Review: 'Rusty's Rockfeast: Backstage With Zac Brown Band'

I've been to a few Zac Brown concerts and I had heard that some of the lucky fans got to share a meal with the band before the show. But until I watched FYI's "Rusty's Rockfeast: Backstage With Zac Brown Band," I had no idea what I was missing.

For the last few years, Brown has fed 150 or so of his luckiest fans before every show at an event he calls "Eat and Greet." There are no selfies or autographs. He wants the focus to be on the food and the conversation and it's a tradition that as far as I can tell doesn't happen with any other major musical act. And the way he pulls it off is thanks to Chef Rusty Hamlin, a crew of chefs and a 54-foot specially-built semi-trailer nicknamed "Cookie." About eight hours before every show, Chef Hamlin heads out to buy the tastiest locally-sourced food he can find. He then builds that night's menu around his ingredients and he and his crew get it cooked and in front of the fans at the very last minute.

Each episode of the half-hour show follows a frantic day of cooking, as everyone scrambles to complete an ambitious meal in a very tight timeframe. There's a nice mix of cooking info, color from the local markets and a bit of interaction with Brown and the band. In fact, the scenes between Brown and Hamlin come off very guinuine and funny. There is obviously a lot of affection between the two and it comes across strongly on camera.Hamlin is a natural on television and besides being a great chef, you get the impression he'd be a lot of fun to have a beer or two with after a long workday.

If you're a fan of Zac Brown, you're going to love getting this glimpse into what it's like behind-the-scenes of his tour. But even if you don't know Zac Brown from Zac Efron, you're going to really enjoy the show. You get to see how the dishes are put together, you learn a little bit about the local food scene in each city and there's even a bit of good-natured fun along the way.

In a season where just about every cooking show seems like some weak slighty-tweaked version of everything else, it's great to have a new favorite to watch every week. "Rusty's Rockfeast: Backstage With Zac Brown Band" is a blast to watch and if I have one regret after watching it, it's that seeing this show is probably about as close as I'm going to get to one of these events.

"Rusty's Rockfeast: Backstage With Zac Brown Band" airs Wednesday nights at 10/9c on fyi.