Zac Brown Band members are ‘rock guys in our heart and soul’

May 8 (UPI) — Country star John Driskell Hopkins said he and his fellow members of the Zac Brown Band love covering rock ‘n’ roll songs on their tours.

The musicians have been known to include in their shows Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” Rage Against the Machine’s “Killing in the Name,” “Comfortably Numb,” by Pink Floyd, “Enter Sandman” by Metallica and “Paradise City” by Guns N’ Roses.

“We started to do ‘Panama’ this year and that was a lot of fun,” Hopkins told reporters in New York recently about the Van Halen hit. “You wouldn’t expect country bands to get into all that, but we’re rock guys in our heart and soul and we just grew up in the South, so we’ve got country in there, too.”

“It’s an instant cross-over for us,” he added.

The Grammy-winning group is about to begin two weeks of rehearsals for its Down the Rabbit Hole Live! tour, which is scheduled to run June through September.

Zac Brown Band, which has released six studio albums and two live records, is best known for its hits “Chicken Fried,” “Toes,” “Highway 20 Ride,” “Free,” “As She’s Walking Away,” “Colder Weather,” “Knee Deep,” “Keep Me in Mind,” “Goodbye in Her Eyes,” “Sweet Annie,” “Homegrown,” “Loving You Easy” and “Beautiful Drug.”

Hopkins said the band constantly changes its set list to keep things exciting for the musicians and their fans.

“We’re very jam band that way,” he said. “It feels like we’re in the biggest bar in the world. We still feel like we’re — in many ways — a band that hasn’t lost its roots.”

“We look at each other, we don’t see big screens and bright lights, we just see each other very simply. I think that’s possibly what helps us stay connected as a group,” he added.