Kane Brown Spotlights His Tour Openers From Stage to Song: ‘This Is About Creating a Moment for Everybody’
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When Kane Brown embarks on his headlining The High Road Tour March 13 in San Diego, California, the tour will not only highlight 12-time Billboard Country Airplay chart-topper Brown’s consistent hitmaker status and enduring headliner draw but also marks a significant opportunity for his opening acts to solidify their own connections with Brown’s fanbase.
As a precursor to the tour, Brown has released to DSPs “Says I Can (The High Road Tour Version),” a collaborative rendition of his country-leaning song featuring his tour openers, “Your Place” singer Ashley Cooke, “Austin” hitmaker Dasha, “Truth About You” singer Mitchell Tenpenny and five-time Country Airplay hitmaker Scotty McCreery trading off verses and joining together on a chorus ready-made for arena-sized singalongs.
“[The goal] is to really amplify everything we are trying to do, and also highlight the great talent that we are taking out on the road with Kane,” Brown’s longtime manager, Neon Coast’s Martha Earls, tells Billboard. “They are all super talented, so why not highlight them?”
The concept of a headlining act welcoming openers back to the stage for a group singalong is a consistent element in country music concerts, whether they team up on one of the headliner’s own hits or pluck a tune from country music’s deep trove of fan favorites. Brown has regularly welcomed his openers to join him on songs during his shows, such as welcoming Restless Road to sing “One Mississippi” on his 2022-2023 Drunk or Dreaming Tour, or inviting Jordan Davis and Restless Road to sing on “Famous Friends” during Brown’s 2021 Blessed & Free Tour, which visited all 29 NBA basketball venues.
Brown’s dedication to spotlighting his opening acts stems from his own early days, when Brown was opening shows for Florida Georgia Line. “FGL asked him to come out and be one of four [openers] on their tour, and they were so nice to him,” Earls says. “And then it all came full circle in 2024, when we had [former FGL member] Tyler Hubbard as our direct support. They really set the precedent of how to incorporate openers and make them feel like they are part of the tour. That’s something that is important to Kane and why he’s always brought openers out on a song.”
Brown’s move is not without precedent: Five years ago, Miranda Lambert put out a cover of Elvin Bishop’s “Fooled Around and Fell in Love” prior to the launch of her 2019 Roadside Bars and Pink Guitars Tour, with openers including Maren Morris, Ashley McBryde and Caylee Hammack; they also performed the song together during Lambert’s concerts.
Earls notes the lilting, warm “Says I Can,” a track from Brown’s The High Road album, naturally lent itself to a sing-a-long.
The idea came from Brown’s A&R executive at Sony Music Nashville, Margaret Tomlin. “She said, ‘What if we made a recording of “Says I Can” and put the openers on it?’ We loved the idea, because at the end of the day, let’s make it all cohesive and make what people are seeing onstage, then [be what] they can hop in their car and listen to and remember that moment,” Earls says.
“All of the openers were eager and excited to be part of it, which felt nice and expressed like, ‘Okay, this is more than just going out and playing shows. This is about creating a moment for everybody every night,” Earls adds.
Brown first recorded the solo version of “Says I Can” last summer while making his The High Road album, while Cooke, Dasha, McCreery and Tenpenny put their vocals on The High Road Tour version of “Says I Can” during the days leading up to The High Road release on Jan. 31. Each artist contributed their individual part from various locales — Tenpenny was in Australia, Cooke was in Nashville, Dasha was in Los Angeles, and McCreery was gearing up for a songwriters’ retreat on the East coast.
“They are all complementary, but different,” Earls says of the artists’ vocals. “The vocals each came in and we threw it all at [Brown’s producer] Dann Huff and he mixed them together. [We wanted] to be able to put this out in advance of the tour and give the fans a glimpse of some of what they will experience.”
Brown tied in a social media aspect to the song and the tour, filming off-the-cuff video of himself FaceTiming with Cooke, Dasha, McCreery, and Tenpenny and holding up a green cup for a “Cheers Challenge” to promote the new song.
“I’m texting Dasha, like, ‘Can you answer a FaceTime right now?’” Earls recalls of pulling the video together. “There’s a funny video of her answering while she’s driving, and she’s like, ‘I can’t find an exit to pull off, let me call you guys back.’ So, it was all very sweet.”
The time span from inviting the opening acts to take part in the song to finished recording and making social media clip took less than two weeks. “I feel like we’re creating a little bond from the start, from before we even step out into the first show in San Diego,” Earls says.
“All of the teams stepped up and jumped on making the videos and making the social media moments happen. That was part of the fun, too,” Earls adds. “We see everything on social media — tour clips, music video clips. Why not interweave it all? An even more extreme example might be when Kane and Jelly Roll are performing at Buckeye Superfest [in Columbus, Ohio on June 25]. They have a song together [“Haunted”] and I can’t wait until that night when they play that song together. I think it is going to be so powerful and such a moment. That’s the fun part of collaborating in the music industry, and I think the sum can be greater than the parts sometimes.”
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