When you're wearing a motorcycle helmet, people don't know who you are. So I just wander around and, yeah, it's pretty awesome.
Zac Brown
I was probably 21 or 22 years old when I realized the prose that I live by, which is, 'You get what you give.' The more good deeds that you could do in your life, the more fulfilling and enriched your life is going to be. I truly believe that.
We always push the boundaries on the styles we put on a record.
Other people pull off amazing festivals and events and things like that. I think ours is a little bit different, and that's what makes us distinct.
It's always humbling, knowing where we came from. From being friends with the janitor in the bar and being friends with the waitress - because they were some of the only people that were listening when we finished playing - to this, we are able to appreciate every single person and every single piece of it, because we came from nothing to this.
If I'm chartering in and out and flying home after I play, that doesn't make sense. But where we can bus, then we'll bring the family out and spend time with them during the day.
Everybody in my band is a lion, and everyone's mastered their own domain... And we have a platform, and we have built it painstakingly and punched ourselves in the face every way we could to get where we are.
When I get drafty cold air in my ears, I would get an earache and get sick. I had to make sure I hustled and stayed well for my shows that I played.
The Southern Ground warehouse is rocking and rolling in Atlanta, with a T-shirt shop and a leather shop; everything we're selling at our shows we're making or publishing ourselves.
We're not just going to take some songs from a focus group in Nashville where people are sitting around in a circle having appointments trying to write catchy songs so they can sell them to a band like us.
A lot of concerts leave you wanting for something good to eat or drink while you're there.
When songs make me wanna throw up, it makes me ashamed to even be in the same genre as those songs.
I didn't think I liked country music. Then I got into Garth Brooks.
I try to get away and take my motorcycle on a ride whenever I can. I'll take my bike out before the show and just cruise.
We want to support Nashville, support the community there and be a part of it.
I don't want my children to have any kind of ego or entitlement because of what I do. I want them to be good people, and we fight every day so that they'll be that way.
It's an honor to live on a legacy, getting to do what we love to do and try to be the best musicians that we can possibly be.
I just hope everybody stays with us. We are not trying to be snobs or jerks. We are in a whirlwind trying to figure out the best way to be accessible.
The Doobie Brothers are one of my favorites of all time.
I'm opinionated because I care so much about the music and the songs.
I love to smoke things; there's usually something always in the pot outside. That smell of something in the smoker just reminds me of home.
I have seen a lot of people, including myself, make a lot of tip money because of 'Black Water,' so this is a full circle moment. To collaborate and recreate this iconic song is just an amazing moment as an artist.
I never get used to going out and seeing 20, 30,000 people that are there to see us play. It's kind of surreal.
I can't stand having cold air blowing in my ears, so when it's cold at my house, or if I am outside, I am going to have my ears covered up.
Everybody in my family cooks, so growing up and being around it... if I was going to spend time with everybody, it was helping them in the kitchen.
I was a music fan first way before I started creating it, so I still get giddy when I get to be around people that I respect so much.
I'm no different than any other human being. I play music for a living, and we're very blessed.
We love our fans and are very connected with our fans.
Our music has been an incredible gift to help us make a difference.
People come up to me sometimes and ask for a picture but don't even say hello. They sort of forget that I'm a person.
I don't ever want to stop making country, and I don't want to stop making electronic music, either.
Each song has its own life.
If we had to pose for every single person at the Eat & Greets, we wouldn't get to speak to anyone that's there, and we definitely wouldn't get to serve them food.
We're proud to be lifetime musicians and a band that lives like a band and loves the music and gives our lives to it.
You can tell all our songs come from us and from our artists, the people we write with and travel with.
When you are a singer, you have to nurse yourself and make sure you don't get a cold.
All my siblings being all different ages meant I got exposed to music that was 20-30 years older than me. And that was a big influence.
Good music makes you feel something.
We're fabricating a state-of-the-art concessions system for our touring, so we can feed the people and give them everything they need without having to wait on it.
In my opinion - in Georgia, there's a town called Lula. And Lula, Georgia, has the best peaches.
We've gone further on this album, where we have a Big Band song, kind of a Sinatra-type song; we have a couple songs that have electronic music on them. We've got a couple rock songs, maybe a little heavier than what we've done. So the title 'Jekyll & Hyde' really covers the breadth of the record.
I don't like cooking just for myself; I enjoy feeding other people, particularly outdoors.
We ended up New Year's Eve playin' a show. My date had stood me up, and I remember walkin' back to my friends with, like, two minutes before midnight and thinkin', 'I'm not gonna have anybody to kiss on New Year's.' And there she was, standin' right there, and I remember kissin' her, and then that was game over.
'A Pirate Looks at 40,' we had to do that song. I've been covering that forever.
I hope everybody enjoys our input on 'Black Water' - it sure was a lot of fun getting to record it.
I'm from Georgia, and everybody gathers around food in the South.
I love coming to Detroit. First getting to be buddies with Kid Rock in the beginning, and him being really great to us, showing us love, the love of the city. I feel like it's our city now, too.
To be a Southern Ground artist, you have to be a lifer. It's not about winning a karaoke contest or a television show to become famous. It's about really paying your dues. It's people I'm fans of and want to help in the business.
You've got to be willing to put the time into seeing who's got talent and who's going to do a great job.
We bled writing these songs, we bled in the studio, and now we're out bleeding getting them right live.