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It's a perfect spring day in Nashville—sunny and crisp, with the low buzz of a city emerging from COVID-19 like the coming cicada-pocolypse—and country artist Kane Brown is in a particularly cheerful mood.
The rising chart-topper just got back from his one-year-old daughter Kingsley’s first swimming lesson, and fatherly pride betrays his normally cool-and-collected demeanor. “She loves the pool, and she always sticks her head underwater,” he says warmly, pausing with a hint of far-off wonder. “It’s pretty cool.”
It’s this kind of wholesome family moment that Brown truly seems to love the most—aside from breaking new ground musically, that is. But soon, he’ll once again be living those doting daddy moments from afar. After a run of fair-and-festival dates gets him back onstage this summer, Brown will finish up headlining his postponed Worldwide Beautiful Tour, start releasing fresh tunes, and jump straight into his game-changing Blessed and Free Tour. There, he’ll headline all twenty-nine NBA arenas in the U.S., among other high-capacity stops, and early tickets have sold at rates challenging country’s elite touring acts—as in, the ones with “Entertainer of the Year” before their names.
“If the people are ready, I’m ready,” Brown says.
Standing apart in the country mainstream, Kane Brown both looks and sounds like a progressive, next-generation star—a young, mixed-race artist with a rumbling baritone and a boot in multiple musical worlds. Over the last few years, he’s been specializing in ever-bolder collaborations with pop’s biggest names, adding voices of color and outside influence to the genre, and building inroads to new fans of all stripes. He does it all while still using the classic country building blocks: honest songwriting and a connection to small-town America, plus a family-first attitude.
With just two full-length albums and a handful of EPs to his credit (including 2020’s Mixtape, Vol. 1), Brown’s only placed five songs atop Billboard’s Country Airplay radio chart to date. But clearly that’s not how his fans are tuning in. Brown has nearly thirty Platinum certifications so far, including two of the most streamed country songs of all time: the seven-time Platinum Number Ones “Heaven” and “What Ifs.” His last album, Experiment, debuted on top of the all-genre Billboard 200, and his free-thinking approach has grabbed the attention of everyone from Camila Cabello to John Legend.
Before the pandemic, Brown’s career was on full tilt. And with plans for his biggest year yet, he’ll pick up right where he left off. But like any good superhero story, the Chattanooga native with the Batman logo tattooed across his chest started out as a Nashville underdog. Back in 2016, Brown moved into a shared apartment in the Gulch, living with his guitar player after RCA discovered his popular YouTube videos. He went from covering country hits to a debut album of his own. And according to him, he was still just a wide-eyed kid.
“We got to travel from state to state, and then I’d be back home, doing writing sessions and going to awards shows, meeting all the other artists,” he says. “I felt like a fan that was just getting to live his best life.”
That went on for two years. But at some point, Brown found himself charting a path that no one else was on. He started thinking about the collab-culture that was dominating the pop charts, and figured, “Why can’t I do that?”
“I feel like we found our formula and that’s doing country albums but having one or two pop songs on there. That way we can push them to pop radio,” he says. “I’ll never have a pop song by myself, but I like doing the features and spreading my fan base around.”
By 2018, Brown had released a sweltering crossover duet with Latin pop star Becky G, crooning in Spanish on “Lost in the Middle of Nowhere.” Then the floodgates opened. After teaming with megastar Camila Cabello to remix her “Never Be the Same,” his biggest crossover success came in 2019 with DJ Marshmello and the multiplatinum “One Thing Right.” And since then, he’s scored hits with hip-hop trailblazer Nelly (“Cool Again”), R and B/rap phenoms Khalid and Swae Lee (“Be Like That”), and soul icon John Legend (“Last Time I Say Sorry”).
His formula is apparently working—and bringing worlds together at an important moment. For years, observers have questioned country’s lack of diversity, with a relatively small number of female artists earning radio play and even fewer Black voices. It’s only fed into the “backward” stereotype country’s suffered for generations, and looked especially egregious as racial inequality protests raged nationwide. But to Brown’s thinking, his approach creates some goodwill.
“I think everybody kind of looks over country music, which aggravates me,” he admits. “We always get put at the bottom for some reason, even though there’s so much talent. I just feel like it helps the genre a lot when country artists get their names further out, branching out with pop artists and stuff like that.”
Indeed, Brown’s work has given pop fans an example of what they’re missing. And it’s been making the country scene more dynamic.
“I think that’s a big part of why some people haven’t listened to country music—just because the difference hasn’t been represented,” he says. “I feel like a lot of my fans saw themselves in me. If you come to my show, the diversity is just crazy with how many different races are there. I think it’s awesome that people can come to my show and get along.”
Lately, that’s a message that the genre has been keen to spread. Ever since George Floyd’s murder last spring, proactive attempts to provide space for Black voices have been made across the industry. High profile moves included the Academy of Country Music inviting Mickey Guyton to co-host the ACM Awards; CMT picking six Black artists for their 2021 Next Women of Country initiative; and Maren Morris calling out her favorite Black female country artists on the CMA Awards. It may have all felt a bit reactionary, but it showed movement.
Meanwhile, artists like Jimmie Allen and Blanco Brown scored radio hits, and hip-hop renegade Breland impressed his way onto tracks by everyone from Keith Urban to Rascal Flatts’ Gary LeVox. The feeling seems to be that country can’t just point to a few artists and call itself diverse anymore, and Brown is all for it.
“I definitely think it feels different,” he says. “And I love that country music is embracing everything that’s going on.” His star-powered collabs don’t always appear on the country charts, and they don’t always feature artists of color, but they do get embraced by fans and have a ripple effect on country’s makeup. Their success brings a more diverse crowd to the table, so there’s likely more appetite for different perspectives going forward. It’s helped inspire other artists to up the ante, too, and looking ahead Brown plans to keep the party going.
Sticking to his formula, two tracks on his upcoming third album will be fresh country/pop collaborations, including a “depressing” track with an up-tempo beat brought to Brown by alternative hip-hop firebrand Blackbear, and another with R&B head-turner H.E.R. Both will help expand country’s reach, and Brown just wishes the genre had started the process earlier.
“I remember Nelly’s [2004 hit “Over and Over”] crossover with Tim McGraw,” he says. “It was so cool, and it was huge. If it had been done more, I honestly think country would be further along [in terms of diversity] than it is right now. But I love that I get to be one of the pioneers helping it move forward.”
Still, all that adventurous pioneering is paired with down-the-middle country hits, including his latest good-timing duet with Chris Young, “Famous Friends.” Plus, there’s his remarkably traditional love of the simple life, and a penchant for standing on good-guy principles that are also shining positive light on country. As his social followers know, Brown’s becoming a role model for family values, sharing joyfully candid updates on his daughter’s growth and lavishing his wife with genuine praise. Then there are his solo singles like “Worship You,” which is basically the opposite of every “hey-girl” track.
Brown says his worldview stems from a childhood spent as the son of a hard- working single mom on the Georgia- Tennessee border, and how he wants Kingsley to see something different. “I grew up different,” he explains. “I never had my dad in the picture. I think it’s important to a child’s life to grow up seeing their mom and dad happy and being respectful. To know that the family is always there for them.”
Now, as summer begins and life starts getting back to normal, Brown will embark on a new chapter of his mission. He’ll keep working on that third studio album, and by October it will be part of the arsenal Brown takes on his Blessed and Free Tour. So far, tickets have been going fast. And as his audience grows, even NBA stars themselves have begun cheering Brown on.
“It feels awesome. This will be our biggest tour so far, and I think we are the first country act to sell out [Los Angeles’] Staples Center back-to- back,” Brown says. “I’m a huge fan of the NBA, so it’s cool to visit all the arenas, and get to shoot on all the floors. I mean, Jimmy Butler called me out in Miami and said ‘You’re gonna be playing me when you come down here!’ So, I just can’t wait to get beat.”
Back in Nashville, though, Brown isn’t taking many Ls. He spent much of the pandemic partnered with organizations like the Boys and Girls Club and Lowe’s, helping build up and strengthen underserved communities when they needed it most. And he just finished co-hosting the CMT Music Awards, sharing duties with Kelsea Ballerini as the outward face of country continues to change. But for now, the budding superstar is soaking up his last precious moments at home.
He’ll shoot some hoops in his driveway, or hop on his ATV with his wife, Katelyn, and cruise their forested Nashville property. And he’ll definitely make some time for more swimming lessons. Soon he’ll be hard at work and too far away for that simple life, bridging divides and bringing fanbases together under one roof. Because it looks like the people are finally ready.
“I want people to pick each other up, and love each other,” he says. “I feel like we’ve come a long, long way from where we were. Now it’s just about staying motivated and doing the best I can do.”