Kane Brown Sang a Tim McGraw Song for His First Onstage Performance

Kane Brown has always been inspired by classic country artists, and the singer proved that yet again with a video of his very first time on stage, during which he performed a song by genre icon Tim McGraw.

On Monday, Jan. 7, Brown shared a clip of the moment with his fans on Instagram, posting a throwback video of himself at age 12 hitting the stage and singing McGraw’s hit “I Like It, I Love It.”

The video, dated July 2005, finds the young Brown standing with his hand in his pocket as he holds a microphone and sings, staying in the same position even as a man in the audience places a wide-brimmed hat on his head.

“12 years old my first time on stage singing the one and only @thetimmcgraw,” Brown captioned the clip along with a laughing emoji.

Along with McGraw, Brown named stars like Shania Twain, George Strait, Chris Young and Sugarland as influences when speaking with Nash Country Daily.

“It was always country, that’s all I listened to growing up,” he said. “Once I started moving schools, I started hearing different songs, different artists, so I started listening to that. Once I hit puberty and found out who Chris Young was, I just fell in love with his voice and his songs. And that’s when I turned to country.”

The 25-year-old even performed Young’s “Getting You Home” during his high school talent show, a moment he called a turning point for him.

“I got to high school and my buddies wanted me to join a talent show because I sang all the time,” he explained. “So I joined my high school talent show and I won. I was singing Chris Young’s ‘Getting You Home,’ so it kind of convinced me ‘Yeah, this is what I want to do,’ because it was the first I heard anybody really cheer for me, music-wise. Then it started from there.”

Brown sang throughout his childhood, though it took some convincing to get him to start singing in public. That convincing came courtesy of fellow country star Lauren Alaina, who was in choir class with Brown in Georgia when the pair were in middle school together.

“I was in choir with Lauren Alaina, and I was always the shy kid in class, and she heard me humming a song one day and she was like, ‘No, you need to sing,’ and I said ‘I’m not singing,’ and she was like, ‘Well, we’re not leaving class until you sing,’” Brown recalled, via Sounds Like Nashville. “So, like everybody left class and me and her was just sitting in there and the teacher was like, ‘What’s going on?’ And she was like, ‘I want him to sing.’ And he was like, ‘Well, you need to sing I guess so y’all can leave.’ So, I ended up singing ‘I Can Only Imagine’ and she was just like, ‘See,’ and they made us do like a duet together.”

Photo Credit: Instagram / @kanebrown_music