Zach Williams: The Fun In Recording Christmas Music
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It's Live in the Bream with host of Fox News at Night, Shannon Bream.

This week on Live in the Dream, we have got a special, special guest and a special Christmas treat for you. Zach Williams is with us. He's husband, father, recording artist, songwriter, two-time Grammy Award winner, multiple Grammy nominations. He is at the top of the charts. You've heard all kinds of beautiful, awesome, inspiring, soulful music from him. He's got a first-ever holiday album out now. I don't want Christmas to end, Zach. I never do either. But I do want to thank you for being here.

Thank you for joining us. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Listen, you have had a fantastic, successful music career. So how do you go about deciding like, all right, I'm going to tackle a Christmas album. Cause to me, some of my artists, the favorite work I have from them are their Christmas albums. Yeah. I mean, I think for me, Christmas, you know, with Christmas music, it's, it's, it's a chance to kind of step out of the box of the normal stuff that you do. Uh,

and have some fun with some things that, uh, you know, I kind of have a certain sound with the music that I, you know, right. And the music that we produce and put out on, on my records. But, um, you know, I wanted to do something with the Christmas record that kind of paid tribute to, you know, the music that I grew up on and, and kind of the sounds of the music that I grew up on. And, and,

You know, where we live at in Nashville, we're not very far from Muscle Shoals, Alabama. And there's a there's like a legendary recording studio down there called Fame. And the idea was just to go down to Fame and take our favorite artists.

Christmas songs and kind of recreate that era of music that came out of that in the late 60s and, you know, the 70s. And, you know, we just had a lot of fun with this. It was kind of recorded live in the round. And it's a fun, it's been a fun tour so far to get to go out and play these Christmas songs. It's been, it's kind of been a breath of fresh air. It is, especially for so many people who have not been on tour, had to cancel a lot of dates in the last year. What's it like to be back out with the audiences? It's been a lot of fun.

It feels great. I mean, we were fortunate enough to be able to do some drive-in movie theaters, you know, when everybody else was kind of stuck at home. So we had a pretty busy year this year. We played pretty much this entire year and we,

Just to be back inside venues and churches and theaters and arenas, it feels great to see fans' faces again. And it's awesome. So how much of the tour do you have left now? I have four shows left on this Christmas tour, and then we'll be off for a little while, which is going to be nice to have some time with the family and just kind of relax.

All right. What do you do for Christmas? Do you have traditions? You, your family, your in-laws, or what's the deal? I wouldn't say we have too many traditions. When my grandparents were alive, we used to go to their house every year. And then we moved to Nashville from Arkansas a few years back. So it's a lot of travel. I'm

ending this tour and going to Arkansas to spend a few days and then back in Nashville. The one thing we've started trying to do with our, with our kids is we have a little gingerbread house competition every year. And so my daughter, she has already, she's already done one this year last week, just trying to get ready to do it. So see who's going to win the competition this year.

I like that. Like she's pre-gaming. I like that she's, she's, you know, working out the kinks. Do you want a dry run getting ready? I mean, do you guys get really competitive? Like the Breams do? Uh, I mean, I wouldn't say so. My son, my, my son is pretty competitive. Uh, he doesn't like to lose at all. You know, I'm, I'm doing it for the fun of it, but, but yeah, I would say the two kids, they're pretty competitive.

So how did your experiences growing up or the way that you experience Christmas now influence the way that you went about this? Because you said you wanted to go into that historic studio, just going to have fun with it. But how did it kind of color the way you see the songs, you see the music?

Yeah, I just remember as a kid being at, you know, Christmas parties or relatives' houses, and there was musicians in my family, and they would always be sitting around with an acoustic guitar playing songs. And so some of these songs are songs that I remember, you know, as a kid listening to, you know, at my aunt's house on an acoustic. And some of these songs are songs that I grew up hearing in church, you know. And then the other ones are just versions that, you know, I remember hearing on holiday records, you know, back in the 80s when I was a kid that I just loved listening

certain songs. And so we took those songs that we all kind of had favorites of and, you know, put our twist on it. And we had a lot of fun with it. Okay. Because you are a serious Grammy award-winning musician, I can put this question to you because also growing up in the eighties with the music there, I have an ongoing debate with a good friend of mine about this whole last Christmas song from Wham. I gave you my heart and you gave it away. It's a terrible Christmas song, right? Yeah. I'm not a fan of it.

Thank you. Okay. See, I've got the vote of Zach Williams. He's on my side about this. Okay. Now I come armed with a Grammy award winner that I can take that to the next debate about this. What are some of your favorite Christmas songs though? Not terrible ones like that. You know,

You know, I've always loved Silent Night. You know, it almost didn't make this record for us. It's one of those kind of sacred songs that you feel like if you're not going to do it justice, you don't want to do it at all. And I remember trying to find their key that I wanted to sing this song in, and I just could not get there. I was like, man, this is just not going to work for me. You know, it's either...

too low or too high and just not the right spot and so we kind of we kind of put the song down and when we got to the studio we just had this kind of moment where everybody was sitting around playing on the instruments and it just felt right and i went in and started singing and it became the key that we used on the on the track and um you know it ended up being one of my favorite songs on the record but i love i mean i love the fun ones too like run run rudolph and uh

you know, Merry Christmas, baby, things like that. So these were all songs that I just remember growing up, you know, Chuck Berry had versions of these songs and, uh, you know, that's just some fun stuff that we did. Who would be your dream Christmas music partner? Oh gosh. You work with some greats. I mean, they would, they would say Zach Williams, you know, cause they'd be excited. So I don't know. Uh, let's see. I think Bob Seger has a Christmas song. He does little drummer boy and he does a good version of that.

The Eagles would be fun to do something with. We're just putting it out there. We're manifesting. I'm going to see if I can't get Vince Gill to get me hooked up with the, with the Eagles, but yeah,

Yeah. I mean, anything, uh, golly, Chuck always had some cool ones. He did. I love how you say like, it's not that I'm going to ask Vince Gill to do something with me. I'm going to ask Vince Gill to hook me up with the people I really wanted to hook them with, you know, but their friends are like that. You can do that. So tell us how, um, you know, your hit, obviously working with a legend, Dolly Parton, tell us how that song came together and how the duet came together. Oh,

Uh, you know, I wrote the song, uh, honestly about a year before we asked Dolly to be a part of that. Um, had the song written, we went in and started working on a record about six to eight months later. By the time we got the song finished, we realized that, you know, it would be awesome to have her sing on the song. It just felt like one of those songs that, you know, she could do something with. And so, uh,

reached out to Dolly and she agreed to listen to the song and she told me that first time she heard it she never made it through the course of the song and she knew that it was special and wanted to be a part of it and so we met up at a studio in Nashville and worked for about four and a half five hours one day and she was an absolute just joy to be around she's

And it's obvious why she said the career she said. She's so humble and kind and down to earth. She just makes you feel like you're the only person around. And so, yeah, we had a great time. And she's awesome to work with. Well, beautifully written, but beautifully crafted and performed as well. It's one of those songs that just goes right to the heart. I can imagine her listening to it for the first time and feeling like, yeah, this is really unique. We'll have more Live in the Bream in a moment.

I'm Guy Benson. Join me weekdays at 3 p.m. Eastern as we break down the biggest stories of the day with some of the biggest newsmakers and guests. Listen live on the Fox News app or get the free podcast at Guy Benson show dot com.

Okay. So what's coming up for you in 2022? We have a spring tour that starts in March. Ann Wilson, she's going to go out. She's with us on the Christmas tour and she's going to go out and do the spring with us. Starting to work on a new record in January and February. So I'm hoping to have some new songs out in the late spring. Yeah, that's the plan right now. Moving forward is try to get some new music out there and start this

this next tour. So you're based sort of in Nashville. Now you said, um, from Arkansas, what do you do when you're not writing and performing and touring and recording? Do you have any of those times? I don't get a lot of that time. You know, I, I used to like to hunt and do some stuff like that. I don't get a chance to do a lot of it. Uh,

But I love my favorite thing to do outside of music is cooking. I'm a foodie. I love cooking meals for people. Just for me, I feel like preparing a meal for somebody is a lot like writing a song. I love how that brings people together. I love getting feedback on a song and getting feedback on a recipe. And I just love the fellowship that's involved in that. And so for me, when I'm home off the road, it's like therapy, you know, to go to the store and get stuff for a recipe and sit down and cook a meal with my family.

Okay. Now I got a couple of questions for you because I'm a terrible cook and everybody who listens to my podcast knows that. So is your stuff fancy and complicated? Do you follow recipes? Do you go from your gut? I can use it. If I go from a recipe, usually the next time I make it, I've remembered how to make it and I'll kind of tweak it myself. Sometimes they're fancy. Sometimes it's not. I made three nights ago, I made a paella, like a Spanish rice paella with seafood in it.

And then a couple nights ago, we made fillets with seared shrimp on top of that with this tarragon beurre blanc. And it was pretty good. So that was a little fancier. But sometimes it's just simple, like a burger on the grill or something like that. So I like to do it all. You throw in beurre blanc and I'm like, now we've gone fancy. This is not Applebee's. This is not fancy like Applebee's. This is different now. It's fancy like, I guess, a really nice steakhouse. I don't know. Delish. Delish.

Okay. Would you ever do a cookbook? I actually wrote a little cookbook that we sent out when I first signed my record deal to all of radio. It's called Breaking Bread with Zach Williams. Great idea. But yeah, we've been talking about doing that. I have a chef that tours with me full time and we do an eat and greet before all my shows. And so we do a really nice dinner with VIPs every night of the tour. And I used to come out and hang out, talk, and we give away that little cookbook that I wrote. But we've been talking about

writing one together. He's from Napa, California. And we've talked about from Napa to Nashville or got a song called to the table. We've talked about doing a cookbook called to the table. So yeah, it's definitely in the works. Well, so tell me about these eat and greets. Is it meet and greet, eat and greet? What's the term? Eat and greet.

Okay. That's a great idea. Um, what, what's the experience? So we do like a five course meal. Uh, he, uh, for the Christmas tour right now, he's cooking a kale and spinach stuffed pork loin. Uh, we're doing a prime rib with like a horseradish. He's, he's doing like a potatoes are grotten, uh, a really nice Pharaoh kind of, um, it's a grain. It's kind of like a risotto. And then he does a salad, uh,

and then a bread pudding, and we do like a hot apple cider. And yeah, it's a fun thing. So he cooks that every day for, we do up to 50 VIPs a night, and they get premium seating. They get a little gift bag with some, you know, swag in it and things like that. And then I usually come out and I'll do a third,

you know, Q and A for 30 minutes or so, take questions. And then occasionally I'll play, you know, a few new demos or something that I'm working on. I feel like if you're going to go out on tour, this is the way to do it. You got the thing. I love it. So with all of that in mind, it sounds like you definitely have a little part of you. Maybe ever do a restaurant.

something like that. Oh, I would love to do a restaurant. Nashville's got some great restaurants. I know. I think restaurant business is a hard business, but I would love to have one one day. I just don't know that I'd be the guy to run it. Do you have any favorites like Nashville, Franklin, Belmont, any of those areas? There's some good, I'm trying to think. There's a restaurant called Fifth and Taylor down,

in like germantown in nashville it's really good uh there's a place called butcher and b it's all like israeli food because cuisine it's pretty amazing um 210 jack's a really good ramen place we like the oak steakhouse and e3 chop house is great and then we've got our little like go-tos in spring hill where i live there's a little mexican joint that we probably eat at once a week and uh there's a place called circa that's the old train depot and it's a really cool little small

they do like a seasonal menus. They change it about four times a year. So it's, it's a kind of upscale, um, farm to table place. It's really good. So yeah, I'm always up for looking for something new though. Well, listen, when you, you mentioned that when you had time, um, you were into hunting, did you like to prepare the stuff that you would get? Yes. Uh, you know, I, I used to rabbit hunt a lot with my grandpa. I used to do a lot of bird hunting when we had dogs and then, um,

I've always grew up going deer hunting and things like that. And so, yeah, we would, I've eaten a lot of deer growing up as a kid. I love to do fried, fried deer, tenderloin, uh, things like that. See, this is, I mentioned to you that my husband is a fan of yours and I, now I know it's not just about the music. Yeah.

Cause he's like you too, honey. We, you know, we, we have a freezer full of venison. He likes to make venison jerky. Do you do that with any of yours? I do. And I think one of my favorites is just like deer tenderloin, you know, kind of breaded and fried with biscuits and gravy.

Oh my goodness. It's a good one. It's good. Good Southern dish. Listen, I'm going to have to show up to one of these eat and greets because now I'm getting hungry. It's going to be dinner time. Let me ask you to clearly infused through all of your music and everything that you do is faith. How has that guided your life? Does it guide you now and making decisions living through these chaotic times? Yeah. I mean, it does. When I look back on my life on where I've

been to where I am now, I think a lot of that was just faith on my family's part, praying for me, constantly praying, believing that God had this plan for my life. And now that I can look back and see that, it's given me a lot more faith because I know there have been seasons in my life where I didn't think there was any way I could make it through it. But just leaning into God and leaning into what the Word says has allowed me to do that, especially in this last season. I remember thinking about

you know, in March of last year, when we all came off the road, like, how am I going to provide for my family? God, how am I going to provide for these band guys and crew and everybody that depends on me to go out and work? And I just remember hearing this voice, you know, that was like, when did you become the provider?

Like I've always been that, you know, and I'm going to do that. I'm going to continue to do that. And so that kind of took the pressure off, you know, and then you just trust that God is going to do what he says he's going to do. And and that's it. Just just keep in faith. Yeah, that's such a good way to look at it. And such a good reminder for all of us that you can let go of the worry. And thank goodness someone else is in charge.

much bigger, much better person for controlling and charting the universe for us. I was going to ask you, I mean, did you foresee that you would have this kind of professional success? And do you feel pressure that the next thing is a hit, that the next album is a hit? I never imagined this to happen. You know, when I signed my record until I was 38, I was working at a church. I thought I was exactly where I was supposed to be. You

pretty content. I thought I'd finally made it. I was leading music three or four days a week and picking songs out. That's all I'd ever dreamed of doing ever since I started playing music was to play music for a living and get to do that. I didn't have any desire to go out on the road and start touring again. Like I said, I was happy where I was. When this all started, it was almost like I didn't have anything to do with it. God was the one that orchestrated it and he put it together

And, you know, it blows me away every time we send a song to radio and it does what it does. And I hear the stories from people, you know, what these songs are doing, because I just feel like I'm just, you know, I'm just along for the ride a lot of times. I feel like God's got the pen and paper. He's doing the songs. He's writing the songs. And I just get to get to be a part of it.

It really does take, in good ways, in many good ways, it takes the pressure off of us and the focus off of us if we can let go and recognize the bigger. So do you have a favorite song that made the cut on this Christmas album? I do. I mean, Silent Night's probably one of my favorite Christmas songs of all time. But I do also like the original song that we wrote for the record. I think...

for many of us, Christmas time is a time that, you know, a lot of times it's the only time of the year that you're with your family. You know, there's a lot of memories, you know, that revolve around Christmas. And it seems like every year that you get older, it comes and goes, you know, faster. And, you know, we wait

And we wait, we wait all year long for Christmas and then it's gone. You know, Christmas morning, you unwrap your presents. Usually, you know, mom's walking around with the trash bag, filling up, you know, wrapping paper and cleaning and you're done. And it's kind of like, okay, now we got to wait another 365 days for this. And so I just wanted to write a song that was kind of tugged on those heartstrings kind of a little bit and just, you know, let everybody know that it's all right to leave the wrapping paper, you know, on the floor for an extra day and

you know, wake up and pretend to do Christmas all over again. Cause nobody wants it to, nobody wants it to end. And that was kind of it. You know, how do you write a song that's brand new, but feel like a classic. And that was the attempt, you know, if we did it, that's great. Not sure, but I had fun trying. We'll see. And then it becomes the classic. So year after year, it'll get played. It will be on all of our playlists. And by the way, especially with the Breen family, which is the family I married into, um,

that wrapping paper that it's all pounded down into as hard of a mass, a little ball that you can make of it. And it turns into projectile, which we fights with. So, you know, the wrapping paper, whether you clean it up on Christmas day or the day after, um, you can still use it to harm your family. You're really industrious. Um, the album is, I don't want Christmas to end a Zach. Um, congrats on that and all your many successes. And thanks for making time for us on living the brain. Yes, ma'am. Thank you.

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