Zach Bryan Discusses Writing Songs About His Mom, DeAnn, in New Bruce Springsteen Q&A: “How Do I Keep Her Name Alive?”

In an insightful new recorded conversation with Bruce Springsteen for Rolling Stone, Zach Bryan has shed light on why his late mother, DeAnn, serves as such a prominent muse for him.

After delving into a range of topics, such as the creation of Springsteen's iconic 1982 album, Nebraska, and his refusal to be boxed in my genres such as ‘country’, Zach posed a question to ‘The Boss’ about his father's influence on his songwriting.

Springsteen reflected, “There was something about his pain that I felt I needed to communicate...The body of my work really comes out of a feeling I had for my father's life and my mother's life”.

Zach Bryan immediately underlined that this struck a chord with him, explaining why he decided to name his widely lauded debut 2019 album after his mom, who died three years prior, ““That's why I released DeAnn, for my mom...she had passed away and I was like, ‘How do I keep her name alive?’ That's why I thought songs would keep her name alive forever, which was cool. And that's not like a sympathetic thing, either, I was like, ‘How do I keep her name around my own life forever?’”

Endearingly, the Oklahoma crooner thanked Bruce Springsteen for summarising that deep-seated yearning within him so concisely and pertinently, with Zach Bryan stressing, “The way you just put that is something I've always searched for”.

DeAnn remains the album that introduced the world to Zach Bryan, with a slew of tracks from the project holding their own in the ‘Pink Skies’ hitmaker's sprawling 2024 setlist. Whenever Zach Bryan chooses to perform the intimate, heartbreaking title-track, ‘Sweet DeAnn’, it's one of the most evocative moments in his rip-roaring set.

Zach emphasised to Springsteen how impactful his mother has been on his life and artistry, “I love singing songs about my mom. If she wasn't who she was, I wouldn't be who I was”.

Elsewhere during their conversation, Zach Bryan offered some details regarding his forthcoming The Great American Bar Scene follow-up album, teasing that he already has “14 songs” written for it. He expanded, “I'm not sure how I want to record a lot of them, and I just don't know right now. But this is the first time in my life where I've given myself time not to know. I'm really thinking about it”.

It seems he's being cautious not to rush out his next full-length project, with Zach Bryan confirming that he's still experimenting with a variegated palette of styles and sub-genres, “Some [recordings] are on my phone, and some of them are at Electric Lady, some of them are full productions here, and some of them are at fields...I want to have the staying power to be like, ‘I'm gonna make this a studio album’”.

The ‘28’ singer-songwriter found more common ground with The Boss when Springsteen was discussing his approach to crafting Nebraska, surprisingly admitting that he intentionally created it so that it wouldn't appeal to a mass, mainstream audience.

Zach Bryan echoed these sentiments in relation to The Great American Bar Scene, “I felt like that with my last album. ‘If I produce this weirdly, people are gonna hate it’ - and they didn't! No arrogance, either...but I wanted to slow things down enough, I was inspired by Nebraska and all those things, and I was like, ‘Oh, if I just do something weird, all of my ‘country’ fans and all of my ‘indie’ fans would be pissed’, and they'd be like, ‘Who is this guy?’ and I could control my own life for a second”.

Although fans have grown accustomed to Zach Bryan treating us to new music on what sometimes feels like a monthly basis, we're sure his next project will be well worth the wait. Zach teased a stellar unreleased track across his socials earlier in the week, and we're hoping this is one of the 14 songs he's planning on cutting for the record.

Watch the full conversation between Zach Bryan and Bruce Springsteen for Rolling Stone below:

For more on Zach Bryan, see below: