Zac Brown Respects Bands Who’ve Paid Their Dues

Last week, the Zac Brown Band performed an Oklahoma show with the Eli Young Band in a show Zac had been looking forward to for a while. The two bands have similar backgrounds and years of hard work under their belts.

"We have been out on the road for a long time hustling and playing our butts off. They've been doing the same thing, and I've got a lot of respect for bands who do that," Zac told The Boot just before he took the stage. "It's nice to be out with other bands who have paid their dues, have built their followings and give their lives to the music -- people like Willie Nelson and Dolly Parton. That's what it's supposed to be like: having it be about the music rather than 'I'm a famous model who has a record that somebody made me sound good and now I can't reproduce that on the stage.' Those people come and go. It would be like if I decided that I wanted to be a pole vaulter or something!"

The Zac Brown Band's latest single, 'Toes,' is at No. 4 on Billboard's Top Country Singles chart this week, as they continue on their Breaking Southern Ground Tour across the country.