From fame to lame!!
We’ve all heard of the movie How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days… what about how to lose your fame in 10 hours? Country superstar Zach Bryan is accused of emotional abuse, cheating, and offering his ex-girlfriend, Brianna LaPaglia, 12 million in hush money.
Let’s start from the top. Zach doesn’t seem to have the best history with women. He married Rose Madden from 2020-2021 (mailed her divorce papers while she was deployed overseas), dated Deb Peifer from 2022-2023, and most recently, dated Brianna LaPaglia from 2023-2024. A pattern of jumping from woman to woman finally caught up with this hit artist.
If you listen closely to some of his lyrics, it’s obvious he is aware of his struggles with relationships and himself in general. In the song Crooked Teeth, Zach Bryan says, “You were the song I needed, but I was just passing through.” in the song Bassboat Zach says, “I’m a self-sabotaging’ suicide machine.”. Even if fans knew about Zach’s personal struggles, the extent of him and Brianna’s breakup shocked the country. After a blindsided breakup, Zach left Brianna utterly shocked by the situation, by posting their breakup publicly without Brianna’s consent.
Less than two weeks after the breakup, Brianna started to open up on social media about her and Zach’s relationship. She released an episode on the BFF’S Podcast where she co-hosted with Dave Portnoy and Josh Richards and she says, “The last year of my life has been the hardest year of my life, like, dealing with abuse from this dude,” she said. “Like, I’m still scared right now ’cause I’m scared of him.”
She did not go into detail about the exact nature of the alleged abuse, but what she did say was enough to leave country fans speechless.
After the breakup, Brianna explains more about the $12 million NDA that Zach Bryan offered her. According to Brianna, this wasn’t the first time Zach had paid off women for their silence. She says on the BFF Podcast, “I was someone before you and you made the women before me believe that they had no other choice but to take money from you, sign their experiences away, sign what they went through away.” She explains, “I’m not signing away my experiences and what I went through to protect someone who hurt me and I’m a lot stronger than a weak man and f— your money, and f— you,” these strong words from Brianna left the country shook.
Many people have different thoughts on Brianna not taking the hush money; many believe that she did the wrong thing and that 12 million dollars could completely change her and her family’s lives. On the other hand many claim that she did the right thing because emotional abuse is something that happens to many people around the world, and it is rarely talked about. By taking the money it opened the world’s eyes to how poorly people are being treated and abused during relationships.
When asked Oakmont school nurse Jessica Heffernan, who like many others is invested in the Zach and Brianna drama if she thinks Brianna did the right thing she states “I give her credit for not taking the money because many people would have, and it really shows how strong of a person she is. I also think she was already doing very well in life, and if anything, the break up drew more attention to her and gave her a bigger platform and thousands more supporters. It also helped bring attention to something that many people are dealing and struggling with. So, I think in the end it was the right decision.”
When asked on the BFF podcast why Briana didn’t end up taking Zach’s money she says “You get to go skip off and sing your little f******g songs on stage like you’re a good dude. You get to treat people around you like s***,” LaPaglia denounced. “Sorry, I’m not them. I don’t want your money; I don’t want in two years to buy a f*****g house and think, ‘Oh, this is the money from the dude that literally f*****g destroyed me and broke me for a year.’ ” which really helped people understand the great depth of what she went through during her relationship.
So we have all come to the conclusion that Zach Bryan is not the guy his fans thought he was. Fans begin to hate Zach for how he treated Brianna; many even stop listening to his music all together. But many are stuck on what to do, they debate whether to never listen to Zach Bryan’s music ever again.
Many agree with the statement “artists should be separated from the art”; many may not agree with the artist’s actions but they still love their music. We have seen this happen to many other artists before and it is always a big controversy that many try to stay away from.
Student Sophia Campanale who has been a Zach Bryan fan for years says, “Yes Zach is not a good person but I myself will still continue to listen to him. As much as I would love to not, his music has always been my favorite, it’s who I’ve grown up listening to, it would be weird never listening to him again. I think this situation is teaching fans to separate art from artist. ”
But is looking beyond the artist a good enough reason to listen to his music? Many people ask themselves this question. When asked student Amaiya Leblanc the question, if she will continue to listen to Zach Bryan music she states,“No, I believe that he deserves no support for what he put Brianna through. I know many people that have been put through emotional abuse and have been treated that way, and I believe it never gets enough attention, which is why I will not support him or his music.”
Heffernan states “ I think people should just do what they want. Yes he is a good songwriter, and yes, he is a bad person. We all know that, but at the end of the day, you shouldn’t judge people if they listen to him or not. ”
It only gets worse for Zach, many not only stopped listening to his music, many even started to rebel against Zach Bryan. A diss track was made by Dave Portnoy and Josh Richards called “The Smallest Man” which called Zach Bryan out and pointed out many of his flaws to the public. This diss track went very viral and exposed much truth about Zach and all the awful things he has done, turning many die hard fans to Zach haters.
But was the diss track immature or going too far? Many ask themselves.
When asked Heffernan, if she believes the diss track was immature she says “ I thought it was funny, But they may have gotten a little too involved, but I do think they are good friends for standing up for Brianna.”
Who knew a breakup could reveal so much truth, and cause so much trouble. Everyday we continue to learn more and more about the situation, and the crazy truth about super star Zach Bryan.
