Zach Top Talks Living a Normal Life Amid Rising Fame and Staying Present in the Moment

Despite being a GRAMMY, CMA, and ACM Award winner, Zach Top still keeps things surprisingly grounded behind the scenes. While a lot has changed in his world, the country star says he’s “really, really happy” with where he’s at right now and a big part of that comes from still being able to have a normal routine in his daily life.

Sitting down with The Brothers Hunt (Dan and Reid Isbell) on the God’s Country podcast, the “I Never Lie” singer reflected on some of the biggest changes that has come with his rise to fame.

“I feel like country music, we get it fairly easy in the fame department…versus other people like a movie star,” he explained. “We can go play a show to 20,000 people one night and then go buy bacon at the Kroger the next morning and you don’t need to take a security person.”

As he moves through his days, Top admits he gets plenty of spontaneous fan moments with people asking to take pictures or simply sharing their love for his music. Whatever it may be, he welcomes the interactions with open arms.

“Sometimes they’ll wanna take a picture if they do recognize you in the grocery tour and then sometimes they’re just like, ‘Hey, love your music.’ Like, ‘oh, thank you.’ That’s a nice way to start my Tuesday.”

He adds, “I feel like people expect that they’re bothering you. It’s not that big of a deal…just say ‘hey,’ grab a picture. Sometimes they’ve got a little story they want to share of something, that’s nice. I’m glad to meet you.”

Those small, everyday encounters are something Top doesn’t take for granted, and they’ve also shaped how he approaches his career and life offstage. Living in an age where it’s so easy to capture every moment on a phone, Top says he tries to stay focused on being present in the moment instead of letting technology do the experiencing for you.

He has a front row seat to how technology has impacted concerts, specifically, noting how he often sees fans in the crowd who are filming most of the show rather than visually soaking up the experience.

“You’ll see some of the people that just have their phone up for half the show, it’s like, I’m sorry to break it to you, nobody wants to see your Snapchat story with the terrible audio that your phone is gonna capture. Like, you’re not gonna look back at that,” he said honestly. “I get grabbing a little clip, a little video, but like when you do it for a majority of the show, you’re not even watching the show. You’re watching me through your phone screen, which you can do nonstop anyway at the house.”

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The Washington native admits he’s guilty of spending too much time online himself, but says he tries to live in the moment as much as possible and encourages others to do the same.

“If you’re at a show, if you’re on a hike, whatever, if you’re fishing, whatever. And just really soak it all in and like try to take mental pictures of it to where you could relive that rather than flip back through a picture.”

Top never imagined where his love for music would take him, but now that he’s here, he’s choosing to stay present in whatever he does.