Country star Zach Bryan says he was arrested, jailed briefly in northeastern Oklahoma

FILE - Zach Bryan arrives at the 58th annual Academy of Country Music Awards on Thursday, May 11, 2023, at the Ford Center in Frisco, Texas. (AP Photo/Jeffrey McWhorter, File)

By KEN MILLER Associated Press

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Country music star Zach Bryan was arrested by the Oklahoma Highway Patrol and jailed briefly on Thursday in northeastern Oklahoma, according to a video posted on his account on the social media site X, formerly Twitter.

Bryan said he was driving through Vinita, about 55 miles (88 kilometers) northeast of Tulsa when his security guard, who was driving behind him, was stopped by an officer.

Bryan, who is from Oologah, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) northeast of Tulsa, said he also stopped and after 10 to 15 minutes, got out of his vehicle to smoke a cigarette when the officer told him to get back inside the vehicle or be taken to jail.

Bryan said he cursed the officer, who then handcuffed him and placed him in the patrol vehicle.

“I get too lippy with him,” Bryan said. “I’m just mouthing off like an idiot” and the officer was “just doing their job.”

Bryan said he spent “a few hours” at the Craig County jail before being released on bond and that he spoke to the officer and shook hands with him before leaving.

Bryan in an earlier post on X wrote he is “truly sorry to the officers” and that he was out of line.

“I don’t think that I’m above the law, I was just being disrespectful … I was just an idiot … and it won’t happen again,” Bryan said in the video. “I was just frustrated in the moment, it was unlike me and I apologize.”

A representative for Bryan did not immediately return messages on Friday morning for comment.

Court records do not show that any formal charges have been filed.

Bryan earned his first number-one album earlier this week. Billboard reports Bryan’s self-titled album moved 200,000 units this past week, putting it at the top of the Billboard 200 albums chart. Bryan, in a duet with Kacey Musgraves, currently has the No. 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 with “I Remember Everything.”