Country

Kane Brown Reveals Must-Have Item in His Dressing Room for Every Show

Kane Brown isn’t too picky when it comes to what he needs in his dressing room before he performs, […]

Kane Brown isn’t too picky when it comes to what he needs in his dressing room before he performs, but the 25-year-old does have one specific request.

Speaking to The Blast, Brown revealed that his rider always contains Jameson Irish Whiskey, sharing the fact while stepping out of a car in New York City.

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It’s likely that Brown is able to secure the beverage in any venue he plays, as the Georgia native is quickly becoming one of the hottest acts in country music. His sophomore album, Experiment, recently debuted atop the Billboard 200, making him the third country artist to achieve the feat this year.

Despite his success, Brown is still facing naysayers, many of whom have criticized Brown due to the color of his skin. Brown, who is biracial, told Billboard that he believes his race is a factor in the way some people perceive him.

“There was a woman the other day saying that it’s awesome to see someone bringing back ’90s country, but she was not expecting me to be the guy to do it,” he said. “And my first question was, ‘Why?’ I’m doing the same thing as everyone else in country music. So why am I the one you don’t expect?”

“The race card,” he continued. “Right now, [my race] does matter. People always say, ‘There are plenty of black country artists out there! There is Charley Pride! Darius Rucker!’ That’s all they can name. They don’t understand what we go through, and a lot of people who are fans of traditional country music, as they call it, look at us and aren’t going to say, ‘Y’all like country music.’”

The singer told PEOPLE that his entry into country music was marred with racial comments, though he now tries to stay away from such negative thinking.

“When I first got into country, I started getting some of those comments like, ‘He’s an N-word.’ Stuff like that,” Brown said. “I used to screenshot it and put it on Twitter, like, ‘There still racism in the world.’ But I didn’t get into country music just to prove a point. I try to stay away from all negativity.”

Next year, Brown will head out on his headlining Live Forever Tour, where he’ll surely be greeted with Jameson at every stop when he hits the road with opening acts Granger Smith, RaeLynn, Danielle Bradbery and Jimmie Allen.

“Now you can call me whatever you want,” Brown said. “It just brushes off of me.”

Photo Credit: Getty / Gary Gershoff