Chris Fryar, the drummer for The Zac Brown Band, got a humble beginning before joining the award-winning country group. He was playing at shows in Georgia for $40 and a free meal per night when a friend of Zac Brown noticed his talent and asked him if he was interested in joining the band.
It was in 2008, about the same time Zac Brown Band was about to tour with a breakthrough hit “Chicken Fried” – and was in need of a new drummer, to which Fryar happily auditioned. In less than 24 hours, Fryar found himself driving from Birmingham all the way to Atlanta, despite not knowing any Zac Brown Band Songs at the time.
A month later, Fryar joined Zac Brown Band members traveling by bus and performing shows at Austin, Texas. Soon, they’re already touring and promoting “Chicken Fried,” the song that put them to stardom.
Chris Fryar’s Early Start In Music
Born in 1970, Chris Fryar was already “singing and banging on pots and pans at a very early age.” At the age of six, Fryar was already strumming his first guitar, and when he was eleven, Fryar received his first pair of drumsticks.
But it was in junior high school when he started learning his craft and developed his love for making all kinds of music. It was at this very moment Fryar wanted to pursue music as a career. But with his parents’ desire to go to college, Fryar attended the University of North Texas and the Mississippi University for Women.
However, his professors saw something in him that he missed seeing at the time. They advised him to drop out of school and get out on the road with a band, which he did! He started pursuing the life of a working musician and made a name for himself in the Birmingham music scene, and eventually became Zac Brown Band’s drummer.
“My journey has been long, sometimes easy, sometimes difficult, but always very fun,” Fryar said.
