Artwork Different Night Same Rodeo

Artwork

Different Night Same Rodeo

Album ∙ Country ∙ 2025

Bailey Zimmerman

Before becoming a country star, the 25-year-old from small-town Southern Illinois worked at the local meat processing plant, laid gas pipelines, and promoted his fledgling truck-lift business on TikTok. Then a video Zimmerman casually uploaded—covering Black Stone Cherry’s “Stay” between truck builds—went viral, and by December 2020, he’d written his first song. Cue the record deal, the Morgan Wallen co-sign, the world tour, and the double-platinum debut full-length (2023’s Religiously. The Album.). But as he reminds you on the rowdy “New to Country,” he’s still the same whiskey-sipping, ATV-riding country boy, emphasizing in his raspy drawl: “Ain’t a thing changed ’round here but the money.”

Written fresh after a breakup, Religiously was rife with ballads about the pain of lost love. On its follow-up, Zimmerman sings a different tune. “When I first started writing songs, my life was like heartbreak,” he tells Apple Music’s Kelleigh Bannen. “With this album, my life has been awesome. I’ve been touring all over the world. I’ve been writing songs. I’m taking care of my family.” There are still plenty of big-hearted ballads on Different Night Same Rodeo, though now they’re scattered between heartland rock jams like the KID LAROI duet “Lost” or “Backup Plan” with Luke Combs, on which Zimmerman delivers his own motivational sermon: “If you got a fire, don’t lose it/If you got a do-or-die dream, do it/If you got something to prove, go on and prove it.”

Making regular appearances throughout the album’s 18 tracks is Zimmerman’s trusty old Chevy Silverado, which he took out a loan to buy from his grandpa at 16. “All day, when I was in school, I was thinking about getting in my truck and jamming music,” he says. “It felt like freedom.” That same truck is ridden with memories on “Chevy Silverado,” a track he says took him three years to perfect. And on “Holy Smokes,” it’s where he falls in love for the first time, chain-smoking cigarettes in the church parking lot: “At 17, that’s what hallelujah was.”

Listen on Apple Music

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