Zach Bryan buys church in memory of literary icon after massive $350 million deal

The country music star recently sold his publishing catalog and signed a new deal with Warner Records

Zach Bryan has purchased the historic former Saint Jean Baptiste Church in Lowell, Massachusetts so that it can be transformed into the Jack Kerouac Center.

The 29-year-old country star recently completed a pair of music deals reportedly worth a total of $350 million.

According to Variety, the “Something in the Orange” singer sold his publishing catalog to Merrit Group while also signing a major new contract with his label, Warner Records.

Some of that money has now gone to purchase the former church in the hometown of Bryan’s literary hero, Jack Kerouac.

The church was where the On The Road author served as an altar boy while a child and where mourners gathered for his 1969 funeral mass. It had long been earmarked as the site of a cultural center dedicated to his work, but funds were lacking until Bryan stepped in.

The purchase of the church building and site cost around $3.4 million, per local newspaper Lowell Sun.

Zach Bryan and Jack Kerouac (Getty/Tom Palumbo)

On his Instagram account, Bryan posted a link to a story about the purchase captioned: “My life’s greatest honor. Long live Kerouac’ing.”

In a follow-up post he wrote: “Miss you, Jack” along with a quotation from On The Road: “The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes ‘Awww!’”

In a statement Sylvia Cunha, who leads Marketing and Business Development for the Jack Kerouac Estate, said: “We’ve been working on this deal with Zach and his team for several months.

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“Zach reached out in October, and right from the start, it was clear he shared our passion for honoring Jack’s legacy while also creating a dynamic, creative space. He stepped up and delivered in a big way, showing incredible generosity. Our immediate focus is to bring the building up to code so we can start using the space for music and other events while forming new partnerships to help us bring this vision to life and ensure its lasting success.”

Kerouac died in 1969, at the age of 47. Marking the centenary of his birth in 2022, his collaborator David Amram told The Independent: “He would always say, with that Lowell accent: ‘Davey, I’m an author. I want people to read my books.’ Today, people are reading his books all over the world and it is so gratifying to see that.”