Zach Bryan seemingly opened up about his ex-girlfriend, Brianna “Chickenfry” LaPaglia, in lyrics on his sixth studio album.

Bryan, 29, delivered the 25-track project, With Heaven on Top, on Friday (January 9). The singer-songwriter appeared to include references to his sobriety journey, his relationship with his new wife (Samantha Leonard, 28), and his turbulent split from his ex-girlfriend. Some of the lyrics that have reportedly caught the attention of listeners, including the track “Skin,” in which Bryan sings that he’ll take “a blade to my old tattoos,” to drain “the blood between me and you.” He vowed he “ain’t ever touching yours [skin] again.” The singer-songwriter, who got a matching tattoo with his ex, also wonders, “do you still talk s*** on all of your friends?”

Another track, “Slicked Back,” appears to compare LaPaglia, 26, a social media personality, with Leonard (and focus on Leonard in the rest of the lyrics, and in other tracks on the record, like “Runny Eggs”): “Used to know some folks who put it all online but you paint landscapes in the evening time.” “Plastic Cigarette” includes the lyric, “my brother had told me to leave but I didn’t believe the evil beneath some people you meet out in Queens. Bryan and LaPaglia met up at his concert in June 2023 in Queens, New York. LaPaglia said she was “blindsided” when the former couple split up in October 2024, and later alleged emotional abuse and a $12 million offer to sign an NDA about their relationship together (she declined). Bryan did not publicly address his ex’s allegations.

Bryan has not publicly commented on the meaning of his lyrics as of publication time on Friday.

The Grammy winner, who announced on New Year’s Eve that he and Leonard got married in Spain, said his newest album is “a collection of songs my band and me recorded across three different houses in Oklahoma this winter. The cool air kept us all inside staggering around each live take. I pray these all end up meaning as much to others as they mean to me. Songs are living things, they want to be free and these free’d me.

“I was in the throes for a long time and the simple statement of heaven being above me got me through a lot,” Bryan continued in a caption on Instagram. “Not my job to convince anyone of anything. I’m not trying to sell music. Music to me is God’s gift and it needs no competition or commentary. The last ten years I’ve tried my best to share the human experience. I feel like I’ve lived all my 20’s out on a very large, very lucky and very unfair stage but this one felt different. This one felt like recording music with my best friends again. I’ll always give my best and I’ll always be willin’. Thanks for listening and I will see everyone on the road.”

WITH HEAVEN ON TOP - Tracklisting:

Down, Down, Stream
Runny Eggs
Appetite
DeAnn’s Denim
Say Why
Drowning
Santa Fe
Skin
Dry Deserts
Bad News
South and Pine
Cannonball
Slicked Back
Anyways
If They Come Lookin’
Rivers and Creeks
Plastic Cigarette
You Can Still Come Home
Aeroplane
Always Willin’
Miles
All Good Things Past
Camper
Sundown Girls
With Heaven On Top

See Bryan’s 2026 tour stops below.

Amy James

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