“I don’t want to be alcoholic, red-faced, hunched over, can’t move,” he says as he shows off his workout routine.
Zac Brown is committed to working out while on tour — and Bruce “The Boss” Springsteen deserves some of the credit for making it happen.
The Zac Brown Band frontman showed off his pretty impressive traveling gym in Men’s Health, a gym packed with weights, an exercise bike and even a sauna that’s all tucked inside a tractor trailer which follows them from state to state.
Brown, 44, told the outlet that he was inspired to focus on his fitness while on the road thanks to a conversation he had with Bruce Springsteen.
“When I met Springsteen, I said, ‘Tell me something that’s helped you to stay feeling good.’ He was like, ‘Man, you need to sweat for an hour a day. I don’t care what you do, doesn’t matter. You need to sweat for an hour a day,'” he recalled. “I was like, ‘You’re the Boss. Let’s do it.'”
Andrew Hetherington for Men’s Health
That’s a far cry from Brown’s early days in the music business, a time he says simply consisted of drinking “a bottle of Jäger before the show, during the show, and after the show.” Brown’s goal now: to get in the best shape of his life this year and lean out a bit.
“I don’t want to lose mass, but I just want to get my body-fat percentage down and be able to push myself so when I’m out doing the activities I love to do, I can do them better,” he said, adding that working on his fitness also has some mental benefits as well.
“If I go four or five days without working out, everything just seems to be a little darker than it should be,” said Brown.
Looking ahead, he told the outlet he plans to be “a ripped old dude” and someone who can still scale mountains in his 70s. “I don’t want to be alcoholic, red-faced, hunched over, can’t move,” he added the father of five. “Whatever makes me feel the best so I can be the best for my kids and my people, that’s the goal for me.”
Andrew Hetherington for Men’s Health