Zach Top Was Asked To Name His Country Music ‘Mount Rushmore’ — And His No. 1 Choice Explains Almost Everything About The Traditional Sound Fans Love

Ask any country singer to choose just four artists for their personal Mount Rushmore of country music, and you’re almost guaranteed to start an argument.

But when Scotty McCreery put that challenge to Zach Top, the rising traditional-country star didn’t need much time to think.

And his first choice may explain more about Zach’s unmistakable sound than anything else.

During an August appearance on McCreery’s SiriusXM show Prime Country with Scotty McCreery, the American Idol winner praised Zach for helping keep the spirit of ’80s and ’90s country alive.

Then he wanted to know exactly where that passion came from.

“Who would you say are like your big ones — your Mount Rushmore?” McCreery asked.

Zach immediately put Keith Whitley at No. 1.

For anyone familiar with Zach’s voice, the selection shouldn’t come as a huge surprise. He described Whitley as perhaps the single greatest influence on his singing, placing the late country legend at the very top of his list.

But his second choice revealed an even more personal connection.

George Strait earned another place on Zach’s monument, with the singer recalling that “Amarillo By Morning” had been his favorite song for as long as he could remember.

Even more remarkably, it was the first song Zach asked to learn on guitar when he began playing at just five years old.

His final two selections went even further into country’s history: George Jones and Merle Haggard.

Those four names provide a remarkably clear roadmap to the music Zach is making today.

While ’80s and ’90s country first captured his imagination, Zach explained that as he grew older and became more serious about improving as a vocalist and musician, he began digging further backward.

He immersed himself in older recordings, including George Jones’ material from his Starday Records years in the 1950s.

That journey, Zach believes, helps explain why his own music sounds so naturally connected to the traditional country era.

Instead of simply copying the stars of the ’80s and ’90s, he discovered many of the same older artists who had influenced them.

McCreery appeared to recognize the difference immediately.

He told Zach that his love for traditional country comes across as “genuine,” adding that audiences can watch him perform and understand that the image isn’t manufactured.

“That’s just who you are,” McCreery said.

It’s a particularly fitting observation as Zach’s reputation as one of traditional country’s most prominent modern torchbearers continues to grow.

And perhaps the clearest evidence came from one childhood memory.

Long before the records, major stages and acclaim, there was a five-year-old boy picking up a guitar and wanting to learn George Strait’s “Amarillo By Morning.”

Years later, Zach Top is still carrying that sound with him.

Keith Whitley. George Strait. George Jones. Merle Haggard. Four legends — and four names that help explain exactly why Zach Top sounds like he does.