How a toolbox TikTok and his mum’s last $1500 shot Bailey Zimmerman to fame

Bailey Zimmerman thought singing in his truck might be good enough to “get some girls”. He wasn’t anticipating to be a hot favourite to win a Grammy or headlining festivals in Australia.

American country singer Bailey Zimmerman, in Sydney to headline Ridin’ Hearts country music festival.. Picture: Justin Lloyd/The Daily Telegraph.

Bailey Zimmerman wasn’t looking to become a country star on the night he posted the video that made him one, while he was “broke as shit living with [his] mum”.

Having built a sizeable following on TikTok with clips about custom-built trucks, the small town US man says he was just trying to help out a songwriter pal by recording himself performing a tune they’d written together.

“Me and the boys would do karaoke nights in the truck drinking beer. I didn’t ever think to be a singer. Then I put my phone on the toolbox and recorded myself singing a Black Stone Cherry song to see what it sounded like. I thought ‘maybe that’s good enough to get girls’. I posted it to Snapchat and no girls slid up, but my friend Gavin did. He said, you sing? I said, ‘dude I don’t’.”

US country singer Bailey Zimmerman in Sydney. Picture: Justin Lloyd/The Daily Telegraph.

His no-frills performance of Never Comin’ Home — a grungy kiss-off to a cheating ex that he co-wrote in late 2020 with his friend Gavin Lucas — went viral overnight.

The next morning the 23-year-old called his union and quit his job.

“I said mom I quit, but I wrote this song. I need $1500 bucks to record it. She didn’t have it either. I remember being in a house where my bathroom door touched my living room couch and sometimes we didn’t have heat. That’s something that never goes away. The feeling of knowing what the bottom is.”

Zimmerman, 23, can’t believe his luck, and voice, has landed him in Australia. Picture: Justin Lloyd.

Bailey Zimmerman. Picture: Justin Lloyd.

That recording quickly led to Zimmerman’s moving to Nashville and signing a record deal of his own.

“I’ll always remember the $1500 in my hand that was going to give me a life I love to live, and now I’m here,” Zimmerman said.

Less than three years later, his debut LP Religiously The Album became the biggest streaming debut album of the year across all genres, and Zimmerman went on the road opening stadium concerts for Morgan Wallen. He’s also widely tipped as a contender for a best new artist nomination at the Grammys.

Quite a turnaround for a young man who was certain he’d own a truck shop for the rest of his life after he left a “dead end” career building natural gas pipelines in West Virginia.

On Saturday and Sunday, Zimmerman headlined the brand new country music Ridin’ Hearts Festival in Sydney and Melbourne.

“It’s been a wild ride. I didn’t think any of this would happen, so it’s pretty mind blowing any time anything happens. The fact that I’m about to play at two headlining festivals in Australia is unbelievable.”