Appetite

Album: With Heaven on Top (2026)
Charted: 48 38
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This song finds Zach Bryan circling the tug-of-war between his wild, restless nature and the pressure to settle down into a domestic life. He wonders aloud whether he should ever have kids, worrying they might inherit his "appetite" for "stirring things up and starting a fight."
  • Fame looms over the song like bad weather. Bryan sings about playing to crowds that "don't care at all," a line that echoes the same unease that's crept through songs like "Burn, Burn Burn" where ego-filled crowds and the touring bubble feel more alienating.
  • "Appetite" appears as track 3 on Bryan's sixth album, With Heaven On Top, released January 9, 2026. Its themes land with extra weight given Bryan's very public year in 2025. In November, he spoke openly about suffering "earth-shattering panic attacks" amid online controversy, and in December he shared that he was nearly two months sober.
  • Bryan wrote and produced the track himself, handling lead vocals and lead electric guitar, and surrounding himself with a small orchestra rather than a bar band. The lineup includes:

    Background vocals: Heaven Schmitt and Keenan O'Meara
    Bass Zephyr Avalon
    Pedal steel guitar: Read Connolly
    Fiddle: Lucas Ruge-Jones,
    Drum: Nate Head
    Piano: Junior Carroll
    Tenor saxophone: Andy McCormick
    Trombone: Isaac Washam
    Trumpet: Austin Stunkard, Ryan Hatcher, William Werthimer
    Cello: Ana Monwah Lei, Sasha Ono
    Violin: Hannah Cohen,
    Viola: Samantha Uzbay
  • With Heaven On Top runs 25 tracks and was written, recorded, and produced entirely by Bryan across multiple houses in Tulsa, Oklahoma, during the winter of 2025. Earlier records feel like notebooks from the road, but this one plays more like a long night indoors from someone sober, restless, and finally brave enough to ask whether the fire he's been feeding is still keeping him warm or just burning everything down.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Pam Tillis

Pam TillisSongwriter Interviews

The country sweetheart opines about the demands of touring and talks about writing songs with her famous father.

90210 to Buffy to Glee: How Songs Transformed TV

90210 to Buffy to Glee: How Songs Transformed TVSong Writing

Shows like Dawson's Creek, Grey's Anatomy and Buffy the Vampire Slayer changed the way songs were heard on TV, and produced some hits in the process.

Chris Fehn of Slipknot

Chris Fehn of SlipknotSongwriter Interviews

A drummer for one of the most successful metal bands of the last decade, Chris talks about what it's like writing and performing with Slipknot. Metal-neck is a factor.

Real or Spinal Tap

Real or Spinal TapMusic Quiz

They sang about pink torpedoes and rocking you tonight tonight, but some real lyrics are just as ridiculous. See if you can tell which lyrics are real and which are Spinal Tap in this lyrics quiz.

Brenda Russell

Brenda RussellSongwriter Interviews

Brenda talks about the inspiration that drove her to write hit songs like "Get Here" and "Piano in the Dark," and why a lack of formal music training can be a songwriter's best asset.

Divided Souls: Musical Alter Egos

Divided Souls: Musical Alter EgosSong Writing

Long before Eminem, Justin Bieber and Nicki Minaj created alternate personas, David Bowie, Bono, Joni Mitchell and even Hank Williams took on characters.