Zach Top: It Was “Sacrilege” to Win New Grammy Over Willie Nelson

This week Zach Top caused a stir after he appeared on comedian Bert Kreischer’s podcast, and criticized the whole going sober craze. “Keep yourself healthy enough that you can drink all your life … sobriety is such a fad, trendy thing right now,” he said in part, drawing sharp criticism from some for his insensitivity towards people who struggle with the sauce.

But those comments overshadowed an otherwise compelling, entertaining, and revealing conversation between the burgeoning neotraditional country star and Bert Kreischer, including a handful of instances where Zach Top showed superior character, especially when it came to toasting country legends.

When the topic turned to the competitiveness of country music, and the way older country artists are treated, Zach Top said, “Country wants the older guys to stay around,” …something that wasn’t exactly the case some years ago. “The amount of love that they poured out for Alan Jackson at the [2022] CMA was awesome, and everyone’s bummed that his health isn’t that great anymore, so he’s not touring anymore. George Strait’s still selling out stadiums at whatever he is, 72 or something.”

Zach Top then added, “I thought it was so sacrilegious that I won the Grammy for Traditional Country Album, and Willie Nelson was in the category. It’s like ‘Well, God, I’m glad I won that, but that feels kinda wrong. If anybody should be winning that award, that is as traditional country as it gets is Willie Nelson. But it’s cool how they keep celebrating older guys. Nobody’s trying to push them out.”

Don’t mistake it, some are still trying to push out older talent. Talk to guys like Josh Turner, Joe Nichols, Gary Allan, even Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood who’ve had their careers turned upside down as they’ve aged off of country radio, and they’ll tell a different story. But when you get to legendary status like George Strait, Alan Jackson, and Willie Nelson, things do seem to shift back in your favor.

Zach Top’s win over Willie Nelson for Best Traditional Country Album at the Grammy Awards came on the very first year for the new award. But Willie Nelson is not new to the Grammys. He has 14 of them to go along with 61 nominations. This includes a Best Country Album win for A Beautiful Time in 2023, so Willie Nelson is doing just fine in the Grammy department. In this instance, a younger guy like Zach Top solidifying his career by winning the award feels more important.

But Zach Top’s mixed feelings about the win does show that when it comes to supporting the roots and legends of country music, Zach Top isn’t just performative. You can hear it in his songs, and you can hear it in his words. He’s not here to replace the old greats, but honor them and pay their legacies forward.

On the God’s Country podcast in April, Zach Top said about the Grammy win, “It feels like you know a little extra special to win that the first year that it was a category. You know, it’s kind of like a little piece of history … maybe they’ll axe it next year or something, but then maybe I’ll be the only one that ever won that one. The ornery jackass in me wants to say, ‘No, just call mine country.’ Qualify the other stuff if you want… like you know, make the contemporary country category, that’s fine.”

Without the new category though, Zach Top might not have been nominated or won a Grammy at all. He’s right that it would be ideal if the Grammys kept the original “Best Country Album” category, and added “Best Contemporary Country Album” as the qualifier. But the Grammys have quite a few categories that have the “traditional/contemporary” distinctions.

At Sunday’s ACM Awards (5-17), Zach Top is up for five awards, including Album of the Year for Ain’t In It For My Health, Male Vocalist of the Year, and Single and Song of the Year for “I Never Lie.” The fact that someone with such a traditional sound is up for the top awards beside more contemporary performers—and could walk away as one of the evening’s big winners—speaks to where we’re at right now in country music. And where we’re at is a much better place than where we were just a few years ago.

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