Zach Bryan Opens up to Bruce Springsteen About Not Wanting To Be Pigeonholed to Just Country Music

In a recent conversation with Bruce Springsteen, country-rock darling Zach Bryan revealed that he doesn’t like the idea of being pigeonholed into one genre. He shared that he wants to be known more for his songwriting than for what genre he’s playing.

The subject came up during Rolling Stone‘s Musicians on Musicians issue, where similar artists interview each other. Bryan started by mentioning that some of Springsteen’s music could be categorized as country, but it’s also rock, folk, and other genres as well.

“When I listen to your music, I’m like, ‘If you put different production to this, it’s a country song,’” he told Springsteen, who agreed. “That’s why I don’t want to be a country musician,” Bryan continued, reiterating the statement. “I don’t want to be a country musician. Everyone calls me it. I want to be a songwriter, and you’re quintessentially a songwriter,” he said, indicating The Boss.

He continued, “No one calls Bruce Springsteen a freaking rock musician, which you are one, but you’re also an indie musician, you’re also a country musician. You’re all these things encapsulated in one man. And that’s what songwriting is.”

[RELATED: Bruce Springsteen and Zach Bryan Discuss Writing Music and Struggling With Impostor Syndrome]

Zach Bryan and Bruce Springsteen Talk Country Influences Related to Their Songwriting

Country is inherently a storytelling genre, so it’s a no-brainer that Zach Bryan and Bruce Springsteen alike have taken influences from there. They are both storytelling songwriters as well. Springsteen cited Hank Williams and Johnny Cash as influences of his, especially on the record Nebraska, which he said was his attempt to reconcile his country influences.

“That’s where I’m at in my own career right now,” Bryan replied. “I love country music, but I also love an assortment of stuff — Kings of Leon, Jason Isbell, all those guys.”

Overall, it seems like Zach Bryan doesn’t want to be confined to any one genre or path in his career. He wants to do it all, and is looking to Bruce Springsteen as just one of the blueprints. The two recently collaborated for a track on Bryan’s newest album, The Great American Bar Scene. On that track, the two seemingly influenced each other—it held a quintessential Springsteen sound with Zach Bryan’s gritty lyrics.

“You Can Do Whatever You Want, Man”

“If you go and see the show, there’s so much — and I don’t want to call it rock — just energy in your performance. You bust all those different genre boundaries down,” Springsteen told Bryan of his live show.

“That’s why you’re a hero to me,” Bryan said in response, “because no one’s ever come up to you and said you were in any sort of lane.” He added that he told his managers, “’I want to be in a lane where, when people look back, they can listen to my music and it’s supremely whatever you were doing.’ You were the only person in my head that has ever done that,” he told Springsteen.

Springsteen, meanwhile, seems to have Bryan’s back in his pursuit of a genre-busting career. “You can do whatever you want, man. You’re in the right place,” he told Bryan.

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