“Fixing to get moved in there.”
That’s how Zach Top put it when radio host Katie Neal asked about the property he just bought. “I’ll move in, I think at the latest, before the end of November.”
It’s a busy month to be hauling boxes. On Wednesday, Nov. 18, Zach performs at the 60th CMA Awards, which air on ABC with Lainey Wilson hosting. He’s nominated for Male Vocalist of the Year, and “Ain’t In It For My Health” is up for Album of the Year.
For anyone still getting to know him, Zach is 29 and was born in Sunnyside, Washington, where he grew up on a farm. He was 7 when he started a bluegrass band with his siblings. He settled in Nashville in 2021, and his sound comes straight from the country radio of the 1990s. “I Never Lie” was the song that broke him wide open. Last November he won the CMA’s New Artist of the Year, and in February he took home the Grammy for Best Traditional Country Album.
He has spent most of that stretch on the road. Country Now reports that his Cold Beer & Country Music Tour sold 921,820 tickets.
He talked about it on Audacy’s “Katie & Company,” in an episode posted Oct. 20, and Country Now picked up the conversation on Nov. 11. Zach didn’t oversell what he bought.
“It’s pretty dated and it’s funny,” he said.
Then came the catch. The main house is not where he’ll be unpacking.
“It’s got the house on it and then it’s got this little cabin on the other side of the property that I’m actually, I’m getting the cabin fixed up first,” he told Katie. “I’m going to move in there. It’s just a little two bedroom thing.”
So a singer with a Grammy on the shelf and two CMA nominations is about to live in a two-bedroom cabin while a whole house sits on the other side of his land. His reason is a practical one. The house needs work and he is in no hurry to start it. Once he’s settled, he said, he’ll take his time “figuring out how deep I want to get into the house.”
“So just getting into the cabin first and yeah, we’ll see where it goes from there,” he added.
The whole 22-minute chat is on Audacy’s official channel, and Audacy’s episode notes list the home project and a hunting trip among the topics.
Zach tells Katie Neal about his new place
That hunting trip is the other plan he shared, and it involves his father.
“Me and my dad have a place in Oregon, going to go elk hunting for the first time up there, which I’m pumped about,” Zach said. Country Now describes it as his first elk hunt.
Birds are more familiar ground. “I’ve become a somewhat avid bird hunter in the last few years,” he said, and he gave credit to his partner in the field. “Of course, you know about Otis, little bird dog.” The two of them, he said, chase ducks and pheasants together.
He had one more wish before the subject changed. “It’d be fun to do it on our own land and see if we can put some meat in the freezer.”
If you haven’t heard the song that started all this, his own channel has a live version from the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville.
Zach sings “I Never Lie” at the Ryman
By his own timeline, the cabin should be ready within a couple of weeks of the awards. Win or lose at Bridgestone Arena, the big house will still be waiting on him to decide what to do with it.