Over the past few years in country music, beyond Ella Langley’s smash hit, “Choosin’ Texas,” there hasn’t been a more unescapable earworm than Zach Top’s “I Never Lie.”
Pretty much everyone and their mother was so addicted to the track that Top has us all walking around our houses belting, “I sleep like a babbyyyy” nonstop. As his second single from his debut studio album, Cold Beer & Country Music, the viral track is now his most-streamed song, with nearly 330 million streams on Spotify alone.
From the intro’s first few guitar notes, it’s one of those songs that gets the blood pumping and reels you in from the get-go. Insanely enough, the label execs who got a sneak peek of the track before Top had fully made his entry into the country music scene didn’t quite recognize its massive star potential.
During a recent appearance on the Zach Sang Show, Top revealed that in early 2023, he was finally ready to showcase the demo of his debut album to the Nashville scene. Dwindling down a whopping batch of about 200 tracks to just 12 songs, including “I Never Lie,” he began the daunting process of pitching the project to labels. And for everyone also wondering where the rest of the hundreds of songs from the vault went, some wound up on Top’s sophomore album, Ain’t In It For My Health.
Now, while Top may be one of the most well-known fresh faces in the game today and the song has had surefire success, he says originally, “everyone passed on it.” Adding that in their vague reasonings, the labels would let him know, “This isn’t what’s working right now, you know, let us know if it goes viral or something.”
Luckily, everyone was still somewhat supportive in their critique, according to Top, who went on to say, “Everybody liked it. Everybody was like, ‘Wow, it’s really good, but you hear what’s having hits today? This ain’t it.” Finally, the now Grammy award winner found a home at Leo33 with the label’s founder, Katie Dean, who’s been working with Top for almost 3 years, after taking a shot in the dark for the country traditionalist.
Dean made the right move as Top continues to lead this honky tonky revival, bringing back a classic sound reminiscent of ’80s and ’90s country. Unfortunately, not many people in today’s industry are willing to take that same risk, especially with Top pushing beyond Nashville’s typical standards. And while country music may seem to be rapidly evolving and expanding, there’s still plenty of truth to that reality.
Labels often want guaranteed proof that a song will go viral on social media before they’re willing to seriously invest in an artist who’s simply just good. Top echoes this, calling out the genre’s biggest name and the mold to garnering hits, Morgan Wallen, “You know, most people are going to play it safe and play the volume game, for our example of country music, you know, Morgan Wallen’s about as hot a thing going as there is right now. So, if we got something that kind of sounds a little bit like that, well, then we got a good chance of having some success with it.” He adds, “It’s way more of a risk to take something that doesn’t sound anything like what’s working and say, ‘Yeah, but we like it, and we think it’s good. Let’s go.’ Because if that flops, you look like an idiot.”
Surely there are a lot of people kicking their feet right now for not taking a shot in the dark on the Washington-native as he continues to see massive success with fans continuing to scream out “I Never Lie” at every show throughout Top’s 2026 Cold Beer & Country Music tour. He will return to the road for the start of Memorial Day weekend for his headlining show tonight, May 22, at the Patriotic Festival, with his summer wrapping up on August 28 in Gilford, New Hampshire.
Full Episode:
Tour Dates:
- 05/22 – Norfolk, VA @ Patriotic Festival
- 06/05 – Durant, OK @ Choctaw Grand Theater ^
- 06/06 – Nashville, TN @ CMA Fest
- 06/07 – Lexington, KY @ Railbird Festival
- 06/11 – Decatur, AL @ Rock the South
- 06/12 – Orange Beach, AL @ The Wharf Amphitheater ^
- 06/18 – Bloomington, IL @ Tailgate N’ Tallboys
- 06/19 – North Lawrence, OH @ The Country Fest
- 06/20 – Columbia, MD @ Merriweather Post Pavilion #
- 06/25 – South Greenfield, MO @ Baker-Spain Stampede
- 06/26 – Bonner Springs, KS @ Country Stampede
- 06/27 – North Platte, NE @ NEBRASKAland DAYS
- 07/09 – West Valley City, UT @ Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre ~
- 07/10 – Boise, ID @ ExtraMile Arena ~
- 07/11 – Pendleton, OR @ Pendleton Whisky Music Fest
- 07/15 – Saskatoon, SK @ SaskTel Centre †
- 07/16 – Edmonton, AB @ Rogers Place †
- 07/18 – Whitefish, MT @ Under the Big Sky Festival
- 07/23 – Minot, ND @ North Dakota State Fair
- 07/25 – Cheyenne, WY @ Cheyenne Frontier Days 2026
- 08/06 – Toronto, ON @ Rogers Stadium ‡
- 08/07 – Ottawa, ON @ Canadian Tire Centre #
- 08/08 – Canandaigua, NY @ CMAC #
- 08/13 – Wantagh, NY @ Northwell at Jones Beach Theater %
- 08/14 – Boston, MA @ Fenway Park ‡
- 08/15 – Boston, MA @ Fenway Park ‡
- 08/20 – Pittsburgh, PA @ PPG Paints Arena ||
- 08/21 – Allentown, PA @ PPL Center
- 08/22 – Bangor, ME @ Maine Savings Amphitheater ||
- 08/27 – Dieppe, NB @ YQM Countryfest 2026
- 08/28 – Gilford, NH @ BankNH Pavilion ||
* = w/ George Strait
^ = w/ Cole Goodwin
# = w/ Wyatt McCubbin
~ = w/ Jake Worthington
† = w/ Lukas Nelson
‡ = w/ Chris Stapleton
% = w/ Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives
|| = w/ Marcus King Band