Zach Bryan Says He Has ‘Really Bad Imposter Syndrome’ as a Musician: ‘Never Thought I Had the Talent’

Zach Bryan may be selling out arenas on his Quittin’ Time tour, but that doesn’t mean the singer-songwriter ever expected his success.

Bryan, 28, sat down with Bruce Springsteen for Rolling Stone’s Musicians on Musicians series, and was asked at what point he started considering himself a “serious songwriter.”

The “I Remember Everything” singer responded saying he still doesn’t, and explained he’s still getting comfortable with the fact that he’s a major player in the music industry.

“To this day I have really bad imposter syndrome,” he said.

The Grammy winner then recalled his time in the Navy, when he and his friends would go out to bars, and he’d return to his room and sing about what they’d just experienced.

“I’d go home and I would write, and I never in a million years thought I would become a songwriter because I never thought I had the talent,” he told Springsteen. “And that’s not a humble thing, it’s just I never in a million years that I would be sitting here with you.”

Bryan said talking with his hero was surreal, as he and his friends would hear Springsteen’s songs, and consider them “beautiful and poetic and genius.”

“When I play [my songs], I’m like, ‘There’s no way people enjoy these like they would enjoy a [Bob] Dylan song or a Springsteen song or anything like that,’” he said.

The Boss, 75, praised Bryan’s songs “Open the Gate” and “Revival” in particular, calling them “songs you’re gonna be singing till you’re old as me.”

The rocker then said his own goal when it came to music has been the same since he was 15 years old — leave everything he has in his live performances.

“Songwriting’s hard,” Springsteen told Rolling Stone. “And I don’t think I felt really comfortable with the idea that I was writing good songs till I was about 22 or 23, when I was coming up with the songs for my first record, a record called Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J., which came out in 1973.”

Springsteen, of course, went on to become one of the most revered singer-songwriters of all time thanks to his tales of small-town, working-class woe, and has sold more than 140 million records over his storied career. He released his 21st studio album, Only the Strong Survive, in November 2022.

Bryan, meanwhile, has sold more than 30 million albums, and in February won his first Grammy Award, taking home best country duo/group performance for “I Remember Everything” with Kacey Musgraves.

He enlisted in the Navy at 17, and spent seven years in the Navy before he was honorably discharged to pursue his music career. He released his first, self-produced studio album DeAnn in 2019, and his major label debut, American Heartbreak, came out in 2022.