See Zac Brown’s Hilarious ’80s Parody Video for ‘Swayze’
Zac Brown Band fans were already confused by the release of bandleader Brown's genre-bending solo album, The Controversy, in September—a collection of unusual songs that included the particularly confounding tune "Swayze."
While we will not resurrect the heated debate that went on about this song, we will note that things have been taken to a deeper level with the debut of the "Swayze" music video, which is very funny, and can be watched above.
Brown himself does not appear in the video; he's given the honors to TV's Jake Nodar, who appears on Discovery Channel's Naked and Afraid among many other shows. Nodar dons a blond wig and dances about in '80s fitness gear, falls off a horse while trying to charm a hot chick, makes total fun of the pottery scene from Patrick Swayze's 1990 classic film Ghost, and generally keeps viewers laughing for the duration of the video.
"I’m actually a Patrick Swayze fan and the song and music video are absolutely for fun," Brown told People, who debuted the clip. “The video was definitely made to bring some laughs.”
"Swayze" is likely the most out-of-pocket song on The Controversy, which otherwise offers a variety of experimental but perhaps not as jarring explorations. “I wanted to create all these other genres of music that I love to do,” Brown told fans in a video introducing Controversy and its overall concept upon its release. "I love country, but I love other things, too. So this is my outlet. This is my chance to be an artist and be creative and it’s another side.”
Brown collaborates with a range of fellow artists on the record, including such names as Skrillex, Sasha Sirota, Jason ‘Poo Bear’ Boyd, Shroom, Benny Blanco and Max Martin—as well as some of his own band members. He says they might play some of these songs at Zac Brown Band dates, so look out!
"Some people only like certain things, but I like a lot of different things," Brown notes. "I don’t want a specific label. I gave birth to all of this stuff, and I’m super proud of it and I’m super excited for people to get it and hopefully people can connect with it.”
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