Zach John King is a young singer/songwriter who has quickly emerged as one of the top new artists in country music. Originally from Georgia, King is currently having a breakthrough hit with his song, “Get to Drinkin,” which is moving up the Billboard Hot Country Songs and Country airplay charts, and has now debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Alongside his hit single, King has also just released his debut album, I’m What You Get (on Sony Music Nashville Records). The album is an impressive collection of 20 songs that shows his range as a songwriter and singer. And to support his new album, King is about to launch his first tour as a headliner, after being an opening act for major artists such as Morgan Wallen, Riley Green and Thomas Rhett.
King’s new album, I’m What You Get, displays his talent and his unique qualities as an artist. After he released an EP in 2024 (Wannabe Cowboy) and an EP in 2025 (Slow Down), King was ready this year to confidently release a set of 20 songs that reveals how prolific he’s become as a songwriter & recording artist. This album contains a varied group of songs that showshis country and indie rock influences, and he demonstrates that he can even sing a ballad with a powerful, soulful voice.
The song highlights on I’m What You Get include the hit single “Get to Drinkin’,” which tells the story of a narrator who believes that he has fully moved on from an ex—except for every time he starts drinking whiskey and then dreams about getting back with her. Two other highlights are “Run For Them Hills” and “Backroads,” which are both high energy, uptempo songs, about King yearning to return to small town roots and beautiful countryside. Another special song is the acoustic ballad “Beneath the Pines,” which showcases a strong vocal performance by King.
In addition, I’m What You Get includes two, notable duet songs: “Way To Go” (featuring Brooks & Dunn), and “Choppin’ Wood” (feat. Brent Cobb).
King grew up in Fayetteville, Georgia, and he moved to Nashville in 2021. At first, he wrote songs in the hope that established country artists would record them. But when his songs weren’t being cut by other artists, he started to release them as an artist. In 2024, he released his EP Wannabe Cowboy as an independent artist, and the following year he signed with Sony Music Nashville, which put out his second EP, Slow Down. Then in August 2026, he released his debut album, I’m What You Get.
Here’s the video of Zach John King’s hit, “Get To Drinkin’.”
King is about to launch his first tour as a headliner. In early October, he starts his tour in Indianapolis, and he’ll be playing shows in Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee, Toronto, New York, Pittsburgh, Boston and other cities.
We are pleased to do this new Q&A interview with Zach John King. He discusses his first two EPs, the making of this new album, and his songwriting.
DK: I read that you’re from Fayetteville, Georgia. How did you get started with singing and writing songs?
Zach John King: Man, that was a mix of things. I think it was growing up with my grandma. Anytime that she and my grandpa would travel, instead of journaling, she would write freeform…simple rhyme poetry. For all her trips to Alaska and their trips out west, we would read poetry instead of reading about what they did. It was written in poetry, and so that was an early exposure to writing. And then I was surrounded by music growing up. It wasn’t that my parents were super musical—they just loved music, so there was never a discouragement for us to pick up an instrument. Then when I was eight, I learned guitar. My parents had us learn an instrument for one year, and if we liked it, we could keep going. I picked guitar and fell in love with it.
DK: In 2024 you released your EP, Wannabe Cowboy, and then the next year you released your EP, Slow Down. Can you talk about this early part of your career and making those EPs?
King: It was an exciting process. It was one of the first moments where I started to really build something that was me, and make strides to stamp my flag in the music business, and especially in Nashville. Like, these all started as songs that I wasn’t necessarily writing for myself. It was more like I’d moved to town to be a songwriter, and we had a bunch of songs that weren’t getting cut. So I was taking the demos that weren’t getting cut, and cutting them myself and I started to put them out. That started this journey of identifying what I wanted to say and how I wanted to say it. And I wouldn’t be able to put out a cohesive album until I made those EPs. I think that was an integral step.
Here’s the video of Zach John King’s song, “Run For
Them Hills.”
DK: This year you’ve had a breakthrough hit with “Get to Drinkin’,” which is still moving up the charts. Can you tell the story behind writing that song?
King: Yeah, we were on a retreat at Christmas time of last year, and it was an interesting one. It was the last day of a three-day retreat, and the whole point of the retreat was to get a collection of songs that we could take to the radio team (at the label) and feel good about. And on the last day of the retreat, I had brought the idea. The original idea was “Whiskey Sippin’,” and that got changed for the better. Then we grinded on that song until about midnight; it took us a while. The next day, I got the demo back and listened to it and I fell in love with it. I felt like we really had something there. And it was one of those things where we cut it and we loved it, and the radio team loved it. I felt this song was a great introduction to me, and I’m real thankful that it’s gotten some wings.
DK: You’ve recently released your first album, called I’m What You Got. Can you talk about the making of this album?
King: It was a year-and-a-half long process where I started piecing together the vision for it. There wasn’t a moment where we were like, “Okay, now we’re making the album.” I think it was just cutting songs a few at a time and making sure they were what we wanted. And through that process, figuring out what we wanted the entire feel of the album to be. By the end of it, when we were getting those cuts deep into the album, it was fun because we knew exactly what we wanted to do, and we knew exactly how we wanted it to sound. And me and my producer, Ryan Wilson—man, it was blood, sweat and tears. It was a labor of love. We didn’t wanna record songs just to fill up space. We wanted an intentional project, and we are so proud of the way it turned out. I think by the end of that journey we went over what we had recorded, and we were like, “Oh man, this is shaping up to be really good.” And I think now that we have such a clear vision about what I wanna do sonically and musically, I’m looking forward to recording more music and getting even more specific with that, for sure.
Here’s the video of Zach John King’s song, “Backwoods.”
DK: Two of my favorite songs on your album are “Run for Them Hills” and “Backwoods.” What inspired you to write these songs?
King: With “Run For Them Hills,” it was a moment where I was feeling pretty tired from the road. I hadn’t been home for a long time, and I was missing home. And I had called my dad that day, and I think he was sitting on the back porch with my mom. I was like, “Hey, what are you doing?” and he was like, “Man, I’m out here with your mom and we’re just hanging out.” And I was kind of jealous of him, to be honest with you. I was missing just slowing down and getting into some peace and quiet. So the next day I remember my buddy Josh (Phillips) had thrown out that line—Run for the hills—I think that was the original idea. And usually that’s a negative connotation—to get out and run away from something. So I wanted to frame it, where you had to run back into something that you wanted. “Run For Them Hills” might be my favorite one to play live, because of the way that song hits live and what it means to me now. I love that one.
“Backwoods” was similar story; we wrote it earlier in the year. It was on that same writing retreat where we did “Get to Drinkin’.” I was reminiscing with my co-writers about all the parts of growing up in Fayetteville that I loved, and thinking about calling my buddy. It was funny—my buddy from back home had called me, and he was laughing about the fact that I sing about all these hunts and fishing trips and stuff. And he’s like, “Man, you haven’t done any of that in a year-and-a-half ’cause you’ve been gone.” (laughs). And, that really inspired me. I was like, “Man, get me back there. I wanna be knee-deep in it. So both of those stories are basically the same inspiration for me. It’s like…I miss home, and I write a lot about it.
DK: I also like your acoustic ballad “Beneath the Pines,” which you sing with a lot of power. Can you talk about writing and singing “Beneath the Pines”?
Here’s the audio of Zach John King’s song, “Beneath
Them Pines.”
King: That’s a fun one. That’s a song we wrote a year-and-a-half ago, and it was a 6/8 love song and that’s a rare thing for me. I don’t write a lot of those. And it’s just a really cool moment. I think it was my first write with (hit songwriter) Rodney Clawson, who’s an absolute legend of songwriting. I remember pitching the idea, and he masterfully crafted some of my favorite lyrics. With the music, we knew we wanted to keep it stripped and acoustic. And I had gotten a lot of inspiration from the Zac Brown Band about that song specifically. They use that gut string guitar in most of their records, and that’s something we wanted to keep. I think it’s a beautiful song. And with the vocals, it’s not an easy song to sing. But it’s one where we felt it was a moment for me to show off my vocal ability more. And I’m excited on my headline tour to be able to play it for people and see their response, ’cause you know, everybody loves a good love song ballad.
DK: I want to ask you about your live show and touring, and I read you’re about to start your own headline tour. Can you talk about playing live and your upcoming tour?
King: Yeah, playing live is the best part of the job, man. It really is for me. You know, I love to make records, I love to write songs, but I absolutely love playing live. It’s my favorite part of it. And we try to put on a live show that is higher energy and more engaging than anybody else that you’re gonna see. So this whole year has been just a practice run for a headline tour. We’ve been opening up for basically everybody, and I’m learning things that I love about a type of show, things that I don’t, and we’re taking all these pieces of information and putting them together and building a really good headline show. And the headline tour will be fun because you know, I wanna meet my people, I wanna meet my fans.
