Billy Zimmerman would not be where he is today without perseverance.
As his star continues to rise, the CMA Best New Artist nominee wants to inspire hope in listeners with his new song “Hold On.”
“I really hope people can move on from something,” Zimmerman tells PEOPLE exclusively. “I do it to connect with people and show them that they are not alone and that they can get through anything.”
While Zimmerman’s 5-times platinum single “Rock and a Hard Place” took “months and months of production,” the singer finished recording “Hold On” — written by his friend Blake Whitten and producer Austin Shawn — in just a few days.
“We were about to release a different song, and then I heard [‘Holding On’] “The weekend before,” he says. “I was like, ‘No, we’re not doing any of that.’ That’s the song.”
Cover of Billy Zimmerman’s “Hold On” solo.
Warner Music Nashville/Elektra Records
It took years of hustling to get here.
After graduating from high school, Zimmerman built gas pipelines and posted videos on “trucktok.” He and his brother started building trucks together with the intention of opening a shop, but when he got bored waiting for parts for his first truck, he recorded himself singing Black Stone Cherry’s song “Stay.”
In 2020, he posted a song on TikTok that he wrote with his friend Gavin Lucas, and it went viral. He quit his job the next day to pursue music.
Since then, Zimmerman has released the biggest debut album in the country at the time of its release, had multiple platinum singles and a sold-out headline tour.
“The whole point of ‘holding on’ is that you’ll never get there if you quit,” he said. “It may take some failures…but you won’t do it all at once, and a lot will change.”
Zimmerman was also nominated for Best New Artist at the CMA Awards, an honor he says left him “speechless.”
“I was very afraid to come to Nashville because I had just started singing, and I know how hard people work and how long it takes people to get to where I need to be,” he said. “To have country music rally around me…whether I win or not, whatever, but to be out there and be recognized, spending my time with guys that I’ve looked up to my whole life, listened to my whole life, you can’t get better than that.
Billy Zimmerman at the People’s Choice Country Awards.
Tiprina Hobson/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty
The singer says his motivation in music is to tell his stories and that he finds solace in his songs alongside his listeners.
“At 18, I was carrying all this weight and all this stuff, and now I feel like I wake up every day, and I get it all off my chest in my songs,” he says. “I feel like that’s what other people do too, it takes the burden off a little bit when you can scream out those words that you’ve been feeling.”
Zimmerman is scheduled to perform Concert for the Carolinas, a benefit concert headlined by Luke Combs and Eric Church in support of Hurricane Helen relief in the Carolinas and across the Southeast on October 26.
“That’s plan No. 1. Go play it, get a lot of money, donate it… and bring people together as well,” he says. “Music has always brought people together and healed them.”
Zimmerman’s current plans also include training his new puppy, Pie, so he can go on future walks with him and his other dog, Marley.
Billy Zimmerman and Groh Pie.
Billy Zimmerman/Instagram
After getting a muffin on the road from a truck show, Zimmerman realized she had parvovirus and rushed her to the vet while he called the other new owners to rescue other dogs.
Fortunately, he contracted the virus in time to save Bay, who was named after Marley’s love of sweets. Now healthy, “the pie is [hopefully] “He comes with us on the road,” he says.