On The Verge

Zac Brown Band

Atlanta, Ga.
A Chicken Fried Family Affair
www.zacbrownband.com

Zac Brown had just turned 16 when he was driving down a street near his Dahlonega, Ga. home and saw a young woman walking. “I practically rear-ended the car in front of me,” says Brown, now 30. “She had to be laughing at me in the old wreck of a truck with the radio blasting.” Well, no one is laughing now. Brown put that sighting to music in a song he called “Some King of Fine” and basically launched his career as a songwriter/musician. When he and his dad opened a Southern gourmet restaurant—Zac’s Place—not far from their home, he had the perfect place to play. It wasn’t long before he was on the road, playing 200 gigs a year (fronting a band that includes Oteil and the Peacemakers’ Chris Fryar) and independently selling CDs—some 30,000 to date. Although the Zac Brown Band’s album The Foundation debuted at No. 17 on the Billboard Top 200 charts and No. 3 on the Top Country Albums charts after its release last November, you won’t see Brown abandoning the roots that he explains in the song “Chicken Fried”—“You know I like my chicken fried/A cold beer on a Friday night”—which peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country charts. “I have little mini-festivals with all of my friends and have four bands play and provide all the food for the shows,” he says. “It’s a real traveling road family.”