During a new conversation with The Pivot Podcast, Kane Brown has shed light on how he feels disconnected from the modern country music ‘family’, admitting he finds it much easier to make friends with and relate to athletes than his fellow artists.

While discussing his friendship with NFL star Pat Mahomes, Kane explains why he immediately felt at ease with Mahomes, due to him being down-to-earth and ‘normal’.

Kane reflects, “I think it's awesome that my job's got me where I can hang out with Pat and just be friends with him. Pat's a cool dude, and he's normal, and that's another thing that I also love, because a lot of people have egos...I shut down around that”.

The ‘Heaven’ hitmaker goes on to admit that he feels like he's still somewhat of an outsider in country music, “For me, Pat just makes a normal hangout...I think I relate more to athletes because I wanted to be an athlete, and I like the competitive aspect of that. Like going to golf with Pat, you know...I feel like I have more athlete friends than I do musician friends”, adding, “I feel alone in the music world”.

When The Pivot Podcast hosts jokingly ask whether there's “some super country artist star group chat that all y'all are on”, Kane dryly responds, “If there is, I ain't invited!”

They then touch on how, from a fan's perspective, the genre often seems like it's a tight-knit community underpinned by a strong sense of camaraderie. Kane expresses that this hasn't been his experience, “I've always been a loner, so I'm used to it...Morgan [Wallen], he'd probably text me the most. Shaboozey, Chris Young...[Jason] Aldean has been my guy. There's other artists that I could text...What I'm trying to say is [the difference between] texting somebody and being boys with somebody, because they're the only people I can really relate to”.

He expands, “When you don't have somebody that you can talk to about that, and have a brothership over it...I don't know if I could really say we're friends, you know? Then another thing too is, like, you take people on the road, and that's kind of where you become close. I feel like that's how people bond, on tour...I don't know, I want that. If anybody's watching this, you know, for me, I just want a friend in the industry that we just chill, come over, hit the golf sim, have a few beers, talk”.

When asked about whether he feels like he would need to be the one to reach out, Kane opens up about how he finds certain social settings challenging, “That's the other thing, I'm socially awkward...My wife says I'm intimidating. I'm like, ‘I don't understand how I'm intimidating!’...She's like, ‘Maybe you need to reach out to them’, and I'm like, ‘I'm not that guy, you know?’ So, it's...I don't know, I'm sensitive”.

It's certainly moving to hear Kane speaking so openly about how alone he feels in the country space, especially after talking elsewhere in the podcast about how aware he has become of his role as one of the few black artists in the genre's upper echelon.

It's easy to assume that, just because he appears joyful and light-hearted across social media, that's how he feels all the time. But while it's somewhat heartbreaking to hear that Kane sees himself as a ‘loner’ of sorts in the country space, it's also refreshing that he is choosing to be this honest and vulnerable with fans. Hopefully off the back of this interview, some fellow artists will reach out to the ‘2 Pair’ crooner.