On Zach Bryan Bowing Out of Grammy Awards Consideration

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It seems like everywhere you turn at the moment, music outlets, artists, and trade periodicals are talking about the Grammy Awards, which are currently undergoing the preliminary round of voting that will determine the eventual 2025 nominees.

What also seems to be evident is that most average music fans couldn’t care less. Where the music industry seems obsessed with this process, general fans have more important things going on. Maybe they’ll peep the nominees when they’re announced in November, and peruse the winners when they’re revealed in February 2025. But all the lobbying and prognostication seems silly and excessive.

It turns out that Zach Bryan very well may agree with that assessment. In a move that can only be characterized as unprecedented and perhaps even career-defining, Zach Bryan has refused to submit his recent album The Great American Bar Scene or any of its respective songs to the Grammy Awards for 2025 consideration. That means one of the biggest artists in country music and in all of music will not be represented at the Grammy Awards at all.

What are his motivations? We can only guess. Zach attended the 2024 Grammy Awards in February dressed to the 9’s, towing his girlfriend Brianna Chickenfry on his arm, and posing for photos on the red carpet. Bryan’s been nominated for four Grammy Awards total, including three last year, winning Best Country Duo/Group Performance for his duet with Kacey Musgraves, “I Remember Everything.”

There is no reason to believe that Zach Bryan has a beef with the Grammys. The Weeknd, Drake, and others have bowed out of Grammy consideration in the past because of issues they have with The Academy, but it’s unclear that’s what’s happening here. Zach has at times been a bit standoffish with award shows. He once said he didn’t care to get a CMA, but then he showed up to the ACM Awards in April, hanging out with Jelly Roll backstage.

So what should we draw from Zach’s non-participation in the Grammy’s in 2025? The first assessment is that it’s a rather gangster—or since we’re talking about country music—“Outlaw” move. Lots of performers profess not caring about awards. But as we’ve seen over the last week with all the lobbying for them, that’s often posturing. For many performers, the Grammy Awards hold special significance since they’re peer voted by other artists as opposed to an award from the industry.

Zach really has little to gain by participating in the Grammy Awards. Unlike many of the up-and-coming artist whose career could be made with an award or even just a nomination, for Zach it would be more like icing on the cake. One fair concern though is what others could gain from Zach Bryan competing for Grammys. As a prolific collaborating artist, Zach Bryan has bestowed lots of attention to others through his efforts.

Not that Kacey Musgraves needed Zach Bryan to win a Grammy Award (she’s won seven herself), but Zach facilitated multiple career highs for Musgraves through their collaboration, including Kacey’s first #1 song. Noeline Hoffman and John Moreland both had collaborations on the new Zach Bryan album that could have been submitted to the Grammy Awards, and potentially competed. But instead he chose to remain on the sidelines as Hoffman and Moreland compete with their own music.

In some ways, this could also hurt the important cause of non radio-supported artists battling for mainstream acceptance. Zach Bryan officially owns his own label in Belting Bronco, but it’s distributed by Warner, which can’t be happy with the decision. Labels love the big boost Grammy wins can bring.

Perhaps Zach Bryan sees it as a bigger statement by taking himself out of the running as opposed to competing in what he might consider a popularity contest. Maybe Bryan sees it as fait accompli that Beyoncé will win everything in country and many of the all genre categories with the way the press and everyone else is fawning over her. So why even get your hopes up over the process?

That’s certainly what the media feels, with most everyone predicting big wins for Beyoncé. Her album Cowboy Carter was accepted by the Grammys in country, despite Beyoncé herself saying that it’s not a country album. Cowboy Carter slid from #139 to #171 two weeks ago, and now to #182 this week on the Billboard 200 chart, even among all the widespread press coverage for the album due to its supposed snub by the CMA Awards, and all the talk swirling around Grammy consideration.

Despite the fawning press, people are just not listening to Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter. At the recent fan-voted People’s Choice Country Awards, despite being nominated for more awards than anyone else, Beyoncé’s supposed fervent fan base didn’t show up, and she didn’t win a single award. Meanwhile, Zach Bryan’s The Great American Bar Scene sits at #9 on the Billboard 200, while just like Beyoncé, Zach expends no effort to promote it at all.

As we see Beyoncé and her surrogates slavishly gush over her to the point where despite being the most awarded artist in Grammy history, she’s still seen as disrespected because she never won “Album of the Year,” here Zach Bryan is recusing himself from the entire process. It really speaks about ego and priorities. Though other considerations also might be in the mix, it’s clear that Zach Bryan is signaling that he wants to be all about the music, not making art into competition.

The Grammy Awards are not the CMA Awards. They hand out trophies to obscure classical ensembles, children’s music composers, liner notes writers, and bluegrass pickers. It’s supposed to be the most dignified awards of them all. But Zach Bryan wants no business with it, at least not this year. Draw whatever conclusions from it that you will. But it certainly feeds into the mystique surrounding one of music’s most mercurial and influential artists of our generation.

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