Zach Top's Debut Goes Platinum, 'I Never Lie' Hits 4x

Whiskey Riff reports Zach Top collected nine new RIAA certifications, including his first platinum album and a 4x platinum single, at a Nashville dive bar.

On Tuesday afternoon at Goodtimes dive bar in downtown Nashville, Zach Top was presented with nine brand-new certifications from the Recording Industry Association of America, according to Whiskey Riff. The haul centers on two milestones: his breakthrough debut album *Cold Beer & Country Music* officially surpassed one million units to become his first-career platinum album, and his breakout hit "I Never Lie" reached 4x platinum. Whiskey Riff frames it as the latest proof that "there's no one doing it quite as well as Zach Top these days" among the artists keeping the traditional country scene alive.

Per Whiskey Riff, the complete list of new Zach Top RIAA certifications runs: "I Never Lie" — 4x platinum single; *Cold Beer & Country Music* — platinum album; "Bad Luck," "Sounds Like the Radio" and "Use Me" — platinum singles; and "South of Sanity," "Cold Beer & Country Music," "Lonely for Long" and "There's the Sun" — gold singles. For readers unfamiliar with the mechanics, Whiskey Riff explains that a single earns gold at 500,000 units and platinum at 1 million, where one paid download or 150 on-demand streams counts as a unit.

The scale is what makes this a story fans will talk about: a debut album reaching platinum while five of its songs individually go platinum or gold is an unusual sweep for any new artist, let alone one working squarely in the traditional idiom. Whiskey Riff notes the certifications arrived hot on the heels of Top being named one of the lead nominees at the upcoming CMA Awards, where he is up for his first-ever Male Vocalist of the Year and Album of the Year for *Ain't In It For My Health* — the record that, per Whiskey Riff, made him the first-ever winner of the Best Traditional Country Album Grammy in February.

Whiskey Riff reports that Top thanked his label team at Leo 33 and revealed a touring figure that stopped even him: 921,820 tickets sold across the Cold Beer & Country Music Tour so far — just shy of a million. "We knew we'd played to a lot of folks, however someone doing the math and now knowing 921,820 people have bought a ticket to come hear us play these songs is humbling," he said, per Whiskey Riff. He also reflected that the songs, written with producer Carson Chamberlain, "have taken on a life of their own" and now "become part of somebody else's story, too."

Shane Tarleton, Co-Head of Top's label Leo 33, told Whiskey Riff that Top is "the finest that country music has right now" and framed the plaques as proof of fan connection: "every one of these plaques represents a song that found its way into somebody's life." For a genre debate about whether traditional country can still sell at scale, the numbers Whiskey Riff details make a loud case — and they land just as the industry's awards season turns its attention to Top's sophomore record.

The hot streak continues on several fronts, per Whiskey Riff: Top is nominated for Male Vocalist of the Year and Album of the Year at the CMA Awards in November, has already released his first songs of the year with the August double-drop of "Good Girls & Cowgirls" and "Other Side Of Hurtin'", and continues selling out venues on tour. Elsewhere in the niche, Paste Magazine reports alt-folk figure Hudson Freeman announced *Doom Country*, out November 6 via Mom + Pop, with the new single "Fell Ass Backwards" — a reminder that the folk side of this slot is keeping busy alongside Nashville's certification season.