Chris Young Surprises Kane Brown in Memphis for ‘Famous Friends’ Performance

Chris Young surprised his famous friend Kane Brown in Memphis, Tennessee, on Sunday, joining the 27-year-old at a radio show at the Soundstage at Graceland presented by KIX 106 Memphis. The show was hosted in recognition of frontline workers who are continuing to battle the coronavirus pandemic.

Young let fans in on his trip one day after the show, using Instagram to share a selfie he snapped outside of a private plane as well as a video message to Brown. “Hey Kane. You don’t know I’m here yet,” he said, panning the camera behind him to a large screen of Brown mid-performance. “But you’re going to.” “Sometimes you have to fly to Memphis and surprise your ‘Famous Friend’ on stage!” Young captioned his post. “Love ya @kanebrown_music !!! #mondaymotivation.”

The surprise performance came one week before the duo is scheduled to take the stage during the ACM Awards on Sunday, April 18 for the world television premiere performance of the same song. “This is my first time singing with Chris actually on stage,” Brown told Entertainment Tonight. “We’ve had songs before but never sang them on stage together — so the ACM stage will get the debut!”

The “Worship You” singer added that he grew up listening to Young’s music and that one of his friend’s shows was the first concert he ever attended. Young and Brown previously toured together and duetted on Brown’s song “Setting the Night on Fire.”

“When I got the first mix back and hearing our voices line up, I was like, ‘Okay, this is really, really cool,’” Young told PopCulture.com of “Famous Friends,” adding that he “always thought this was going to be something special.” The Tennessee native wrote the song with Cary Barlowe and Corey Crowder as a way to tribute his longtime friends, some of whom appear in the music video.

“We were just kind of trying to find a different angle from the back home vibe and who I grew up with,” he recalled. “And it’s like, it’d be really cool if you’re like, ‘I got famous friends that you might never heard of, but when I go back home, they’re famous in this hometown.’ I love that angle on that idea of a song. So the fact that we got it written, thought it was cool, sent it and then like, ‘Hey Kane, do you want to be on this?’ And he thought it was cool. And it all came together as well as it did. I’m just, I’m thrilled people are going to get to hear it.”