Zac Brown Band Goes Rock, Charts #1

Zac Brown Band, who is no stranger to the country charts, has reached the No. 1 spot of the rock radio charts.

The bands brand-new Jekyll + Hyde album was released last week and includes sounds of rock, soul, jazz, gospel, folk, dance, and even some gospel, reggae and metal, according to Rolling Stone.

Claiming the top spot on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Songs chart is their second single “Heavy Is The Head (featuring Chris Cornell)”, which was promoted entirely to rock radio, rather than country. The song, which was released in early March, ranked at No. 3 on the charts just last week before climbing to the top. Their first single, “Homegrown,” was number one shortly after the album’s debut, with “Heavy” following in its success this week.

Zac Brown Band has become the second act in the Billboard’s history to top both the rock radio chart and its Country Airplay chart, which the group has achieved with 11 songs. The first and only act to ever land at the top of both the Mainstream Rock Songs and Country Airplay was Bon Jovi. The two singles that landed at No.1 on the rock radio charts was “Livin’ On A Prayer” (1987) and “Keep The Faith” (1992). The band topped Country Airplay with “Who Says You Can’t Go Home (featuring Jennifer Nettles)” in 2006 for two weeks.

In an interview with Rolling Stone Country, Brown spoke of his interests in being creative and thinking outside of the box when it comes to their music.

“What I’ve always loved is to try things and take chances that other people are scared to do,” he explained. “We’ve got a team of visionary people and people who’ve proven they can be successful in their own way, by breaking the rules of what is normal.”