Country music star Zach Bryan released a detailed account Friday of how he managed to find himself sitting in a jail cell just days after his new album topped the Billboard 200 this week.
The singer-songwriter, 27, was arrested in Oklahoma on Thursday on an obstruction of investigation charge and was released hours later. In a nearly five-minute-long video posted on Twitter, Bryan broke down how acting like a “child” and a “dumbass” landed him in handcuffs during what should have been one of the happiest weeks of his life.
It all started around three days ago as he was driving through a small town in Oklahoma, Bryan said. The musician claims he was “going like four or five” miles per hour over the speed limit as he passed a cop, who in turn pulled Bryan over.
ADVERTISEMENT
When the officer asked Bryan for his license, registration, and his address, Bryan protested. “I said: ‘Hey, man, I don’t really feel comfortable giving you my address—I’m a musician and I just, I’m not comfortable with it,’” Bryan says he told the officer.
The cop told Bryan that if he didn’t give him his address, he’d take him to jail, Bryan said. The singer continued to refuse, at which point the officer asked him to get out of his vehicle and put him in handcuffs. When Bryan eventually relented and told him the address, the officer let him go with a warning. “I think it just frustrated me a lot because I didn’t know if I had a right to refuse giving him my address or not, but I did,” Bryan says.
Then on Thursday, Bryan and his security guard were driving in separate vehicles to Boston, Massachusetts. As they were going through Vinita, Oklahoma, Bryan saw his security guard being pulled over. Bryan pulled up alongside his guard and waited for the cops to let them get on their way, Bryan said.
“Ten to 15 minutes goes by and I get out of the car,” Bryan said. “I’m like, man, why is this—what is taking so long?” Bryan said he was going to smoke a cigarette when a police officer came up to him and told him to get back in his car.
After arguing, the officer told him if he didn’t get back in his vehicle, he’d take Bryan to jail. “Like a dumbass, I said, ‘Take me to fucking jail? What do you mean?’” Bryan said, adding that he continued to get “too lippy with him.” “I just didn’t help my situation at all,” Bryan said. “I felt like a child. It was ridiculous, it was immature, and I just pray everyone knows that I don’t think I’m above the law—I was just being disrespectful and I shouldn’t have been.”
Bryan said he was put in handcuffs for the second time that week—and once again given the opportunity to be released if he complied with the officer’s demands. “He looks at me, he says, ‘Hey, man, I’m gonna tell you this, and don’t interrupt me,’” Bryan said. The singer went on to say that as the cop “started talking, I interrupted him.”
It was at that point he was taken to jail. Bryan says he cooled off at the facility and that he eventually shook hands with the officer. “I just want to tell the story and get it out there before someone blew it out of proportion,” Bryan said. “I was just an idiot and I’ll take the fall for it. I’m a grown man, and I shouldn’t have behaved like that, and it won’t happen again.”
