own moment to shine so people could live with that and fall in love with that for a while. I feel like “Ain't In It For My Health” is still kind of brand new. We only toured like three good months on it basically at the end of last year. It feels like there's still a lot of people that haven't seen the show with the new music in there and it's still got a lot of legs and a lot of breathing left to do. We'll feel it out and see. I'm always impatient to get more music out (but) I want everything to have its moment and for people to live with it as much as they want to. We've been writing a bunch of songs the last couple months and a bunch of stuff that I'm really, really excited about. I'm already looking forward to being able to put them out and have folks fall in love with them.
For those fans of yours who'll be seeing you for the first time at C2C, what can they expect from a Zach Top show?
Well, I may be biased but I think I got the best band on the road. We don't put a lot of bells and whistles in our show, it's just all about the music. For me, just the playing and the singing and I think I've got some of the best in the business in my band that can do that like no other. We'll be out there burning it down, making people go crazy, and hopefully they love it. We're gonna mix in a little bit of the bluegrass stuff too. I always like to just have a little section in the show, when we play our full length show, that gives a little nod to where I came from too so that's always fun. We'll have a bunch of stuff from the old record, a bunch of stuff from the new record and we'll mix it all up. A few covers in there, hopefully some old songs people know. I've been trying to think about playing a Dire Straits song or something that's like a little more international than country to get folks fired up about. We'll see. We've got a couple days of rehearsal coming up so we'll get it all ironed out and have one ready that'll get the folks going crazy.
Zach Top's album “Ain't In It For My Health” is out now. He will be headlining C2C at The O2 Arena, London on Friday 13th March 2026 and he'll be performing at C2C Belfast on Saturday 14th March 2026 and C2C Glasgow on Sunday 15th March 2026. For more information and tickets, head over to https://c2c-countrytocountry.com/.
