Kane Brown on making Time’s ‘Most Influential’ list: ‘I didn’t really understand why’
When Nashville-based country-music star Kane Brown says he loves Charlotte, he wants you to know that he means it.
“I’m not just saying this. A lot of people blow smoke because they’re coming to that city,” Brown said during an interview with the Observer on Tuesday to promote his Dec. 4 concert at Spectrum Center. “It’s honestly one of my favorite cities. I just love the atmosphere there, I love playing there. ...
“Coyote Joe’s, that was one of my favorite venues comin’ up. The Panthers have been one of my favorite teams for awhile — Cam Newton took me there — and I’m a huge LaMelo Ball fan, so him being with the Hornets now, you know, makes it even better.”
So then, one has to wonder: Might Ball be in the front row for Brown’s show at the Hornets’ home arena later this fall, kind of like how Kansas City Chiefs star quarterback Patrick Mahomes was at Brown’s Kansas City concert on Sept. 16? And if so, might Brown invite Ball up on stage to pump up the fans, kind of like he did with Mahomes?
To be honest, it’s probably a long shot. Brown explained:
“It was funny, I met LaMelo at The ESPYS (in July), and I got a picture with him, and he didn’t know who I was. But when he found out, he’s like, ‘You said country music, right?’ I was like, ‘Yeah.’ He’s like, ‘Yeah, I don’t listen to country music, but I’m gonna check you out,’” Brown recalled, laughing.
“I mean, I don’t assume everybody knows me, but it was just cool to meet him.”
If Brown’s trajectory continues tracking the way it has been, though, he’ll be a name that’s recognized in all households, not just country-music-loving households — and maybe even in Ball’s — before too long.
After all, just two weeks ago, the genre-bending 27-year-old multiracial singer was named to the Time 100, Time magazine’s annual list of who it considers the most influential people, putting him in the company of folks like Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, pop star Billie Eilish, gymnast Simone Biles and actress Kate Winslet.
In his chat with the Observer, Brown talked about the tour he’s bringing to Charlotte, his reaction to the “most influential” tag, and whether he’ll ever cross over from country music into the other genre he likes to flirt with.
The conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
Q. How’s the tour going? Actually, you’re right between two tours right now, aren’t you kind of?
Yeah, we just finished the “Worldwide Beautiful Tour.” It was just the makeup dates (for shows postponed due to COVID), and we start the “Blessed & Free Tour” this week.
Q. What’s the difference between the two tours? Different setlists? Or does the “Blessed & Free Tour” just have bigger staging?
No, that’s the crazy thing. Originally it would have been that way. But we had, I believe, it was eight makeup shows, so we kind of just used that as a rehearsal for the big shows. All same stage and everything. The arenas are gonna be a lot bigger. That’ll be probably the biggest difference.
Q. I heard you tell Bobby Bones on his show that the “Blessed & Free Tour” is “the biggest show that we’ve had,” and you said “I’ve never been as excited as I am right now.” Can you elaborate?
Yeah, before I only had like a (video) screen behind me, and we had a few lights here and there and that was about it. And now we have, you know, crazy lasers. We have eight or nine pyro jets that just shoot fire straight up. We have flame bars across the stage. We have — I think it’s called cryo, the cold air that’s just shot into the air. We have like 10 of those. I come down from the ceiling. Just a bunch of things happening.
Q. Does that make it more fun? Make it more stressful?
No, definitely makes it more fun. ... I mean, when the fire and stuff goes off, it doesn’t only pump the crowd up, it pumps everybody on the stage up. It definitely pumps me up. I just feel like it brings so much more energy to the show.
Q. OK, so what does it feel like to be named one of the 100 most influential people by Time magazine?
Man, I’ve been telling everybody, I don’t look at myself as anything but the dude that I was before I started all this music. And so when they said that I was part of it, I thought it was cool, but I didn’t really understand why. I didn’t really take anything away from it — at first. Since then, I’ve had all these people come up to me and they’ve been like, “Man, you’re changing the game.” Like, my security guards, they’re like, “We look up to you, and people look up to you, and you’re making country music a thing where even if you look different, you can still feel like you belong here.” (Brown’s mother is white, and his father is part black and part Cherokee.) Hearing that, and then hearing like people’s moms say how their kids are biracial, and “we just love you for what you do” and things like that — all of it just started hitting me at once and made me super-emotional. It’s honestly just an honor to be a part of it.
Q. How much do you think about race and — to paraphrase Darius Rucker (the Black country singer who wrote the essay introducing Brown on the Time 100 list) — the doors that you’re kicking down?
See, I never thought about it, you know? I’ve just been trying to do my own thing and get by and make my fans love the music — or hope they love the music — and then just try to provide for my family as well. And my main focus has just been trying to help others. But I never thought that I’d be helping others just by being me. I think that’s the cool thing.
Q. Darius Rucker also wrote in his essay about pushback, when he was trying to make it in country music, from radio programmers who told him their audiences “will never accept a Black country singer.” Did you ever experience any of that when you were first starting to get your music out there?
I would say I didn’t really have much pushback of the type Darius was talking about. I think him and Charley (Pride, country music’s first Black superstar) kind of opened everybody’s eyes on that already, and there were other artists as well. I would say my most pushback would have been coming from them finding me on the internet — me being found on the internet. (Brown went from being a minor internet star in 2014 to a nominee for New Male Vocalist of the Year at the Academy of Country Music Awards in 2017.)
Country music has never really dealt with any of that before. I mean, they are now, but not at the time. And I think that was my biggest pushback.
Q. Speaking, one more time, of Darius Rucker: He reinvented his career going from rock band frontman (for Hootie & The Blowfish) to country star. You’re obviously blurring genre lines, too. Your brand of country can have a rap vibe, and of course you’ve collaborated with R&B artists like Khalid and Blackbear. Do you see a future in which you fully shift away from country?
Oh, no. That’s one thing that I wouldn’t do to country music. I mean, they let me in ... so I probably will never put out an album where there’s more than like two or three pop songs on there, with the rest of it being country. ... I’ll always have a song on country radio before anywhere else.
For more information about Kane Brown’s Charlotte show, scheduled for Dec. 4: www.spectrumcentercharlotte.com/events/detail/kane-brown.
This story was originally published September 29, 2021 at 11:30 AM.
