Zach Bryan is an educated man. The country singer recently revealed he earned his Bachelor’s degree while touring, fulfilling a promise he made to his late mother.
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Taking to X (formerly Twitter), Bryan opened up about taking exams while also playing shows. He promised his mother Annette Bryan, who passed in 2016, he would graduate from college.
He wrote, “Got my bachelors yesterday after exams in the desert and green rooms to about a hundred different venues no arrogance attached just a promise I made my mom a long while back bound to be a good week guys.”
Zach Bryan Opens Up About His Mother
Bryan took his mother’s death hard in 2016. The singer’s mother passed from complications related to alcoholism deeply affected him. Bryan felt like he lost the person he would confide in and had no way to channel his emotions.
“I think my mom dying really solidified the darkness in life to me. It opened that thing in you that’s like, ‘Hey, be a man now,'” Bryan told the New York Times. “People say I repress. And I’m like, no, the person that I want to tell all this stuff to is dead. And you don’t deserve me weighing in on my feelings to you.”
Bryan’s mom helped influence his decision to continue to pursue music. He would often think about his mother and use that to push forward.
“I was like, don’t put your guitar down, keep going, something’s going to happen,” he said. “Not because I felt driven. Not because I wanted to be famous — not because I wanted to be rich. I literally just would sit there and think about my mom and be like, Something is telling me not to stop doing this.”
Bryan dedicated his album DeAnn to his mom, naming it after her (via Country Rebel).
“I think my mom’s been here the entire time. I remember sitting in that hospital room with [my mom] telling me to do nothing but spread love and hope into this world and be there for other people and try to do something that means something to you no matter what,” he said. Bryan said his mother’s spirit has guided him. “I think her hand has been behind this entire thing.”
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[Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images for Pilgrimage Music & Cultural Festival]
