Kane Brown joins Kelleigh Bannen for the year-end interview on Today’s Country Radio on Apple Music Country. Kane discusses his 2021 collaborations, what we can expect from his next album, staying rooted in country music through his pop ventures, and even gets personal about mental health. Plus, the hour-long show features country music’s biggest hits of 2021 taken from the “Today’s Country 2021” playlist. Tune in and listen to the episode in-full today (Dec. 17) at 11am PT / 1pm CT / 2pm ET or anytime on-demand here.
Kane Brown on Always Putting Country Music First
Before I was even doing anything on Facebook, I was like, “It would be cool if there was a artist that did everything.” And I told myself, I was like, “I want to be that artist.” But then, a lot of artists, they’ll use country music and then they’ll kind of branch off and do their own thing. It’s like they just use the genre of country music just to be in the industry, and then they just completely abandon it. I told myself I’d never do that. We were very nervous at first coming in and trying to do a pop collab because we didn’t know how they were going to react to it and just kind of kick me out of the genre. I always told them that I would always be loyal to country music because they got me started.
Kane Brown on Collaborating with H.E.R.
So I met H.E.R. at the iHeart Awards, I think in 2019. That song [“Blessed & Free”], I actually was going to shelf it and she jumped on it without me even knowing, wrote her own verse, and I listened to it, and when she came in I was like, “Oh, hell yeah, this slaps.” So I had to release it… and [my wife and I] danced to H.E.R. song, “Best Part,” with Daniel Caesar at our wedding. So, when I found it, I was like, “This is perfect. It’s a full circle moment.” So I remember running upstairs and being like, “Babe, you’ll never guess who jumped on the song.” And I showed it to her and she just started freaking out. So then I met H.E.R. for the second time, but actually hanging out and talking to H.E.R. when we did the music video. And she’s so sweet, down to earth, super young.
Kane Brown on “One Mississippi”
So, I started my publishing company and brought a writer [Levon Gray] in from Alabama and this was especially his try to sign with our pub company. It was me, Levon, and Jesse Frasure. And so, Levon brought that title in, “One Mississippi” and he had… His idea was cool, but we changed it just a little bit and I just kind of sat back and let them do their thing and let them know what I didn’t like, what I did like. But yeah, they just came up with this cool little melody change. There’s like three different melodies going on. And so we took it as the first single and he’s already moved to Nashville. It’s a top 15 song and already changing his life.
Kane Brown on Anxiety and the Meaning Behind “Memory” with blackbear
I just love it because I don’t really talk about it a lot, but it’s hard for an artist to go through depression because for us, we have to be on our A game 24/7. If we’re out pumping gas and a fan comes up, and I’m just having one of those bad days, I have to put on a smile and there’s no off time. So it gets a little rough for us because if you have a bad day, they’re going to leave and they’re going to be like, “Oh, Kane Brown’s a dick.” So that’s why I like that song, especially just saying for everybody that goes through depression or anxiety, you’re not alone. There’s many people out there. You just got to find them and talk to them. So that was kind of me, that was my way of saying “I go through it as well. You’re not alone in the world.”
Kane Brown on What We Can Expect from His Next Album
I will say I pushed it back literally the other day. I’m not going to say when, but I did push my album back. But I think I am going to release songs hopefully once every other month leading up to it. And… none of them sound the same, which is another thing that I’ve been thinking about because I tried to go the old school route, but then I got too old school… I like different music. So one of the songs that I wrote for country sounds super… I’d probably say like the ’80s maybe, for the verses, but then when you get to the chorus, it completely turns into modern-day country. It’s called “The Devil Don’t Even Bother.” And it sounds like “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” until you get to the chorus. And then I have another song that I’ve been fighting with going with the demo route or going with the one that Dann Huff did, which he killed it, but I made him make it Motown. So it’s a super, just super Motown, a bunch of strings. And it’s like, is that too much or do I go to demo that’s basically straightforward Kane Brown?And I got a song called “Go Around.” So it’ll probably be my next release. And it’s very, very rock, I guess I would say rock, very heavy guitars, but a little swag to it. So it’s, I don’t know, everywhere.
