Three days before releasing his new album, The High Road, Kane Brown, by his admission, was in a really dark place. He quit nicotine 21 days before, and it was wreaking havoc on his mental health.
“I’m just beating myself up,” he said.
Brown had used the stimulant every day for 11 years. He didn’t know nicotine could trigger the release of dopamine and adrenaline, which might suppress intrusive thoughts. Without it, he was struggling.
“My mind is just all over the place right now,” he said. “My brain’s just crazy.”
His depleted condition means he connects more deeply with his new song “Haunted,” a collaboration with Jelly Roll about mental health. In the song, Brown sings about being haunted by the voice in his head, the taste of lead, and thoughts of being better off dead.
“The hardest thing right now is just because I’m going through it, and I have a beautiful family that I need to be here for,” said the married father of three.
Brown reteamed with producer Dann Huff and released The High Road on January 24. He co-wrote 15 of the 18 tracks – including “Haunted,” his Marshmello collaboration “Miles On It,” and “Fiddle in the Band.”
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Kane Brown Collaborated with Jelly Roll on “Haunted”
For a man who has built his career on often light-hearted love and lifestyle songs, “Haunted” is artistically a profound, honest departure. At 31 years old and one decade into his career, Brown is bravely confronting his long-fought battle with depression head-on.
“‘Haunted’ is him at his best,” said Brown’s longtime producer Dann Huff. “He will write so extremely honest about some of these things.”
Brown thought money would solve his problems when he was poor, but he was wrong. To prove his point, he opened “Haunted,” listing his pricey diamonds and sports cars, noting the impressive baubles didn’t cure his dangerous thoughts.
“I’m still haunted,” Brown said. “I still have all these crazy feelings of hurting myself and doing the worst things. Money does not solve your problems.”
Brown was writing songs with Gabe Foust and Jaxson Free at a hotel in Manchester, England. True to the location, there were antique-looking paintings on the wall, giving the space an eerie vibe. The aesthetic sparked the haunted song idea, and Brown wanted it to be about mental health.
“I hope it will give awareness to other people,” Brown said of the song. “One of the main things is actually talking about it. If you don’t talk about it, that’s what makes it dangerous. If nobody knows, nobody can help you.”
Collaborating with Jelly Roll was fun and easy for Brown, who described the crossover artist as a “sweet guy” who will “talk your ear off.”
Kane Brown on Jelly Roll: “He’s Just a Giant Teddy Bear”
“I’m not the biggest talker, so it’s cool just being around him,” Brown said. “He’s just a giant teddy bear, really, that goes through the same stuff that I do.”
When Jelly Roll thought Brown wouldn’t release “Haunted,” he tried to hold it for himself. It made Brown love the song even more.
“You’ll write songs, and you think that people will relate to them in one way, and then they don’t even understand what you’re talking about,” Brown said. “To know that he really cares about the song that much means we did it right.”
Huff, who has produced the most successful artists in country music, including Keith Urban, Faith Hill, Carrie Underwood, and Tim McGraw, has worked with Brown since his self-titled major label debut in 2016. Huff didn’t need the work, but he was drawn to Brown’s vulnerability in his song “Learning,” similar to the transparency he leaned into in “Haunted.”
“That was when the hook was set on that one,” Huff said. “This is just the way I interpret him. I found out a little bit about his history and the way he was raised. Interesting. There’s a lot of love but also a lot of pain. When he speaks, he doesn’t waste words. I love that about him. When he has a thought, he says it as forthrightly and simply and honestly as you could possibly do.”
While “Haunted” will inevitably trigger serious conversations about mental health, every track on The High Road, Brown’s fourth studio project, isn’t as somber. “Fiddle in the Band” is a raging country anthem. “I Am” is a hopeful, genre-bending up-tempo that says the road ahead will make him who he is. His Marshmello collab, “Miles On It,” is a poppy jam. “Things We Quit” is a funny Brad Paisley collaboration. There are two duets with Brown’s wife, Katelyn, “Body Talk” and “Do Us Part.” “Stay” is an interpolation of the Sugarland hit, and “Backseat Driver” and “3” are for his three children.
In addition to his wife, Marshmello, Jelly Roll, and Paisley, Brown enlisted Khalid for the album. Aside from Jelly Roll, every collaborator is an artist with whom Brown has sung previously.
“My mind was kind all over the place for this album,” Brown said, admitting that at one point, he wanted to make this album as country as possible. “Then some part of me was like, ‘Bro, you’re Kane Brown, write what you want to write.’ It was just a fun place, but for some reason, we felt like it all goes and is not too crazy, and it makes sense.”
“My Mind is All Over the Place”
Brown went through the album song by song and removed tracks that didn’t make sense. He likes that the collection starts with “I Am” and “Fiddle in the Band.” He sees it as warning listeners that he loves country music, but he loves other genres, too.
“I just felt like it was a perfect setup for the album,” he said. “The time and effort that I actually put into the album made me appreciate it a lot.”
Brown didn’t intend for “I Can Feel It” to go on The High Road, but it fit. While he didn’t write “Backseat Driver,” that was one of the songs that started the album process. Written by Jacob Davis and Jordan Walker, lyrics include: It’s crazy all the things she sees on the side of the road| Out of that window beside her| I wish I could be more like her| My little dangling feet, pretty in pink, backseat driver
“That song has been around four or five years, and nobody cut it,” Brown said of “Backseat Driver.” “I felt like the universe just put it in my lap, and that’s just kind of where the album started. When I heard it, I felt like I wrote it.”
Kane Brown Wants to Be Better Than He Was
Ten years into his country music career, Brown said he doesn’t feel any different than the 23-year-old who was too emotional to perform at his debut album release party. But he is different. When Brown first broke into country music, the North Georgia native was so shy he struggled to make eye contact. He opened his heart on his self-titled debut album, singing about his grandparents. Many of the songs were deep and meaningful, but he struggled to be heard. His Lauren Alaina duet “What Ifs” eventually broke through on country radio, and Brown’s career took off. He still doesn’t talk much, but Brown is headlining sold-out arenas, co-hosting awards shows, and is one of the most dependable and authentic hitmakers in country music.
He’s also a devoted husband and father who never hesitates to praise his “awesome, supportive” wife and children.
“At the end of the day, all I ever try to do is be better than I was,” he said. “I hope my original fans sit down and say, ‘He’s growing, and this is why I love him.’ And then I hope people that don’t ever listen to me or don’t like me can like one song or also say, ‘I can tell that he is trying or he is growing.’”
Brown said people forget that he “kind of got thrown into this thing.” Brown went viral singing country cover songs on social media, which thrust him into the spotlight. While that was more than a decade ago, he still feels like that kid who questions his every move daily.
“I’m just trying to become that artist that I want to be in the long run,” he said.
Photo by Dennis Leupold
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