What you need to know
Zach Bryan isn’t holding back on his new album, With Heaven on Top.
The Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter, 29, released her sixth studio album on Friday, January 9th. Across 25 songs, he sheds new light on his feelings for ex-girlfriend Briana “Chickenfry” LaPaglia, his life with new wife Samantha Leonard, and his decision to quit drinking late last year.
In the song “Skin,” Brian takes aim at his ex-girlfriend, promising to “put a knife through my old tattoos” to draw out “the blood between me and you.”
“I’ll turn my knife against my skin/And I’ll never touch yours again,” he sings. “How do tattoos blend into your skin? Do your high spots ever sink? Do you love people just to win when it’s over?”
Brian also slams an ex-boyfriend for badmouthing his girlfriend’s friends with the lyrics, “Are you still talking bad about all your friends?/This time I gotta take it all up to my chin and I’m stone cold sober.”
The song is most likely a reference to LaPaglia, 26, with whom Bryan announced their breakup in October 2024. The podcast host has a tattoo of the lyrics to Brian’s song “28” on the back of his arm. The two separated under acrimonious circumstances, as she later accused the musician of emotional abuse and claimed he offered her $12 million and a house to keep from speaking publicly about their relationship.
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Although Brian hasn’t addressed LaPaglia’s allegations, he seems to have made his feelings clear in his new song “Plastic Cigarette.” In the song, Brian sings about an encounter he had with an “evil” person in Queens, New York. The singer and LaPaglia began their romance after attending his concert at Forest Hills Stadium in Queens in June 2023.
“You were picking up shells on the bay, you know, I used to be a shell/Deep in someone else’s hands/My brother told me to leave, but I couldn’t believe the evil beneath the people I met in Queens,” he sings.
The song “Slicked Back” also includes an obvious reference to LaPaglia, who has made a career as a social media personality and shares much of her life with fans online.
“I knew people who put everything online, but they paint landscapes in the evening,” he sings, paying tribute to his wife Leonard, 28, whose paintings Brian previously shared on Instagram.
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Elsewhere, Starr sings more positively about Leonard, whom she married in Spain on New Year’s Eve after months of dating.
In the song “Runny Eggs,” he sings about booking a flight to Pamplona to “search for a big-eyed Spanish woman.” He and Leonard attended the famous Running of the Bulls in Pamplona together in July and later married in the country.
The rest of “Slicked Back” is an ode to his new wife, with the chorus: “You’re so cool in the living room/And when we stroke your hair and talk shit/If I go to hell or heaven, can I take her with me?/Cause she likes romance, good sex, music, and world domination.”
“Camper” could also be about Leonard, as Brian sings about Leonard’s “California Baby” and wonders, “Why would she call that cowboy mine?” Leonard is from California.
In addition to songs about past and present romances, Brian also addresses other aspects of his personal life on With Heaven on Top, such as whether he wants to become a father someday.
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“Everyone I know is old/They told me when I was drunk to sober up, chill out and have kids/Be content with this/What if my kids don’t want to grow up like their dad and get all excited and start fights like him?” he sings on “Appetite.”
The line is also a nod to Brian’s sobriety, as he announced in November that he had overcome his “toxic relationship with alcohol” with the help of a therapist and had been sober for two months.
Brian also sneaks in a brief nod to breaking the law in 2023 in the title track, singing, “I want to fight and cry, I want to fall in love/Scrap and claw for what I’m dreaming about/Spend the night in jail after pissing off the cops.”
Brian was arrested in Oklahoma in September 2023 for interfering with a traffic stop of a speeding officer.
With Heaven on Top was written, recorded and produced by Brian over several months in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He is planning a long world tour with this album, starting in St. Louis in March.
The singer also announced that he would be releasing an acoustic version of the record three days after the album’s release.
