How Kane Brown’s Diverse Audience Is Bringing Inclusivity to Country Music

Kane Brown has made a major name for himself in country music over the past couple years, with the singer bringing his unique sound and attitude to an industry that can sometimes make listeners feel excluded.

Brown’s biracial background — his mom is white and his dad is part Cherokee and part black — and eclectic influences have garnered him a diverse audience who is helping to change the landscape of who country fans are.

Speaking to Storme Warren on SiriusXM’s The Highway recently, the Georgia native explained that his fans are able to come to his shows and feel accepted.

“I have seen that a lot,” he acknowledged. “We have a lot of fans that come to the show — different races, people who like the same sex — all types of stuff. People come to my shows and everybody feels like they fit in.”

“I guess everybody just sees, at my show is what everybody wants the world to be and they just feel comfortable.”

When Warren inquired what people hope the world to be, Brown replied, “where everybody gets along.”

The 25-year-old elaborated and explained that his fans have now become a kind of community for each other.

“Everybody at my shows, everybody gets along,” he said. “They make friends and they grow together and basically are just bigger fans of me because they made friends.”

As for how he connects with those fans, Brown named Instagram as his go-to social media platform.

When Warren asked Brown how he brings so many fans to country music, Brown, “I just hang out on Instagram. That’s really all I do.”

Brown recently spoke about being biracial in an interview with PEOPLE, explaining that he first learned about his identity when he was around seven or eight.

“I’m biracial; I didn’t know that until I was 7 or 8 years old,” he said “I thought I was full white, which honestly, I can’t even really say because I didn’t see colors.”

“I found out that I was biracial and I still wasn’t thinking anything of it, but then I started getting called the N-word,” he recalled. “I didn’t even know what it meant. I learned what it meant, and that’s when it started affecting me. I got in fights over it when I was little.”

After Brown hit a growth spurt in high school, the bullies mostly left him alone, and he now wants to use his platform to inspire other kids who may be going through the same thing he experienced.

“I just kind of got over it,” Brown mused. “They just made me stronger. I guess it was God. Hopefully I can help kids and they can end up being stronger in the long run, too.”

Photo Credit: Getty / Scott Legato