Warren Zeiders Likes His Life and His Whiskey to Be Super Bold: 'Paved My Own Path' (Exclusive)

• Warren Zeiders is hitting the road this summer
• "We live in a world where the narrative is to fit in, but I’ve always just gone ahead and trusted my gut," he tells PEOPLE
• The "Pretty Little Poison" hitmaker has teamed up with Wild Turkey

As Warren Zeiders preps for a summer spent out on the road, the country music rocker finds himself paying extra close attention to what he’s eating and how he’s looking.

And everyone else is too.

In fact, when Zeiders offered up a shirtless selfie on his Instagram page back in May, the comment section burned up with some good ole adoration from his fans asking about how he gets to looking like he does.

"I typically have eggs in the morning, steak and rice for lunch or if I'm focused on being lean, I will do a protein shake," explains Zeiders, 24, in a recent interview with PEOPLE. "I don't follow a super-strict carnivore diet, but I eat a lot of red meat. That's pretty much all I eat."

Certainly, from the moment he snagged the attention of the country music industry back in 2020 with his cover of Chris Stapleton's "Tennessee Whiskey," Zeiders has proven to be a 'what you see is what you get' sort of guy. And it's this guy that seems to shine each and every time he's on stage.

"These days, everything can feel like smoke and mirrors to the public," says Zeiders, who came home earlier this year with his first CMT Music Award for breakthrough male video of the year for his chart-topping hit "Pretty Little Poison." "When it comes to a live show, fans are spending their time and money to come see something you can’t just press play on."

Come August, Zeiders will head out on the road with Jelly Roll as direct support for his The Beautifully Broken Tour, making stops in venues such as Madison Square Garden, Crypto.com Arena, and the United Center. Then in 2025, Zeiders will embark on his first-ever European headlining tour.

It’s a bold move, that’s for sure.

"I love the word 'bold,'" says Zeiders, who recently released his current single “Relapse,” which he wrote alongside Blake Pendergrass and Justin Ebach. "We live in a world where the narrative is to fit in, but I’ve always just gone ahead and trusted my gut and paved my own path. I mean, my journey is one of its own in the way that I went with a Los Angeles-based label versus a Nashville label. If that’s not being bold, I’m not sure what is."

Obviously, these ideas of boldness and authenticity is not a huge stretch for Zeiders, whose Montana upbringing allowed him the precious time to enjoy some of the finer things in life. 

"I had my first glass of whiskey at 21… of course when I was legal," he says with a laugh. "Whenever I think about Wild Turkey, it reminds me of being out in Montana, Wyoming. I would be out there with a great glass of whiskey, isolated from the world, with my dad by my side."

So when the Wild Turkey brand approached Zeiders with a partnership opportunity, he says it was pretty much a no-brainer.

"When I first got on the phone with the Wild Turkey team, the importance they put on family really spoke to me," says Zeiders, who recently served as the headliner for his first in a series of 101 Bold Nights concerts that he will perform at, the first of which took place in Charlotte on May 29th.

Through this year's 101 Bold Nights initiative, Wild Turkey will be donating $100,000 to charity partner Spaceflight Records, a nonprofit record label that helps empower emerging artists and music professionals to trust their spirit and advance their careers.

"I'm really proud to be partnering with such a quality brand that has played such a memorable part of my life," Zeiders says.