‘I Want to Be a Songwriter’

Despite numerous Grammy nominations in the country field, and a Best Country Duo/Group Performance win with Kacey Musgraves for “I Remember Everything,” Zach Bryan says he doesn’t want to be defined as a country music artist.

In an exclusive Rolling Stone interview between Bryan and Bruce Springsteen, the Great American Bar Scene songwriter and the New Jersey working-class hero talked at length about how country music has affected their work. Springsteen cited Hank Williams and Johnny Cash as influences, while Bryan praised Jason Isbell and went on to point out the country vibes inherent to the Born in the U.S.A. songwriter’s catalog.

“When I listen to your music, I’m like, ‘If you put different production to this, it’s a country song,’” Bryan told him.

“Right. There’s a lot of country in it,” Springsteen replied.

“That’s why I don’t want to be a country musician,” responded Bryan, who tends to view his music — like Springsteen’s — as fitting into rock, country, folk, and more.

“I don’t want to be a country musician. Everyone calls me it. I want to be a songwriter, and you’re quintessentially a songwriter,” he said. “No one calls Bruce Springsteen — hate to use your name in front of you — but no one calls Bruce Springsteen a freaking rock musician, which you are one, but you’re also an indie musician, you’re also a country musician. You’re all these things encapsulated in one man. And that’s what songwriting is.”

Springsteen acknowledged the similarity between his music and Bryan’s, particularly on the live stage.

“If you go and see the show, there’s so much — and I don’t want to call it rock — just energy in your performance. You bust all those different genre boundaries down,” he told Bryan.

“That’s why you’re a hero to me,” Bryan replied, “because no one’s ever come up to you and said you were in any sort of lane.”

Along with the Grammy recognition in the Recording Academy’s country music categories, Bryan has also been nominated by the Country Music Association and the Academy of Country Music at their respective awards shows. He was named New Male Artist of the Year by the ACM in 2023. At this year’s CMA Awards, Bryan and Musgraves are nominated for Musical Event of the Year for “I Remember Everything.”

Bryan and Springsteen appear on the cover of Rolling Stone’s November issue, the annual Musicians on Musicians package that pairs likeminded artists together in conversation.