Zach Bryan knows how to endear himself to an English crowd. The country superstar casually strolls on stage with his guitar in an Ozzy Osbourne T-shirt while his band plays Come Together, greeted by tens of thousands ready to sing back every word in between sips of beer and two-steps.
Early on in the show, Bryan pauses to say: “I hope you know whoever you are, we accept you here,” before launching into his debut single, God Speed. The sentiment captures how his With Heaven on Tour proposes a more inclusive, expansive take on how country music sounds and looks: Bryan invites everyone to the rodeo, which makes him stand out in a genre that can feel hostile to outsiders. This helps explain how, in seven years, the 30-year-old Oklahoman has gone from being a US navy officer who self-released his debut album to one of country music’s biggest names, now with six studio albums under his belt – and who has helped the genre to become a stadium-filling, festival-spawning phenomenon in the once-resistant UK.
