The road to country music stardom is paved with paying your dues. But what happens when you pay your dues with soggy dollar bills?
That was the case with the Zac Brown Band, everyone’s favorite country music/southern rock/folk band based in Atlanta, Georgia.

When it comes to paying music dues on the road, Zac Brown Band did it with handfuls of wet bills that were in his soggy cargo pants. Zac shared the experience and lessons learned on the road to stardom with CMT. Yes, before playing huge arenas to capacity crowds, there are always those years spent performing behind chicken-wire at dives on the road, with names like Billy Bob’s Chuckle Hut.

When asked about his years on the road playing dive bars, Brown told CMT:

“It was all just trial and error. I think my entire life has been trial and error. Like playing in a bar, and then wringing the beer outta my tip money from the tip bucket. At the end of the night, people would be spilling beer and stuff into that bucket but I didn’t care. I’d reach down and grab the one dollar bills from the bottom and shove ‘em in the cargo pants I used to wear,”

“I mean, I had soggy wads of one dollar bills on me for years. And that was my gas money, and what it took to get to the next place,” he continued. “Looking back, I forget about those days. But then when I get back out on the road, and I see what we do now, it never fails to astound me how far we’ve come.”

These are some wise words to remember for any budding country music bands out there. In case you want to see the end result of those years on the road with soggy bills, here’s a little taste of the Zac Brown Band – as they appear today; minus the soggy bills in their pants.