Zach Bryan Reveals Why He Gives His Former Navy Commanding Officer a Cut of Every Song He Releases

Zach Bryan is grateful for an old pal. During a conversation with Matthew McConaughey, the singer revealed that he gives a cut of the royalties from every song he releases to a man named Leo Alba, who was his commanding officer in the Navy.

“He’s the reason, man. He’s the reason I recorded any songs ever, at all,” Bryan explained. “I thought it was justified, man. He’s the reason I have any music at all.”

“I wouldn’t be who I was without him f**king looking at me and saying I can record those songs,” he added. “His kids call me their uncle. He comes to shows all the time. I give him a percentage of every song that I release, because that’s how much that meant to me. Him believing in me enough to do that for me.”

As for where Alba is now, Bryan revealed, “He’s living well now. He got out of the Navy. He lives out in Texas. We see each other when we can.”

Zach Bryan Reminisces on the Making of DeAnn

Earlier in the conversation, Bryan, who released his latest EP, Young Manhood and Other Donatable Organs, in October, recalled the making of his 2019 album, DeAnn, of which Alba was a huge part.

“He was like, ‘Hey man, I know how to use a microphone.’ And I’m like, ‘OK,’” Bryan said. “He’s like, ‘You want to record all your songs that have been going viral?’ [I said,] ‘I guess. Yeah, sure.’”

With that decided, the pair made their way to Guitar Center where they were “like maniacs grabbing everything we can,” despite being low on funds.

“Alba looks at me and goes, ‘You sure about this?’ And I’m like, ‘No, not at all.’ He’s like, ‘Me neither,’” Bryan said. “And I swiped this card and I had like an overdraft from hell.”

From there, the guys headed to a rental house, and prepared it for recording.

“We get into this Airbnb and my my buddy Vasquez starts running around the house tearing down all the picture frames, getting all the vases. He moves all the tables,” Bryan said. “Everything’s f**king chaos. He starts grabbing all the mattresses from the guest room, the master room. All the mattresses are off the beds and then all this s**t is everywhere.”

Zach Bryan Says Debut Album “Changed My Life”

They stayed in that house for two days, drinking beer and recording music.

“I had all the songs for DeAnn, 10 of them. And so I was sitting there with this hard drive full of songs I had no idea what to do with,” Bryan said. “I was ready. I went back to my barracks room and I was like, ‘OK, I guess this is it.’ I went to the little tune core thing and I did it all myself, uploaded all the tracks.”

However, Bryan “didn’t press publish for some reason.”

“That night I had this dream of my mother and me and her were sitting on a tailgate. I was singing this song called ‘Sweet DeAnn’ to her on the tailgate when I never heard,” he said. “I woke up the next day, recorded that song in my barracks room with the boys.”

With that, he put the album, new song included, up on streaming platforms.

“Two of the song titles were spelled wrong and it had all these f**king mistakes and it was acoustic in all its glory,” Bryan said. “It was number one on iTunes music. It was on all the Spotify charts. And it changed my life forever.”

Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images