Earle was nominated for a 1988 Grammy Award for Best Country Vocal Performance, Male, for the album.

[3] The album was recorded digitally, using the Mitsubishi X-800 at Nashville's Emerald Studios.

Earle and his band played live shows regularly during breaks in recording.

[4] Exit 0 is stylistically very similar to its predecessor, Guitar Town, and was Earle's final pure-country album before incorporating hard rock with country on his next releases.

It is today described by Allmusic as "livelier stuff than nearly anyone in Nashville was cranking out at the time".