Country music’s Bailey Zimmerman has a collaboration with rapper NBA YoungBoy and pop singer Dermot Kennedy on the new Fast X soundtrack.
The opportunity, as Bailey recalls, arrived when the Fast X team asked Bailey for his thoughts on the song “Won’t Back Down.”
“They sent me the song and they’re like, ‘What do you think of this song?’ And I was like, ‘OK?’ I heard it and I’m like, ‘Holy crap, that’s a bad a** song, man. That’s really, really cool. What about it?’ And they [said], “We want you to do it with [NBA] YoungBoy and Dermot Kennedy,'” Bailey recalls to ABC Audio.
That invitation marked a full-circle moment for Bailey, who’d been listening to both singers’ music since 2016. “I’ve been listening to those guys since I was 16 years old driving my Chevy Silverado, you know? So I was like, ‘Yeah, I’d be honored to do it,'” shares Bailey.
Perhaps unbeknownst to fans, the recording of “Won’t Back Down” didn’t happen traditionally. Because Bailey, NBA YoungBoy and Dermot were in three different places, the recording had to be done remotely and separately.
“Dermot was I think in another country, [NBA] YoungBoy was somewhere else, and I was in Nashville. So we all cut our parts different,” Bailey explains. “It was really cool how it all came together and stuff and the music video is sick, dude. It is cool.”
Fast X, the 10th film in the Fast & Furious series, is in movie theatres now. Bailey’s debut album, Religiously, is also out wherever you listen to music.
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