When it comes to country stars today, you don’t get much bigger than the 30-year-old, toothy-grinned, Tennessee-born singer/songwriter Kane Brown. His is one of the most recognizable faces in the genre and his songs are mainstays on country radio today.
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But outside of his music, what are some of the biggest moments in his past? How was Brown discovered and who does he surround himself today? Here we will answer those questions and more as Brown is set to appear tonight on New Year’s Eve Live: Nashville’s Big Bash, airing on CBS and Paramount+ starting at 7:30 p.m. ET.
[RELATED: Kane Brown Goes Back to His Roots]
He Calls His Wife “Superwoman”
In a previous American Songwriter cover story, Brown talks about his relationship with his wife, Katelyn Jae. “I love my family to death. My wife is Superwoman. She’s up every morning at 6 a.m. with the kids. I tell her every time I come downstairs, ‘You’re Superwoman,'” he tells us. “There’s no way I can wake up that early. But I just love them to death. I love that I get to give them a life I never got to have. That’s what I’m working for now. I’m working to set them up in the future.”
Of course, the two turned their love and chemistry into a hit song about a year ago, “Thank God,” which was released on Brown’s 2022 LP Different Man.
He Was Discovered on Social Media
Before he was a household name in country music, Brown kicked his career off by posting cover songs on social media outlets including Facebook about 2014. One of his first breakout hits was a rendition of Lee Brice’s “I Don’t Dance.” And after a few years of uploading videos, they began to go viral, earning Brown thousands of followers and a bubbling buzz. Check out his cover of “I Don’t Dance” here below.
He Tried Out for American Idol and The X Factor
A young singer with stars in his eyes, Brown auditioned for two television singing competitions, American Idol and The X Factor. But while Idol never worked out, his was chosen for the latter in 2013. Producers on the show reportedly wanted him to be part of a boy-band ensemble, which he was tickled by. That’s when he began to take matters into his own hands. Check out his X Factor days as a fresh-faced 19-year-old here below.
He Sang with Lauren Alaina in Middle School Choir
The two Platinum-selling artists were once pals in middle school. Small world! While Brown and Alaina released the song, “What Ifs,” six years ago—a track that has since garnered 330 million views on YouTube, alone—the two were singing their little hearts out some 15 years prior at Lakeview Middle School in Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia.
Of their early days together, Alaina said, “He never ever ever wanted to sing. I looked at him, and I said, ‘Can you sing? It sounds like you can sing.’ And he said, ‘I don’t sing in front of people.’ So, naturally, I got him up and made him sing in front of the teacher. Did what I do best, which is embarrassed people.”
He Used to Work at a Lowe’s Before A High School Talent Show Kicked Off His Career
Brown’s path to musical recognition began largely by accident. He tells American Songwriter, “I was working at Lowe’s. And I started singing and this dude convinced me to do the [school] talent show. Once I did the talent show and heard everybody’s cheers—they made me do another song. I was like, ‘maybe I could do this!'” From that 11th-grade talent show to talk of the town, that’s Kane Brown.
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