Zach Bryan has opened up about the personal catalysts that signaled he needed help after “perpetual discontent” led him to always reach for alcohol.
On Tuesday, the 29-year-old country star shared a candid message with his Instagram followers about his life-changing decision to heal his “toxic relationship with booze.”
“Recently, I went on a motorcycle trip across the country. For 20 days, I camped and rode looking for a solution. At the end of this ride, I was sitting in a parking lot in Seattle, Washington, thinking, ‘I really need some f***ing help,’” he began.
Bryan said that serving in the military for a decade and then immediately being thrust into the spotlight “had some subconscious effects on me.”
“I was not content,” he admitted, “but I also feared showing weakness because that’s not who I am or how I was raised. To charge forward and to never settle was the motto.
“I was stuck in a perpetual discontent that led me to always reaching for alcohol, not for the taste, but because there was a consistent black hole in me always needing its void filled,” he said.
“I had been lied about and doxxed on the internet, I was helping a close friend through a severe mental break, one of my other best friends was put into a coma by a motorcycle accident, and I was touring the country playing five sometimes six nights a week,” the Grammy-winning artist continued.
“I was having earth-shattering panic attacks. The anxiety I felt was paralyzing and I thought since I was successful, had the money I always longed for, and had great friends, that I could tough anything out.”
The “Pink Skies” singer shared that he’s since found a therapist and made “the conscious decision to do something about my toxic relationship with booze and how I cope with major life changes.”
Bryan revealed that he hasn’t touched alcohol for nearly two months now, adding that it was something he had to do for his own “personal clarity.”
“I needed to see the world objectively,” he explained. “My family supported every step I took.” He said that conversations about his future, his health and his girlfriend Samantha Leonard’s happiness “made me prioritize not only myself, but my entire family.”
“I feel great, l feel content, I feel whole. There is nothing I need to get me by anymore,” he said. “If you or any of your friends are too tough, too scared or too stubborn to reach out, know that the most stubborn dumbass on the planet did and didn’t regret it.
“I don’t believe in absolutes,” he concluded. “One day maybe, I’ll learn to control my habits, but for now; I just want to say it is okay to be weak at times and need help. God speed everyone! I pray this helps somebody.”
Earlier this year, Bryan was caught on camera getting into a heated argument with a man using his Ray-Ban Meta glasses to film at a New York City bar. In footage captured by the man’s spectacles, the “I Remember Everything” singer tells him, “I want to rip them off your face so bad because we’re at a bar. You’re going to see some terrible things tonight.”
Meanwhile in September, Bryan got into a shouting match with fellow country singer Gavin Adcock at an Oklahoma music festival. Footage showed Bryan jumping over a barbed-wire fence and attempting to rush toward Adcock, 26, before getting held back by security.
According to Adcock, Bryan was “drunk as hell” during the confrontation.
“He just paced around the inside of the festival all day, drunk as hell, throwing up in trash cans, going up to other artists treating them like s***, their crew s***, and just asking ‘Where’s Gavin?’” Adcock alleged on an episode of BunnieXO’s Dumb Blonde podcast.
If you or someone you know is suffering from alcohol addiction, you can confidentially call the national alcohol helpline Drinkline on 0300 123 1110 or visit the NHS website here for information about the programmes available to you.
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