Zach Bryan tried to talk his way out of jail before his arrest on Thursday.
According to dash camera footage obtained by TMZ, the country crooner got himself into hot water with one police officer after he admittedly got a bit too “lippy” inside the cop car.
In the video, Bryan can be seen driving into a parking lot to try and help his security guard, who had just been pulled over for speeding.
As soon as the “Something in the Orange” singer got out of his truck, the responding officer told him to get back in his vehicle or face the consequences.
“I’m wondering why it’s taking so long,” Bryan asked the cop, who told him to “either get back in [his] truck or go to jail.”
“I’ll go to jail, let’s do it,” Bryan quipped back daringly.
The officer accepted the challenge and immediately placed Bryan in handcuffs as the 27-year-old started to backtrack.
“This is the second time this has happened in three days,” he tried to explain. “This is my security guard. I was just waiting for him and it was taking a long time. I was just curious, sir, I’m sorry. I’m not trying to be an a—hole.”
“I was being a smarta— and I shouldn’t have been. I apologize.”
However, once Bryan was placed inside the cop car, he grew irritated and asked the officer to remove his “insanely uncomfortable” handcuffs.
“This is why people do not like police officers,” he said, noting that he knows just about every high-powered officer in Oklahoma and even invited 40 of them to one of his recent shows.
once Bryan got out of the vehicle, he tried to explain that he was so worked up because the man in question was his security guard and he couldn’t just leave without him.
“He’s my security guard. It would be different if he was a random person,” he said. “I said, ‘Hey man, what’s taking so long?’ Then he arrested me.”
“A bunch of f—king middle-aged, white dudes going around arresting people,” he added while getting increasingly agitated.
Before Bryan was whisked away, he called his dad to come pick up his dog, who was sitting in the passenger seat of his car the whole time.
Shortly after getting out on bond, the singer took to his Instagram Story to try and explain the situation to fans.
“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.”
The singer admitted that he got “too lippy” with the officer and “didn’t help [the] situation by “mouthing off like an idiot.”
“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.”
However, Bryan said he was especially annoyed because he had an uncomfortable encounter with another officer just three days prior after being pulled over for speeding.
“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 “I Remember Everything” singer was then placed in handcuffs until he agreed to give up his personal information.
“He gave me a warning ’cause I wasn’t going too fast or anything,” he told his 2.8 million Instagram followers.
While he was able to go on his way following the first incident, Bryan was taken to the police station and booked for obstruction of investigation the second time around.
However, after taking his mugshot, the former US Navy veteran and the arresting officer “eventually shook hands” and went their separate ways.
“I just wanted to apologize to the trooper — both troopers — that I was rude to,” he concluded. “You didn’t deserve it, and hopefully one day we meet under different circumstances.”
