Country Singer Zach Top Says ‘Life’s Way Too Fast’ After Leaving Farm Life to Pursue Music Career

The 27-year-old rising artist is a nominee for the New Artist of the Year Award at the 2024 CMAs.

A acoustic guitar with country blues harmonica ready on stage. Shutterstock

Country singer Zach Top left his life on the farm to pursue a music career, and while he has seen success, he had to adjust to his new lifestyle.

During an Oct. 23 interview with Fox News Digital, Top, a nominee for the 2024 CMA’s New Artist of the Year Award, shared that life on the road is a major change of pace.

“Life’s way too fast, too,” Top said. “It seemed like it was pretty slow moving. I guess it always is when you’re a kid a little bit. But, yeah, it just felt like a routine every day. And, you know, probably the biggest thing is waking up in the same spot when I was growing up.

“Now, I never wake up in the same town. I wake up somewhere else. I’ve got to figure out where I am the next morning. So, there’s a lot of changes for sure, and I’m grateful for a lot of them. There’s a lot of them that I'd rather live without, you know, kind of makes me miss the way I grew up.”

The 27-year-old artist grew up on a family farm in Sunnyside, Washington, where he saw looking after the animals as more of a “hobby” than an income stream.

“We didn’t run the farm for my family to make money,” the “Sounds Like the Radio” star said. “It was kind of a hobby farm. We had a bunch of goats and chickens and a handful of cows and some horses and stuff. My dad was in the livestock business, so he had a big commercial ranch and then ran the sale barn.

“I look back on growing up on that farm with only fond memories. It was awesome getting to grow up around animals and, you know, learning how to work like that and everything. I think it was really valuable and a cool way to grow up.”

While Top says he doesn’t “spend near enough time“ getting his ”hands dirty” anymore since leaving the family farm behind to focus on country music, he still finds opportunities to spend time outdoors.

“All I do is sit around on this bus and wait to play music, it seems like now,” he said. “I try and get outside as much as I can, but it’s a lot more to, you know, go play golf or go for a hike or something. It seems more like a vacation to get outside than it was.”

A Rising Artist

Born on Sept. 26, 1997, in Sunnyside, Washington, Top got his country music start when he formed a bluegrass band with his siblings named Top String. The group performed at regional festivals before disbanding as Top’s siblings headed to college.

After moving to Nashville, Top released his self-titled debut EP in 2022 under RBR Entertainment. The recording included a collection of eight bluegrass songs, including “In A World Gone Wrong” and “Are You Lonesome Tonight.”

Last year, Top became the first artist to sign with the independent record label Leo33 and released his debut country single, “Sounds Like the Radio,” in January 2024. Three months later, the country artist released his debut studio album “Cold Beer & Country Music,” which peaked at No. 14 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart.

This year, Top was awarded the Discovery Artist of the Year at the MusicRow Awards and nominated for New Artist of the Year at the 58th Annual CMA Awards.

Top told Fox News that he learned about his CMA nomination through a friend who texted him the news.

“I’m not on socials or anything, and, so, somebody just texted me, ‘congratulations.’ And then I didn’t know why. So, I texted back, and I was like, ‘Thanks. For what?’ And they sent me the screenshot then off Instagram where they [had] seen I was on the nominations. So, I was like, ‘Thanks. That’s pretty cool,’” Top said.