Zac Brown Still Touring with ‘Band of Brothers’

Zac Brown got his start playing acoustic gigs around his hometown of Atlanta about 10 years before the formation of the hot act that now bears his name. The young musician was creating a stir in his home state, pulling in up to 300 people a night, three nights a week. During that same time period, fiddle player Jimmy De Martini had also been playing local gigs in the area. Upon the suggestion of Zac's musical soulmate, Wyatt Durrette (co-writer of the band's hits 'Chicken Fried,' 'Whatever It Is' and 'Toes'), Zac contacted Jimmy to discuss joining the band.

"The next day I went and sat in with them," Jimmy tells The Boot. "We played the show, and I loved it, and Zac loved it. I've been in the band ever since. We were playing around Atlanta two to three times a week, sometimes maybe five times a week. We were like, 'We need to take this show on the road and start the Zac Brown Band.'"

Maintaining the deep-fried southern hometown vibe that permeates their music, all of the members of the Zac Brown Band, and even their sound engineer, hail from the same area in Georgia -- and they've all been pals since the beginning.

"It's pretty cool to have all of this come together and still be hanging out with the same friends and still touring with the same guys that you did from when we started. It's definitely a band of brothers. We never went out and hired somebody outside our little circle of friends. Everybody's friends and just came on one at a time. It's great."

Ten years down the road, the band is reaping the rewards of two chart-topping singles, a platinum album, and a nomination for the CMA's Best New Artist of the Year.

"You kind of have dreams and say 'Man, we're going to be big someday,' and people tell you all the time you're going to be huge!," Jimmy says with a laugh. "It's not like we're enormously huge, but compared to what we had been through, with traveling around in a little church bus or an airline shuttle bus, being cramped up and sleeping in the bus night after night, it's great!"

But in spite of their success and their first headlining tour, the band is still sharing close quarters.

"Zac could easily have his own bus and be traveling around, but he's like, 'Man, we've got to all get on the same bus - we've got to hang out!'" Jimmy says. "He always wants to get together with everybody. He can't stand having a second of time to himself. That's his favorite thing."

The Zac Brown Band will find out on Nov. 11 if they will be crowned CMA's Best New Artist of the Year.