‘Good Times & Tan Lines’ by Zach Top - Lyrics & Meaning

First performed during a VIP soundcheck in April 2025, ‘Good Times & Tan Lines’ serves as the lead single from Zach Top's keenly awaited Cold Beer & Country Music follow-up.

Moments after delivering a stellar rendition of ‘Good Times & Tan Lines’ during his first time performing on the Nissan Stadium main-stage during CMA Fest 2025 in June, the ‘Use Me’ singer-songwriter surprise-released the sun-soaked anthem.

Given the fact that Zach Top has also been teasing a similarly breezy track titled, ‘Flip Flop’, in recent months, it seems his next project will strike a beachside balance between the traditional country of Alan Jackson and the sun-soaked escapism of Jimmy Buffett. Top has confirmed the album will be dropping this summer.

@brettporter13 @Zach Top performing his new song ‘Good Times and Tan Lines’ live for the first time! **I do not own the rights to the music in this video.** #zachtop #trend #fyp #country #countrymusic #musiccity #nashville #tennesee #cma #cmafest #broadway #downtown #nissanstadium ♬ original sound - Brett Porter

Although the subject matter veers towards Jimmy Buffett and Kenny Chesney-inspired territory, sonically, ‘Good Times & Tan Lines’ stays true to the neo-traditional country sound that Zach Top has become the poster-child for over the past year or so.

After spending much of 2025 laughing off the mock conspiracy theory that he might be Alan Jackson's son, Zach Top reminds us why some people think the likeness is uncanny. The twangy guitars and ‘90's-leaning riff that opens ‘Good Times & Tan Lines’ feel like an homage to Jackson's iconic hit, ‘Chattahoochee’, and even the nostalgic, carefree ambience of Top's new song is cut from the same cloth.

“Little bit of dust, little bit of smoke
Follerin’ a Chevy down a gravel road
Headin’ to a spot, everybody knows
Cannonball swingin’ from an old freight rope
Talkin’ bout”

There's a warm, rose-tinted atmosphere that pervades ‘Good Times & Tan Lines’, with Zach Top looking back at a simpler time, when summers didn't mean much more than hanging out with his friends, driving down to a lake and doing cannonballs.

“Good times and tan lines
Cold beer and summer nights
That was all there was to life
Good times and tan lines
Good, good times and tan lines”

‘Good Times & Tan Lines’ finds Top looking in hindsight, and although there is a bittersweet feel to the lyrics, as the narrator implies summers look a little different nowadays, it nonetheless carries an endearing frivolity and light-heartedness throughout.

Those specific days that Zach Top is reminiscing about might be in the rearview mirror, but that doesn't mean Top doesn't still plan on crushing some cold ones and heading down to the lake to make a new batch of memories with his friends today.

“FM on, coolers on the ground
Dig through the ice and pass ‘em around
Waitin’ on the hot sun to go down
Little skinny dippin’ when the moon comes out
That sounds like”

He fondly recalls how, as they travelled to the lake, they'd have the ‘FM’ - i.e. the radio - blaring their favourite tunes on the way. Top then describes the tantalising feeling of digging through the ice-bucket to pick up the first ice-cold beers of the day.

We might be looking too deeply into it, but the line “Little skinny dippin’ when the moon comes out” could be a tribute to Alan Jackson's ‘Chattahoochee’, with Jackson crooning, “Down by the river on a Friday night / Pyramid of cans in the pale moonlight”. The fact that Zach Top's tale appears to take place by a lake or a river seemingly accentuates the callback to Alan Jackson's legendary 1992 country hit.

“Nothin’ but timе
Nothin’ to lose
Guess therе wasn’t nothing else to do
But load up the truck and just take off
Back then buddy we had ‘em all
I’m talkin’ about

Good times and tan lines”

Here, Zach Top consolidates the idea that things just felt simpler and easier when he was younger, with no responsibilities or pressures and “Nothin’ but time / nothin’ to lose”.

The joyful energy that permeates ’Good Times & Tan Lines’ feels designed to encourage the listener to embrace this youthful feeling, and get back to enjoying the little things in life, rather than focussing on our ‘adulthood’ anxieties and worries.

After confirming back in March 2025 that his new album would be arriving in the summer, Zach Top performed ‘Good Times & Tan Lines’ during his main-stage Nissan Stadium debut at CMA Fest in early June. As he introduced the playful earworm, Top heartwarmingly explained that this was “a special night for many reasons”.

When he first performed ‘Good Times & Tan Lines’ during a VIP soundcheck set in April, the ‘I Never Lie’ hitmaker donned the new single “a goofy little fun summertime song”.

“Little bit of dust, little bit of smoke
Follerin’ a Chevy down a gravel road
Headin’ to a spot, everybody knows
Cannonball swingin’ from an old freight rope
Talkin’ bout

-

Good times and tan lines
Cold beer and summer nights
That was all there was to life
Good times and tan lines
Good, good times and tan lines

-

FM on, coolers on the ground
Dig through the ice and pass ‘em around
Waitin’ on the hot sun to go down
Little skinny dippin’ when the moon comes out
That sounds like

-

Good times and tan lines
Cold beer and summer nights
That was all there was to life
Good times and tan lines
Good, good times and tan lines

-

Nothin’ but timе
Nothin’ to lose
Guess therе wasn’t nothing else to do
But load up the truck and just take off
Back then buddy we had ‘em all
I’m talkin’ about

-

Good times and tan lines
Cold beer and summer nights
That was all there was to life
Good times and tan lines
Good, good times and tan lines

-

Good times and tan lines
Good, good times and tan lines
Hmm, mmm, doo doo do a do do”

For more on Zach Top, see below: