Zac Brown has been pretty much everywhere in front of sports fans in recent months, but the music superstar said the run of high-profile appearances has developed “organically,” as opposed to a more deliberate strategy.
Brown’s spring of 2026 has been marked by a hefty run of sports-related appearances, including:
- Being the featured performer in the seemingly ubiquitous March Madness commercials that ran on CBS and TNT
- Performing in the intro clip for NBC’s new Sunday Night Baseball showcase
- Playing a show as part of the week of events around The Masters
- Solidifying a date as the headline act for the UFC Freedom 250 Fan Fest in June, an event supplementing the mixed-martial arts competition that will be held at the White House in Washington, D.C.
Speaking with Front Office Sports, Brown said the confluence of sports-related bookings stems from existing connections that he and his management have with teams, leagues, and sports facility operators.
“It was definitely organically developed, but I think it was seeded in the relationships that we have with all these people,” Brown said. “We have incredible relationships with MLB, playing a lot of their stadiums. … Same thing with [the] NCAA. Everything’s relationship-driven. It’s just that this year, everything seems to be happening all at the same time, which is awesome for us.
“I’m really happy to have the love from all the sports right now. It’s super fun,” he said.
UFC Fandom
The upcoming UFC appearance, meanwhile, is far from just another gig from Brown and his band. Brown said he is a diehard UFC fan who voraciously watches every major fight, and he holds a close relationship with Dana White, the property’s president and CEO.
“I’m a massive UFC fan. I’ve seen every UFC [numbered event] from one to 327, or whatever we’re at now. I’ve seen every one of them, every one I could digest,” he said. “I could commentate. I love the sport. I did judo in college and started understanding the mechanics of the grappling part of it. Then that got me into watching King of the Cage before UFC was even rolling. So MMA is my favorite sport of all time. Any chance that I get to go to a fight, Dana hosts me and has me there.
“So when I found out this White House event was happening, I reached out to Dana and said, ‘I want to be a part of this.’”
That show, as well as the other sports efforts, are happening as the Zac Brown Band recently finished a limited residency at The Sphere, the immersive, next-generation venue in Las Vegas, with Brown saying, “we’ve been in a bubble making that show.” Despite the UFC event being at The Ellipse, another non-traditional setting, Brown said it will still be more conventional in its approach.
“The show with the Ellipse is going to be more like our normal shows that we play, where it’s presenting us, performing live, playing our instruments, singing our hearts out,” Brown said. “I’m definitely going to add a little more rock into that set than I would normally. It’s one of the things I learned from Sphere.”
