Max McNown Shares How He Rocked the Ryman While Battling the Flu, Debuts New Single That’s a Plea to His Wife (Exclusive)

Max McNown prepared for months to play the Ryman. In fact, he planned his whole tour around his two sold out shows at the iconic venue. His Cost of Growing Up Tour setlist was designed with the purpose of impressing the Nashville crowd, and his other stops were viewed as practice runs for the April dates.

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Then, days before it was finally scheduled to happen, he felt a tickle in his throat, a scary sensation given that his band had been battling the flu.

“When I started to feel that, I took everything I could,” a still under the weather McNown told American Songwriter the week after the shows. “I did steam rooms, I took prescriptions, I did steroid shots, took Advil, Tylenol, everything. I was like, ‘I need to fight this and get it over with before the Ryman.’”

None of it worked. When the long awaited Ryman dates finally arrived, McNown “was in the deepest throes of the flu.” Given that he had fever, chills, and body aches, not to mention little to no voice, he seriously considered canceling the concerts.

“But I looked at my messages and I noticed just how many people flew out for those shows. I mean, I would say probably 50 percent of the crowd was not from Nashville,” he said. “And so, I was like, ‘I can’t cancel this. I can’t.’”

The Show Must Go On

He enlisted the help of a vocal coach, turned to prayer, leaned on his family—all of whom were in town for the concert—and loaded up on medicine, as he told himself the show must go on.

“I would say those two shows are the most anxious I have been in my entire career,” McNown admitted. “I was feeling really down, because it was so important to me to put on the best show… Here we finally get to it, and I couldn’t muster up everything that I wanted to.”

When those woe is me thoughts entered his mind, McNown worked hard to shift his perspective.

“I just take a step back, and I’m like, ‘Wait. I’ve got a horse voice. I’m playing two sold out shows at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. How dare I be complaining about this?’” he recalled. “I was just like, ‘You know what? I’m gonna go out there and I’m gonna do everything I can to make this crowd enjoy the show and let them leave feeling happy, feeling healed.’”

He did just that, delighting the crowd with a high-energy performance as he danced across the stage, interacted with his fans, and showed off the skills that have won him millions of social media followers.

“We made it through, and we survived it,” McNown said. “… I’m really grateful for how the shows turned out, because if you would have asked me before I stepped on stage, I wouldn’t have been able to speak to answer your question. I had no voice. The fact that I was able to sing through these songs, that I wasn’t cracking my voice on every chorus, I was just happy for that.”

Max McNown’s Start

These are problems McNown didn’t have a few years ago. At the time, he moved from his native Oregon to Southern California, with a guitar from his dad in the back of his Subaru.

He didn’t plan on pursuing music, though he had a lifelong love of it. Eventually, though, he decided to try his hand at busking, and he wound up performing on the streets up to four days per week. After a while, he decided to show off his efforts on social media.

“I flipped a switch in my head, and I was like, ‘I’m gonna stop worrying about what my friends think about it, what the comments say, what the like count is, and I’m just gonna start posting every single day,’” he recalled. “That was the most important decision of my career. I just started posting on all social media platforms every day.”

Eventually, people started taking notice. Instead of moving to Nashville and trying to make it in Music City, McNown opted to move back to Oregon and give his career a go there.

“I felt like I still didn’t know fully who I was as an artist. If I would have moved to Nashville immediately, there’s so much talent and so much competition, and so many factors that’ll kind of pull you into something that maybe you wouldn’t have ended up being in if you stayed true to who you were,” he said. “And so I figured, what better place to hone in on the Northwest than central Oregon?”

He moved there for a year and a half, watching on in “awe” as his social media numbers ticked up with each new release. As his success continued, McNown felt ready to make the move to Nashville.

“When I moved to Nashville, I had a foundation. I was ready to go,” he said. “I knew more about who I was, and I felt as though I was ready. And then it was just off to the races.”

Max McNown’s New Music

Indeed it was. To date, McNown has released four EPs and two LPs. He’s also amassed more than two million followers on both TikTok and Instagram. Now, he’s marking the release of his latest single, “Heart You Didn’t Break.”

“It’s a bit of a plea to my loved ones, [telling them] please don’t just focus on the career—as beautiful as it is and as lucky as I am to live it—please remain focused on my heart and protect who I am,” McNown said. “… I had this entire life before. Now I’ve entered this new world, and it’s very easy to lose yourself in this world. It’s basically just asking my wife, ‘Hey, could you look after my soul? Can you look after who I am, beneath the brand, beneath the stage presence, and protect Max?’”

Thematically, the track is similar to McNown’s latest releases, ones that follow his October wedding and newfound fame. Sonically, things are a bit more mixed.

“Heart You Didn’t Break,” McNown said, takes inspiration from artists like Gregory Alan Isakov, Noah Kahan, and Caamp, leaning “heavily on the folk side of things.” His forthcoming project, though, will take cues from a variety of genres, from folk to pop to country.

“When I go into the writing room, I don’t really think what genre I’m writing for. I think about what I want to say,” he said. “The through line of the songs, especially the four that have just come out, is that they all have bits and pieces of statements of who I am and who I want to be.”

Max McNown’s Future

As he continues to work on new music, McNown is gearing up for the start of his Summer Vacation Tour this July.

“We’ll have a revamped set list. We’ll be playing some new songs, as well as songs that I just want to share with people, whether they are highly streamed songs or not. It’ll be a different show entirely,” McNown teased, before sharing how he’s improved with each tour he’s done.

“I’m learning to be a little bit less rigid. I used to write full paragraphs on my set list. Now it’s usually two to three word bullet points. I just let myself feel what I want to say in the moment,” he said. “That’s led to a lot of really cool organic moments, whether it’s bringing somebody up to sing or talking about a sign that some little kid brought. It gives me the freedom to make that show its own experience, rather than a pre-scripted set where everybody hears the same thing over and over again.”

With so many exciting things to come—including his Stagecoach debut this summer—McNown wanted to assure his fans that he plans to stay the same amid his success.

“I’m not gonna lose sight of who I am… My sound will evolve naturally, but as far as who I am, and my values, and what I want to say, I’m gonna stay true to myself and true to my faith,” he promised. “I hope that they stick around for the ride.”

Photo by Benjamin Edwards