Joe Rogan Experience #2015 - Zach Bryan

Zach Bryan, 27, joins Joe Rogan over Bud Lights and opens up about the strangeness of sudden fame and self-censorship in the social-media age. He recounts nine years in the Navy, training to become a SEAL, his mother's death, and how viral guitar videos eventually got him honorably discharged to make music. The pair range widely across exercise and alcohol's toll on the body, songwriting and the threat of AI-generated music, the Empire State Building's hard-driving builders, and the catastrophe of success. The conversation closes on extended riffs about UFO disclosure, alien biological entities, China's surveillance of students, and whether the universe itself is God.

• Zach got swept into the Bud Light culture war after defending his sister's transgender spouse on Twitter, drawing hundreds of haters.
  00:00:31
• He trained two years to become a Navy SEAL, but his mother died the day his BUD/S package came back, and he stepped away.
  01:33:17
• After going viral he was processed out of the Navy over eight months; he believes Elvis Presley was the last person honorably discharged to make music.
  01:38:29
• Four notebooks containing roughly two years of his songs were stolen in a backpack in Times Square in November.
  01:46:50
• To fight scalpers he personally restructured ticketing (registration, ID checks at venues, flat $150 tickets) and got blamed by angry fans.
  01:42:41
• Joe recounts Dana White being down $600,000 playing blackjack in Vegas before winning it back.
  00:30:33

• The Empire State Building was built in one year and 45 days; roughly five workers died during construction.
  01:08:52
• May West was arrested in 1927 over her play 'Sex,' charged with 'giving a performance not tending to advance the morals of the spectators.'
  00:53:18
• Johnny Thunder, who sang 'I'm Alive,' had the real name Gil Hamilton.
  00:50:45
• Dunbar's number suggests humans handle tiered relationships up to about 150 people, from five close confidants outward.
  00:35:11
• Tom O'Neill's book 'Chaos' argues the Manson family may have tied into a CIA MK Ultra program, including Operation Midnight Climax.
  02:01:23
• A Chinese primary school used headbands to monitor students' concentration via facial recognition, halting after public outcry.
  02:39:01
• Early GPS units loaded maps from CD/DVD and could only hold the data for California.
  00:08:18
• Anheuser-Busch reportedly lost tens of billions in market value amid the Bud Light boycott.
  02:24:34

Books, products and media the guest or host genuinely endorsed here — with the buy link.

Affiliate link — we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.