“The Honor Of My Life”: Zach Bryan Recruits His Idol, Jason Isbell, for New Belting Bronco Episode

Zach Bryan has released a brand new episode of his much-loved Belting Bronco YouTube series with one of his biggest musical influences, Jason Isbell. As is tradition on Belting Bronco, Isbell performs a series of fan-favourites from the back of a moving truck.

The clip opens on Bryan and Isbell chatting in a bar, with the ‘Something in the Orange’ hitmaker expressing his gratitude to Isbell for doing it, donning this “the honor of my life”.

Interspersed with shots of Isbell performing songs like ‘Ride to Roberts’, ‘Speed Trap Town’, ‘Relatively Easy’ and ‘King of Oklahoma’, Bryan asks the ‘If We Were Vampires’ singer-songwriter about his creative process, key moments from his career and more.

Aptly, given Isbell chooses to perform ‘Ride to Roberts’, their rain-hampered journey concludes at Robert's Western World in Nashville, where they discuss topics such as Dolly Parton. The clip appears to have been recorded the day after Parton's passing this summer, with Isbell outlining how he's been thinking of her a lot since her death was announced, and praising how she refused to let Elvis record ‘I Will Always Love You’, because he was demanding a songwriting credit on the song.

At the end of the video, which serves as a particularly emotional one for Bryan, he pays homage to Isbell through a poem he has written especially for this Belting Bronco session.

Across a light, undulating guitar riff, Bryan reflects on how impactful Isbell has been throughout his life, “Palomino in Los Angeles a few years ago, I waited after my set for hours just to shake Isbell's hand. When I was i the Nav, I worked the night shift, and to pay off the debt I accumulated for my mother's funeral. And other s*** young guys buy, I worked a framing job to barely make ends meet”.

He goes on to name-check some of his favourite Isbell lyrics, “I listen to his Something More Than Free record just to make it through the shift awake. Isbell's lines like, “This is how you make yourself worthy of the love that she gave to you back when you did own a beautiful thing”. Or “An AC hasn't made a single person cold, but I can't say the same for me. I've done it many times“. “When I get out of this hole, I'm going to Tupelo. There's a girl down there that will treat me fair””.

The Oklahoma native movingly concludes by championing Isbell as his “McCartney”, underlining, “He's the best songwriter to ever own a pen, in my opinion. I pray someone sees this and dives deep into every one of his records, because they have shaped me not only into the man that I am, but the writer I am. As Mayer put it, Jason lives in a place other songwriters can go briefly only a few times in their life”.

Elsewhere in the YouTube video, Bryan references his forthcoming Young Manhood & Other Donatable Organs EP, revealing that he's recorded a music video in Oklahoma for the project, in which he has a heartfelt conversation with his grandmother.