Zac Brown likes making people feel good, even if it means smashing himself into a wall.
“Man, I’ve been slung up in the air, drove across the ground, slammed into walls. We’ve gone all out for this show,” he says, giving a sneak peek into the kinds of stunts he’ll be performing during his forthcoming limited engagement at the Las Vegas Sphere. “This is definitely our masterpiece so far. I’ve never put more work into anything in my life than this album and this show.”
To cap off 2025, he released his band’s latest album, Love & Fear, aligning it with his Sphere limited engagement. The shows will surpass anything seen from Zac Brown Band before, featuring a 20-piece choir, a full symphony orchestra projected on the wall and Brown’s own spin on Cirque du Soleil.
“This is a big moment for us in our career, and it’s exciting to get to do something for the fans that’s way beyond what anyone would expect,” he says. “And I love making people feel good — giving them time to forget about whatever hard things might be going on in their lives.”
The Sphere spectacles promise all the eclectic music and boundary-pushing we’ve come to expect from Zac Brown, a country icon and pioneer in mixing genres.
Although most people discovered him through country hits like “Chicken Fried,” his interests and passions are far more varied. And as he starts the newest chapter in his music career, he’s collaborating with everyone from Snoop Dogg to Dolly Parton, giving little thought to the criticisms of self-proclaimed purists.
How Zac Brown Draws From Diversity
“I’m from a little north of Atlanta, so I grew up with all this diversity,” he says. “My tastes and where I come from, I like more than just one little thing. I listen to jazz, I listen to EDM, I listen to swing, I love some Sinatra.”
Those influences have been part of his music for years, collaborating with artists across genres long before Morgan Wallen performed with T-Pain. In 2015, Brown teamed up with the late EDM artist Avicii to create “Beautiful Drug,” which reached #1 on Billboard’s Country Airplay charts. However, Brown noted that traditional country radio was somewhat hesitant to play a crossover song like “Beautiful Drug.”
“Some of the stations were like, ‘We’re not gonna play that with that electronic part in there,’” he says. “So, we had to go back and make a fiddle part that was playing what some of the synthesizers were playing so that radio stations would play it.”
Like Marty McFly playing “Jonny B. Goode,” he knew they weren’t ready for it yet. But he was right; their kids were going to love it.
“We were really doing that before all of them, and had to face all kinds of adversity,” he says. “But these days, the lines are really blurred. If you don’t have a hip hop beat blasting in the back of a country song, it almost doesn’t stand a chance.”
That’s not a complaint, mind you. Brown couldn’t be more excited that the rest of the world is following his lead, and the dozen songs on Love & Fear reflect his belief that music isn’t about genres as much as about how it makes people feel.
“For me, there are only two kinds of music. It’s either things that move you or things that don’t,” he says. “I’ll always try to create things that move the majority of (our audience). They may not like every song, but they’re gonna like nine out of 12 that are on there.”
Snoop Dogg, Dolly Parton And The Haters
In creating Love & Fear, Brown collaborated with some of the biggest icons in the music world. Snoop Dogg appears on “Let it Run,” a fun, catchy smoking song.
“When I knew we had a song about herb, I was like we gotta get Snoop on this song,” Brown says. “Snoop’s a legend. And it’s not a deep or philosophical song, we need to be able to just laugh.”
Country music queen Dolly Parton also joins Brown on a beautiful ballad called “Butterfly.”
“Dolly is the closest thing to an angel, and she crushed that song as good as she could have done when she was 30,” he says. “Her level of talent and ability is just as good. She’s still hot and she’s still a ninja musically. And that was an honor.”
Still, Brown’s ventures away from what some consider “traditional” country music have upset some people. And while he says he avoids reading negative reviews, sometimes it’s unavoidable. Like any artist, he understands the vulnerability in sharing his art, putting himself out there for the figurative tomatoes and criticism hurled by amateur critics online.
“No matter what you’re doing, you’re gonna have people hating on what you’re doing,” he says. “It doesn’t affect me as much because people who just sit back and write slam reviews … they don’t ever create anything.
"So, it makes them feel good to hide behind their screens and slam things that you’re doing. It’s not gonna deter me from creating and doing the things I wanna do.”
Zac Brown’s Outdoors Escape Hatches
Although his music isn’t always country, Zac Brown remains a true country boy at heart. When he needs to escape the chaos of the music scene, he heads to the woods to relive core memories of hunting deer with his dad.
“The best quality time I ever spent with him was (deer hunting), stalking through the woods when they are coming to life in the morning, with the sun rising,” he says. “There’s a charm that’s in the Georgia hardwoods that’s just very much home to me. And my kids go with me, and I have incredible experiences with them. But 90% of it is about being out in nature.”
The attraction of hunting, he says, isn’t in stalking or harvesting animals. It’s how far in the woods the hunt takes you, how deep off the trail you’ll go and away from places he calls “people-y.”
Brown is also a big bowhunter, relishing the challenges of playing wind and camouflage, getting as close to the animals as he can without them smelling or sensing him nearby.
“One of my favorite things in the world is to go shoot my dinner and be present in that moment,” he says. “Have the wind on my face, and then the satisfaction knowing that I can harvest my own food, and sitting with people that I love and eating.”
He finds similar solitude underwater, pursuing his greatest outdoor passion—spearfishing. The peace and clarity that come with being underwater help him recharge, whether he’s freediving in the Bahamas or in the South Pacific near Fiji. Brown has even included some footage of himself spearfishing and freediving in his Sphere shows, which will be projected onto the screens during performances.
“Under the ocean, my brain is so singular,” he says. “I’m not thinking about the chatter. I’m thinking about just being a human being, challenging my breath, challenging the ocean, challenging the fish so I can go shoot something that I can eat that day.”
How Kendra Scott Brings New Influences
Hunting and fishing haven’t influenced many of his lyrics lately, though Brown still enjoys retreating to nature to inspire his creativity. He has found inspiration in another beautiful aspect of his life, his fiancé Kendra Scott. But Zac Brown is no Taylor Swift, so don’t expect to find tributes to the famous fashion and jewelry designer hidden in the lines of Love & Fear.
“I don’t rush songs,” he says. “Sometimes it takes me 11 years to finish a song. When everything settles down and I have time to sit somewhere beautiful and take these pieces and start putting ‘em together, there’ll be a lot of songs that are inspired by her, for sure.”
Brown says the pair’s shared love of helping people is a cornerstone of their relationship. “The greatest thing about Kendra is not her success,” he says. “That’s a byproduct of who she is, but the greatest thing about her is her heart and the way she treats people.”
They are major philanthropists, and Brown’s largest charitable effort has been Camp Southern Ground, a “college campus-style” camp for veterans reintegrating into civilian life and that is also a summer camp for children, including kids with neurodevelopmental differences, underserved kids and kids from military families.
“I feel like I was kind of an instrument that was put here to help pull people together for something bigger than myself,” he says. “And I think that’s helped our success tremendously. And there’s really no greater joy than helping other people.”
For more information about ZBB’s Sphere limited engagement, touring and music, visit zacbrownband.com.
Hot Takes Q&A With Zac Brown
Hook & Barrel (HB): What do you do to stay in shape?
Zac Brown (ZB): A lot of soft tissue work, isometrics, a versa climber and a lot of stretching and mobility work.
HB: What would people be most surprised to know about you?
ZB: I’m a complete, absolute servant to my kids. And being a dad is the greatest honor in my life. That’s really why I’m not out in the limelight a lot. And why I can’t go schmooze and hang as much because of my dedication to my family.
HB: Who’s in your foxhole, living or dead?
ZB: Probably my daughter, Lucy. She’s an absolute sniper. She can shoot better than me. She’s been in the woods with me since she was little, but I would say if we’re protecting the family, I’m gonna put her in a foxhole because she doesn’t miss.
HB: Favorite Sinatra song?
ZB: “The Way You Look Tonight”
HB: Best game meat to cook?
ZB: Deer.
HB: What’s your go-to dinner to make at home?
ZB: I’m a lights-out breakfast guy. I can make breakfast that would blow your mind. And I’m always studying those things when I’m traveling.
For the last 30 years of being on the road, I go back and I ask people, “How did you do that? What’s in this? What’s going on?” So being curious and always trying to learn about those things.
HB: Bigger thrill to work with, Dolly or Snoop?
ZB: Man, I love ’em both. That’s a hard one, but Dolly musically is just absolutely one of my heroes.
HB: What’s your go-to hunting bow?
ZB: I shoot a PSE Levitate. I’ve got heavy limbs on it, so I’m pulling about 86 pounds.
HB: Favorite thing to hunt?
ZB: I sleep underneath a beaver blanket every night, so my favorite thing to hunt is actually beaver. We do that up in Alaska. Being able to harvest the beavers … and actually beaver tastes pretty good, too.
Hunting those and then making something that you can wear and use and sleep under every night, it’s the best kind of fur that there is.
