Zach Top sincerely deserves the award for best lyric-fumbler.
Ahead of his headlining shows on his 2026 Cold Beer & Country Music tour, the Washington native hosts a VIP pre-show with an intimate audience of fans who can request songs for him to whip out on his guitar. Now the fact that he can remember all the chords to these suggestions off the cuff is already insanely impressive to me, but managing to remember the lyrics too? Pure insanity.
Now, while every classic country cover he takes on is a 10/10 in my book, unfortunately, I can’t boost his ego too much. Every now and then, the “I Never Lie” singer slips up and forgets a few lyrics, though he always manages to laugh it off and keep the performance rolling.
Most recently, he was caught slacking while covering “Better Things To Do,” and Terri Clark herself called him out on it. The Canadian country singer posted a clip someone captured at one of Top’s acoustic sets where a fan requested, “Can you do Terri Clark?” and Top let out the most obscure “OH” noise in excitement.
He then led into a cover of Clark’s 1995 debut single, which, now that I’m thinking about it, is slightly reminiscent of Top’s very own “Things To Do.” During the latter half of the chorus, Top just forgets the line altogether but keeps the ball rollin’ with his own mumbled lyric rendition before beautifully ending with the song’s punchline and a flawless guitar lick.
Top took the slight mess-up like a champ, giggling afterwards and noting, “Great song.” In her post, Clark was obviously touched by the performance, fangirling in the caption, “Zach Top is my TOP (see what I did there) country artist right now.”
But not without also jokingly taking a jab at the 28-year-old, saying, “I might know his songs a little better than he knows mine…” Over top of the video, she also hilariously captioned it, “Close enough…Thanks Zach Top!”
If you’re lucky enough to catch Top on tour this year, he extends the trend of covering a whole lotta ’90s hits during his headlining shows. From “Nobody in His Right Mind Would’ve Left Her” to “Don’t Rock the Jukebox” and most recently “Pancho and Lefty,” he’ll return to the stage with some stellar renditions tomorrow night, July 25, in Cheyenne, Wyoming.