In 2009, just two months after breakthrough hit “Chicken Fried” went to No. 1, Clay Cook joined the Zac Brown Band members as the country group’s multi-instrumentalist and high tenor vocalist – lending his signature Georgia-inspired style filled with killer picking.
Writing and performing have been constant in Cook’s life, growing up in a household where there was always music going on. Cook’s stepfather actually owned a music store. So, while everyone else was playing video games, the seven-year-old Cook was already strumming his three-quarter size classical guitar. He spent most of his time practicing scale fingers and chord changes.
And Clay Cook Took His Love For Music Into Another Level
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While Clay Cook picked up drums in the fine arts department in high school, he came back to his first love – the guitar – when he auditioned at the prestigious Berklee School of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. It was there he met John Mayer, who later on became his bandmate.
After dropping out of college, Cook moved over to the outskirts of Atlanta, Georgia, with Mayer and formed the band Lo-Fi Masters. The duo wrote several songs together, which appeared on Mayer’s first two releases – this includes Mayer’s debut single “No Such Thing.”
Eventually, Cook and Mayer ended up following individual endeavors, with Cook joining his uncle’s band for a short while, which just so happened to be the Marshall Tucker Band. Since then, Cook has engineered and produced albums for various artists in the Atlanta area.
He’s also cultivated a solo career that has produced three full-length albums, with the 2017 Unobstructed View being the most recent one.
Truly, Clay Cook has one awesome musical journey. And he feels like his whole life has been preparing him to be in this award-winning Zac Brown Band.
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Clay Cook, zac brown band