Zach Bryan never imagined that he’d set out to be sober… yet here he is.
The country music superstar released his EP Young Manhood and Other Donatable Organs earlier today, and the early reviews suggest that Bryan has unsurprisingly done it again. He’s got a knack for being one of the most prolific writers in all of music, and the latest edition to his sprawling catalogue is short (by comparison) but stellar.
In addition to dropping the collection of new songs, Bryan shared that he’s written a memoir that’s titled the same as his EP: Young Manhood and Other Donatable Organs. His motivation to do so comes from wishing to tell his own story, and wanting to put pen to paper like some the authors that he idolizes – Ernest Hemingway and Jack Kerouac.
The singer-songwriter shared more about that in an On The Porch interview that featured Bryan’s friend and fellow writer, Matthew McConaughey, guiding the conversation. One of the major points of the sit down was the country artist talking about his sobriety. He revealed that it was a grandiose 30-day motorcycle trip across the United States that finally convinced himself to stop drinking.
Bryan set out on what he thought would be a soul journey, much like the trips some of his favorite authors did. He drove on a motorcycle from New York all the way to California, staying at national parks and drinking at bars along the way. Bryan says he kept waiting for some sort of ah-ha moment that would ignite creativity, but instead, he had a revelation about drinking:
“I’ll never forget this as long as I live. I went into this gas station and I grabbed a Budweiser, and I’m sitting on the curb with my motorcycle in front of me, and I’m drinking it, and I’m thinking, ‘What the hell was all that worth? Why did I do any of that? I feel emptier than when I left.’
That’s when I said, ‘Why am I drinking right now? What am I celebrating?’ That’s when I kind of looked in the mirror.”
It was a major let down for Bryan, as he was chasing a big romantic moment with the trip, and nothing really came of it.
Sitting in the parking lot of a Seattle gas station, he suddenly and honestly questioned why he was drinking. It was then and there that he decided to let it go, even though he admits he historically wasn’t ever one to understand the sober life:
“I’m not the sober type either bro, I hate that stuff. I always thought sobriety was a joke because it’s people that couldn’t control themselves celebrating not being able to control themselves. When I was drinking a lot, I always thought, ‘Why can’t you control yourself?’ I never realized I had a problem.
When I was sobering up and I started drinking fake beers and stuff, I was like, ‘Man this sucks. This is not what Hemingway or Kerouac would have done.’ But then as more time went on, I started to realize what that was.
Then I stopped having these parking lot 40s and these moments where I was like, ‘What the f*** is the point?’ I started feeling like there was a point again. And I realized that I was happier that way.”
That was Zach Bryan’s life changing moment… and though he initially may have felt that the trip didn’t deliver on romanticism, looking back on it now, it provided exactly what he needed it to.
The country singer went on to talk about his sobriety, and how there are occasional moments where he’s tempted to drink – like at weddings – but all in all, his life has been better, and quitting wasn’t as challenging as he thought it would be. Zach also shared that one of the main reasons he drank was because he’s scared to get up in front of people. Since he’s quit, he’s had more fear on stage… but also more fun.
There’s all kinds of interesting tidbits that Bryan reveals about his post-drinking life, like how he always thought drinking bred creativity (it worked for his idols, right?) and that he wrote every song of Young Manhood and Other Donatable Organs sober. Doing so was what proved to himself that he truly didn’t need to drink to be who he was, and it sounds like sobriety has been a freeing experience for him.
You can hear Zach Bryan talk more about it all in the “On The Porch” interview below:
