Zach Bryan Gives His Former Navy Boss a Cut of Every Song — He Is the Reason He Recorded Any Songs at All
Some thank-yous come with a handshake. Zach Bryan’s comes with a royalty check — on every single song.
The 30-year-old country star told Matthew McConaughey in their “On The Porch” conversation, tied to Bryan’s EP Young Manhood & Other Donatable Organs, that he gives his former Navy commanding officer, Leo Alba, a percentage of every song he releases. Not one album. Not one hit. Every song.
“He’s the reason, man. He’s the reason I recorded any songs ever at all. I thought it was justified, man. He’s the reason I have any music at all,” Bryan said.
“I wouldn’t be who I was without him looking at me and saying I can record those songs. His kids call me their uncle, he comes to shows all the time and I give him a percentage of every song that I release,” Bryan added.
That is the part that stops people in their tracks. In an industry full of grudges, lawsuits and burned bridges, here is one of the biggest stars in country music voluntarily sharing his success with the boss who once outranked him — and doing it happily, in public, without being asked.
Alba is retired from the Navy now and lives in Texas. “He’s living well now,” Bryan said, and you can hear the pride in that update. The mentor who once encouraged a young sailor to pick up a guitar and press record is now in the audience, watching the songs he helped make possible fill arenas.
Bryan knows exactly how unlikely his path was. He enlisted at 17 and served from 2013 to 2021 as an Aviation Ordnanceman Second Class. He recorded his debut album, DeAnn (2019), while he was still serving, and received an honorable discharge in 2021 after “Heading South” went viral.
Plenty of artists talk about the people who believed in them early. Bryan put it in writing — in the accounting. Every stream, every sale, every new release carries a little piece of Leo Alba with it, because without Alba’s push, Bryan says, there would be no songs at all.
Sources: People and American Songwriter.
Photo: Zach Bryan performing at Crypto.com Arena on 23 August 2023. Photo by Katrina Paisano, via Wikimedia Commons.
