Zach Bryan called himself an “idiot” and a “dumbass” for getting “lippy” with the police officers who arrested him Thursday night.
Shortly after leaving jail on bond, the country music star took to his Instagram Story to explain to fans why he was taken into custody and to apologize to the Oklahoma cops who booked him on an obstruction of investigation charge.
“I was an idiot today,” he said in a video message. “My decisions did not reflect who I was as a person. I just want to make that clear. I should’ve been smarter about it.”
Bryan, 27, explained that he was driving through a small town in his home state “about three days ago” when he sped past a trooper, who pulled him over and asked for his license, registration and address.
“I said, ‘Hey, man, I don’t really feel comfortable giving you my address. I’m a musician,'” he recalled. “He says, ‘If you don’t give me your address, I’m gonna have to take you to jail.'”
The “Something in the Orange” singer claimed the officer then asked him to get out of his vehicle and placed him in handcuffs, so he finally shared his address and was set free.
“He gave me a warning ’cause I wasn’t going too fast or anything,” he told his 2.8 million Instagram followers.
However, Bryan had a run-in with another cop Thursday while traveling to Boston to see his beloved Philadelphia Eagles’ season opener against the New England Patriots this weekend, which admittedly set him off.
Approximately 40 minutes into his drive, the “I Remember Everything” crooner looked in his rearview mirror and saw the officer pulling over his security guard, who had been trailing him in a separate vehicle.
“Ten to 15 minutes go by, and I get out of the car, and I’m like, ‘Man, what is taking so long?’ And I was gonna smoke a cigarette,” he said. “The cop comes up to me, and he’s like, ‘Sir, get back in your vehicle.’ And I’m like, ‘I’m not the one getting pulled over.’ He’s like, ‘Get back in your vehicle or I’m gonna have to take you to jail.’ And like a dumbass, I said, ‘Take me to f–kin’ jail? What do you mean?’ …
“So I get too lippy with him. He brings me over to his car, and I just didn’t help my situation at all. I felt like a child. It was ridiculous. It was immature. And I just pray everyone knows that I don’t think I’m above the law. I was just being disrespectful, and I shouldn’t have been, and it was my mistake.”
Bryan claimed the police officer cuffed him again, and he began “mouthing off like an idiot” because the restraints were too “tight” on his wrists.
“[The cop] says, ‘Hey, man, I’m gonna tell you this: Don’t interrupt me.’ And I was like, ‘Well, after you’re done, I’m gonna say my piece.’ He started talking, and I interrupted him — naturally, ’cause I’m just angry,” the Grammy nominee admitted.
Bryan assured fans that he cooled off after being transported to the police station, where he posed for a mugshot and “eventually shook hands” with the arresting officer.
“I just wanted to apologize to the trooper — both troopers — that I was rude to,” he concluded his Instagram videos. “You didn’t deserve it, and hopefully one day we meet under difference circumstances.”
The incident occurred just days after the US Navy veteran’s new self-titled album became his first to hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
