Zach Bryan: What to know about 'American Heartbreak' singer before his Jacksonville show

Zach Bryan is on a roll, playing a sold-out tour of arenas and reveling in the New Male Artist of the Year award he won this month from the Academy of Country Music.

Tickets for his Tuesday night show at Jacksonville’s VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena are sold out and you’re not likely to get one if you don’t have one already. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and showtime is 8 p.m. A block party will be held in front of the arena starting at 5 p.m., with food trucks, games, bars and tour merchandise.

The Jacksonville show is the only Florida concert on Bryan's tour schedule.

Here are five things to know about Bryan.

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He seemingly came out of nowhere

Bryan self-released albums in 2019 and 2020, and they pretty much went unnoticed. Then he put out his major label debut, “American Heartbreak,” a year ago and it exploded, selling more than 700,000 copies and going to number one on the Rock, Country and Folk charts. He’s been on the road since the album’s release, playing festivals and arenas and a handful of shows in Europe. His popularity also got a boost when he appeared on an episode of Kevin Costner’s “Yellowstone,” playing with his band in the background at a county fair.

He’s a Navy man

Bryan served in the U.S. Navy as an aviation ordnance man for eight years before being honorably discharged in 2021. His first hit, “Heading South,” was filmed on an iPhone outside a Navy barracks while he was still enlisted. “If it was my decision, I would never get out of the world’s greatest Navy, but here I am and they kindly honorably discharged me to go play some music,” Bryan posted on Instagram. “Can’t tell if I’m a coward or if I’m chasing a dream but regardless, the best eight years of my life were spent serving the best country in the whole damn world.”

He’s not afraid to buck the establishment

Bryan put out a live album last Christmas called “All My Homies Hate Ticketmaster,” a reference to the huge ticketing agency that has irked fans with its fees and “dynamic pricing” strategy. For the Burn, Burn, Burn Tour, all tickets were sold through AXS, a rival company that does not allow resales. On the one hand, that means fans won't pay exorbitant prices to resellers; on the other, it means that if you didn't get a ticket when they first went on sale, you're out of luck.

Bryan also raised some country eyebrows when he threw his support behind Anheuser-Busch after the company launched an ad campaign featuring a transexual activist. Country singer Travis Tritt made a Twitter post saying that he was deleting all Anheuser-Busch products from his tour hospitality rider, prompting Bryan to fire back a tweet of his own: “I just think insulting transgender people is completely wrong because we live in a country where we can all just be who we want to be. It’s a great day to be alive, I thought.”

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He’s not playing all of ‘American Heartbreak’ in concert

Don’t expect Bryan to just play his hit album and go home. “American Heartbreak” has 34 songs and runs for more than two hours, and Bryan wouldn’t have time to play anything else. At recent shows, he’s been playing about 21 songs per night, including 7 or 8 “American Heartbreak” tunes.

He’s bringing along an unlikely opening act

Trampled by Turtles, a six-piece bluegrass outfit that’s popular on the Americana festival and jam-band circuits, will open the show. Trampled by Turtles, which Bryan called one of his favorite bands in the world, will return to Northeast Florida to headline the three-day Suwannee Roots Revival festival at Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak in October.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Zach Bryan in Jacksonville: Tickets, venue, opening act and more