Zac Griffith: Kiwi country musician on his new music, journey in country music

One of our best up and coming country music talents is being recognised across the ditch. 

Zac Griffith is a self-taught musician from Tapawera, near Nelson, and his rise started at the Gold Guitar Awards, which he won in 2023 at the age of 18.  

He joined Kaylee Bell on tour last year, and got a co-sign from Entertainer of the Year, Lainey Wilson.  

Griffith told Mike Hosking that Bell has been a big influence and cheerleader for him. 

“She really has boosted my confidence, especially with taking me on that tour that she did last year,” he explained.  

“It’s, you know, getting the praise from people that you look up to – people that are doing what you want to be doing.” 

Griffith had won a handful of country music awards before taking home the Gold Guitar, but it was that award that reinforced his path in music.  

“Winning that really was, was a testament to me, and was, yeah the thing that made me go, okay, I must be doing alright.” 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
To our never ending quest to present you with the
country's greatest country music talent. Today, we're going to meet
and chat with Zack Griffith. He is self taught. He
is from Nelson, sort of. He won the Gold Guitar
a couple of years ago at just eighteen. He has
toured with Kaylee Bell and got a co sign from
Laney Wilson though less. His latest single dropped over the
weekend and he's off to Australia's biggest country music festival
as well. Zach Griffith is with it with us. Good morning,

(00:23):
good morning, and good to meet you too, mate. So
Johnny Cash is where it all began. He was the
one favorite Johnny Cash song is what.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Oh man, It'll be hard, but I guess you can't
go far wrong with you know the staple Foalshom, Prism,
ring Afire or Prison Blues.

Speaker 3 (00:38):
Or all the all the classics.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
I woke up Sunday morning, Sunday morning, Sunday morning. I
love is that Chris Christofferson or Johnny How much do
you can't out country met? Mate? I won't you can't
out country meet? When? When did you get into it?

Speaker 2 (00:55):
And why I was about I would have been about
seven years old, so a wee while ago now, And
it was the Walk the Line movie about about Johnny Cash,
you know, with work Queen Phoenix and Res Witherspoon, and
I saw a snippet of that on TV and I thought,
I want to be just like that guy. I want
he's the man. And yeah, I got a little guitar
and tried to teach myself for two or three months,

(01:15):
couldn't do it, threw it in the corner and picked
it back up a few months later, and I've just
been playing ever since, really, just self taught listening. Can listen, Yeah,
you know you listen to.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
You're clearly naturally gifted though, because one thing to teach yourself,
but it's one another thing to get to where you
are now.

Speaker 3 (01:30):
Yeah, yeah, I guess I guess you could. Yeah I
must be. I guess.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
So Who's who's told you along the way that actually
there's some talent there?

Speaker 3 (01:37):
I guess. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
Kaylee Bell she's been a big you know, she really
has boosted boosted my confidence, especially with taking me on
that tour that she did last year. And it's it's
you know, getting the praise from people that you look
up to and people that are doing what you want
to be doing.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
Is It's what I like about country music. We've known
Kaylee Bell for years and everyone's nice in country music. Yeah,
have you met any pricks yet? I've made a single eye?

Speaker 3 (02:00):
You have. No.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
Most of the time, it's good. I'll tell you what
it'd be, the older ones. Some of the older ones. No,
everyone's pretty good. You just everyone's on common ground and.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
There's a camaraderie about it and they want you to
do well.

Speaker 3 (02:12):
That's yeah, that's all, And that's you know, that's what
you want.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
You want the backing from from the people, and it
just makes you feel even better when you do have people.

Speaker 1 (02:19):
The gold guitars you went I can't remember, but its
several years ago. You went to No. X number of categories.
You sort of won them all, Yeah, including the including
including the gold guitar.

Speaker 3 (02:30):
Yeah, the big the big one. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
Did that change things materially for you? I?

Speaker 2 (02:35):
Well, I think that was probably something i'd definitely been
working up to. You know, there's there's there was a
handful of country music awards around the country in the
South Island that I did and managed to win a few,
you know, over the years, and then that was the
sort of main one. So so wanting that really was
was a testament to to me and and was yeah
the thing that made me go, Okay, I must be
must be doing all right, doing this thing myself. You know,

(02:57):
I've done this all my on my own terms, you know.

Speaker 1 (02:59):
And you're still only twenty one, which is still pretty young.

Speaker 3 (03:02):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, just the young man.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
The song that you're going to play you wrote. Yeah, yeah,
that's right, because when I heard that, I can't conceive
of the words coming from a twenty one year old.
It's way more sophisticated than a twenty one year old's experience.
So how do you explain that?

Speaker 2 (03:23):
I guess country music it makes you do, it makes
you do these things. And I guess there is a
little thing with songwriting where if it's not, you know,
you try.

Speaker 3 (03:30):
I feel like it.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
It's always easier to write something that's true to you
and something that's happened to you, but you can always
make stuff up to and people aren't going to know
as well.

Speaker 3 (03:37):
But I don't know.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
I guess I just did the words come out. That's
just I guess I'm just that's.

Speaker 1 (03:43):
And do you have an understanding when the words. People
will know what I mean when they hear the song,
because it's brilliant. When the words come out and you
write them down, do you think, yeah, no, there's something
here to do.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
Yeah, I think, I think. I guess yeah, because you
never know. Really, it's sort of you got to play
it to other You've got to play a song to
other people too, to sometimes get a bit of a
gauge of we are at But you get a fairly
good idea if you've got a good one on this one,
throw that one out of the back.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
So where are you? Are you professional yet?

Speaker 4 (04:08):
No?

Speaker 3 (04:08):
I don't know. I don't know was out there? Yeah,
I'm nearly going to go full time with this thing,
hopefully this year.

Speaker 1 (04:14):
This year old Because you've been at that. You've been
at the bakery.

Speaker 3 (04:16):
Yeah, yeah, the Wakefield Bakery down.

Speaker 1 (04:18):
There and down there what I love and didn't know about.
I knew the bakery story, but what I didn't know
about the bakery story was the girl on the bus.

Speaker 3 (04:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (04:27):
So that's because I'm asking him before we go to
where I go, howd you get the job at the bakery?
So the girls on the bus?

Speaker 3 (04:32):
Yeah, Yeah, the good bus.

Speaker 2 (04:33):
Girl on the bus liked her, and yeah, she got
a job at the baker. I thought, well, I'd better
try my hand there at the baker.

Speaker 1 (04:39):
You want you wanted into the bakery.

Speaker 2 (04:41):
Not any good at bacon? Yeah, no, I wandered in
and got a job. And yeah, and it's sort of
just sparked like that.

Speaker 1 (04:46):
And you are together though too. Yeah, yeah, so not
only a job but a relationship that started on the
school bus. How cool is that?

Speaker 3 (04:54):
Yeah, it's pretty It's pretty special.

Speaker 1 (04:55):
Man, is nan is Nana still your manager?

Speaker 2 (04:58):
She'd like to think so. She she's an she always
will be, but not not officially. Okay, Yeah, great supporters,
you know, very supportive family, and that's what you got
to have.

Speaker 3 (05:10):
Couldn't do it.

Speaker 1 (05:10):
Without because I always asked the same question because as
a parent of five myself, some of which, by the way,
are older than you. So this just makes me an
old fart asking these questions as every parent goes through
the when you do this, and most kids go through
what you're going through, a bit of guitar or a
bit of music, or I want to play the drums
or I want to be Ozzie Osborne or whoever it
happens to be. How do the parents handle it? How

(05:33):
did your parents handle it? Did they back you? Said,
just do whatever you want to do?

Speaker 2 (05:36):
Yeah, support from dayjop Really, I think it was there
was never any any any holding me back. They never
never want and didn't want me to do this. They
never wanted me to go to university and get a
high paying job. It was do it makes you happy
and you're doing what you love. You just keep at it.

Speaker 1 (05:52):
Far out Well that's working out. Well, okay, so the
song you're going to sing. How much of your material,
by the way, is you versus covers? Saw you do
Kenny Rodgers?

Speaker 3 (06:01):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (06:01):
I do do it, yeah Keinny Rogers And yeah, I
do a lot of covers really, but no, that's what
I yeah, used to do before I sort of started
songwriting about four or five years ago. So yeah, I
have written heaps of songs, really, a lot of songs,
you know, like forty or fifty songs, but so many
of them are just you know, unheard, you won't you
won't hear them because they're terrible. But yeah, I've got
a good little backlog of songs really, and it's good.

(06:22):
That's yeah, just got to keep writing them, and we'll
keep We'll keep putting the good ones in.

Speaker 4 (06:25):
Well.

Speaker 1 (06:26):
I built this song up a bitterll be good.

Speaker 3 (06:27):
You better.

Speaker 1 (06:30):
Exactly if the song is cooled.

Speaker 3 (06:32):
Sunday sober hit me.

Speaker 5 (06:52):
Sick good bat of Forever girl like wesh you.

Speaker 4 (06:58):
Well good, I'd make it a bit.

Speaker 3 (07:04):
Don't know if you can tell.

Speaker 5 (07:08):
Strinking and smoking and helplessly hoping and everything under the song.

Speaker 4 (07:17):
She's gone into her spot in my bed is still warm.
Just clean your head up song.

Speaker 5 (07:24):
But in the end we were dancing like you strangers
standing while they played out favorite song in my head.

Speaker 4 (07:34):
We were laughing over love and to happened down the
road only we know weird. We go so roll. God,
she still looks so pretty. I wonder does she miss me?
Keep this song?

Speaker 5 (07:55):
Ain't so to this heartbreak? Soul chasing after her shadow?

(08:23):
Oh Lord, the trails gone cold?

Speaker 3 (08:29):
Where the hell do.

Speaker 4 (08:30):
I go on? Now?

Speaker 5 (08:32):
Every thought I've seen this, Lord, Yeah, I've been drinking
and smoking and helplessly hoping.

Speaker 4 (08:41):
Everything under the sun. She's gone. It's so long.

Speaker 3 (08:47):
What did I do so wrong?

Speaker 4 (08:49):
I hate the man I've become.

Speaker 5 (08:53):
But indeed we were dancing like you strangers standing.

Speaker 4 (08:57):
While they played our fame song.

Speaker 5 (09:01):
But in my head we were laughing all the love,
and it happened down the road.

Speaker 1 (09:07):
Only we know.

Speaker 4 (09:11):
We we go so wrong. God, she's still so pretty.
I wonder does she miss me?

Speaker 5 (09:23):
Keep this song day so till this hotbreak soul Ude.

Speaker 4 (09:33):
They say you can't live in the path.

Speaker 5 (09:41):
But as long as she's gone soul and I've got lived.

Speaker 4 (09:48):
But in the end we were dancing like you strangers
standing while they played a favorite song.

Speaker 5 (09:56):
In my head we were laughing all the love. Then
it happened down a droll only we know weird we
go so.

Speaker 3 (10:11):
I don't know. God, she still look so pretty.

Speaker 4 (10:16):
Won you know she missed?

Speaker 5 (10:17):
We keep this Sunday Solve till this heartbreaks. Sunday solve
till this hardbreaks solve.

Speaker 1 (10:31):
Sensational, Well, mate, there's absolutely brilliant the way you play
that guitar. You're a natural. You're just the moment that
you hit the big question from the text, A lot
of feedback on the text. Everyone loves you. A quest
question Mike's steak and cheese pies to die for at
the Wakefield bakries.

Speaker 3 (10:45):
Oh mate, I'll have to bring you some. You are
They're incredible.

Speaker 1 (10:48):
Anytime good nice to see good luck with it all
come back. It's very much nice to see it, Zach Griffith.
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