Zac Brown Wrote This Hit for Alan Jackson, Who Regrettably Passed on It

In 2008, the Zac Brown Band had their first big hit with “Chicken Fried”, their debut single. The song, written by Brown and Wyatt Durrette, became the group’s breakout hit, going all the way to No. 1. But surprisingly, the song wasn’t written for the Zac Brown Band. Instead, “Chicken Fried” was written with a country legend, namely Alan Jackson, in mind. Regrettably, Jackson passed on the uptempo tune.

It was Jackson’s producer, Keith Stegall, who played Jackson the song “Chicken Fried”. 

“I liked the song,” Jackson tells The Boot. “But I told him, ‘Man, I just had a song about cornbread and chicken, and I had a song about bologna. Every album I’ve got has these songs about food, so I just don’t think I want to do one about chicken fried right now.’ In retrospect, I should have done it.”

Jackson may have passed on “Chicken Fried”, but he remains a big fan of the Zac Brown Band.

“I love those guys, they’re the real deal,” Jackson says. “They’re players and writers and musicians. I’m glad that song worked good for them and became their first hit.”

Jackson did later record a song Brown and Durrette wrote, sort of. In 2010, Jackson joined the band on their hit single, “As She’s Walking Away”.

How Zac Brown and Wyatt Durrette Wrote “Chicken Fried” for The Zac Brown Band

Brown and Durrette write a lot of the songs by the Zac Brown Band. The first song they ever wrote, “Whatever It Is”, became the group’s second hit single, after “Chicken Fried”.

“[Durrette] had a piece called ‘Chicken Fried’ that he had written a long time ago,” Brown recalls. “He sang it to me, and I thought it could be a really good song. We made a list of things that mattered to us and then things that are characteristic of the South. We put every one of those things on that list in the song.”

“Chicken Fried” says in part, “And a little bit of chicken fried / Cold beer on a Friday night / A pair of jeans that fit just right / And the radio up / I love to see the sun rise.”

“It was right around September 11,” Brown remembers. “I was living with a Marine friend of mine. I was realizing how fortunate we are to be free, travel, and to play music or whatever it is that you do as an American. … There is a cost that other people have paid for us to be able to do those things and enjoy all the simple things.”

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