Kane Brown’s 2025 Autumn heralds a bold new chapter as he brings The High Road tour across to Europe. Released in January, the album marked his fourth studio effort and found him stretching the boundaries of country music while staying firmly grounded in the stories and sounds he loves. The album’s lead single, ‘Backseat Driver,' recently hit No. 1 at country radio, giving Brown his eighth straight chart-topper, his thirteenth overall. Meanwhile, his collaboration with Marshmello, ‘Miles On It,' has been certified platinum and has amassed nearly 300 million streams worldwide. That track also made history by being the #1 “most added” at both country and pop radio formats—Brown becoming the first male artist to ever accomplish that feat.
Stepping onto European soil for the first leg of The High Road Tour, Brown kicked things off in Cologne, Germany, on September 30, before he heads to Tilburg, Dublin, Glasgow, Birmingham, Manchester, and ultimately London’s OVO Arena Wembley. Throughout his career, Brown has amassed nearly 12 billion on-demand streams, secured 13 No. 1 country singles and earned 24 RIAA certified records. A trailblazer both on and off stage, he’s one of just seven country artists to achieve Diamond status—for his hits ‘Heaven' and ‘What Ifs' —and was named to Time’s 100 Most Influential People in 2021. Brown’s willingness to experiment, explore mental health themes (as with his song ‘Haunted'), and blend genres has only deepened his connection with global audiences. As he tours through Europe over the next couple of weeks fans can expect a setlist that underscores both his commercial firepower and his artistic evolution – we were thrilled to catch up with him to talk all about it.
Hi Kane, thank you for your time on a show night, it's lovely to catch up with you again.
Hi buddy, how are you? Hope you are well.
The tour starts tonight in Germany – how was the flight over?
Man, it was kinda brutal! I had a massive headache by the time I got off the plane. I always have this ear problem every time I fly and an eight or ten hour flight is going to do some damage but I'm good now – I'm ready to go!
You went straight to the gym, looking at your Instagram!
I did! I've just left it again too, to come and do this!
You're a monster! We'll pick up on that later in the interview. What's it like performing for international crowds compared to the folks back home? Is there any difference?
Yeah. I'd say a huge difference. I don't get to see the fans over here much so I think they can be a little more excited than back home. They seem to know more of the deep cuts too. I'm really pumped for tonight because it is a smaller venue than we are used to – which humbles me – I'm already a humble guy but this is really cool. It's good to re-connect with people and play these type of shows sometimes.
You're playing arenas in the UK this time – can you feel the buzz and the fanbase building each time you come over?
Yeah, man. It was cool to be out walking here in the city today and actually be recognised by people – that hasn't happened before. I can't understand what they are saying but it's really cool! (laughing)
With the setlist for the European shows – will you be tweaking it from the American ones given we don't get to see you very often or will it be largely the same?
When it comes to that kind of stuff I'm normally spot on so I'm quite focused on what the setlist should be. When it gets to being just me and an acoustic guitar, that's normally when I might change the set list around.
The last time we were in Dublin, we ended up doing a six song acoustic encore out of the blue. My drummer drank so many Guinnesses that meant he was throwing up in the bathroom! He's not my drummer no more, although that wasn't the reason! We had to do an acoustic finish and I took my ears out and everybody was just throwing songs out at us! (laughing)
What keeps you fresh when you are on a big long tour like this? Is it that kind of spontaneity?
I think just being over in Europe adds an extra dimension and freshness. That makes it different because the people don't get to see me over here that often. It's usually the energy of the crowd that I enjoy the most – the only time that I won't be excited is if the crowd just doesn't have energy. I will say, I have been to some shows over here where the crowd has tipped over into being just a listening crowd but I will let them them know that I need them all to make some noise to give us that energy back again!
Current album ‘The High Road' has already delivered you number one singles and million of streams. At this point in your career can you define what success means to you? Is it number ones? Streams? Ticket sales? Awards?
Man, I will say that I think I am at a weird part of my journey. I feel like everything is just about to click but it's just not quite there yet. I just started back vlogging today – you know I started out on social media so it's always been a massive part of who I am. I got away from it a little but I'm coming back now.
‘The High Road' album was quite a hard album for me to write because I didn't leave my house much during the making of it. It made it quite a personal album because I had to find stuff that was quite close to me to write about because I wasn't leaving the house much.
Well, you can't get much more personal than ‘I Am' and ‘Haunted.'
Yeah – that was some stuff that I was going through that I wanted to write about. I feel like I am doing way better now and working out definitely helps. I'm a lot happier and balanced than I was when I wrote those songs. Getting fit, getting back in front of the camera and on social media helps too.
Us Brits and and Europeans are deep-cut lovers, as you've mentioned. We look beyond the singles and videos – is there a song on ‘The High Road' that is your favourite deep cut? A song people like me aren't talking to you enough about? I think ‘Things We Quit' and ‘Do Us Apart' are terrific songs.
Oh, nice, thank you for saying that. I thought ‘Things We Quit' would be bigger – there are a lot of songs on that album that I thought would be bigger. That goes back to me saying I don't really know what the hell I'm talking about! (laughing)
I really liked ‘3' and the one about my papaw, ‘When You Forget.' I thought that would be a smash but I was wrong.
Is there legs still in the album or are you writing towards a new project now?
Nah, nah. I'm already onto the next thing. That album was so hard for me to write and so personal, it was like a therapy session more than anything. I got a new single that I am about to release which is going to master right now. It's called ‘Unspoken' and I've been teasing it a little on Instagram.
I'm about to start work on a new album when we get back from this tour. We're taking a chunk of time next year off – probably about half the year – so I'll time to work on new music then.
You dropped ‘2 Pair' in the summer and now there's a ‘Game Day' version of it that Amazon have just released. What does the ‘Game Day' version bring that the original didn't?
Drums. (laughing) It sounds cool. Amazon like to be different and they went and did some stuff with it, I didn't have a lot to do with it but I thought it was cool when I heard it. They did their thing.
You're stretching out into acting a little with roles in ‘The Token Groomsman' and ‘Nashville 911' What made you want to step outside your comfort zone there and how different is it to being up on stage in front of a a crowd?
We haven't done ‘The Token Groomsman' yet but in ‘Nashville 911' I got to play myself, which was really cool. I think it airs next Monday! I was on stage playing myself. The crowd were super nice, laughing at all my dumb jokes! (laughing) The set was sick, they had rain, fans to blow wind and it made it really feel like a tornado was coming in. There was barely any acting, which made it so easy for me.
In ‘The Token Groomsman' I'm playing the best friend of Taylor Lautner so I will basically be on Facetime the whole time telling him how big of an idiot he is!
Is acting something you want to do more of in the future or are you just messing around with it for the moment?
I love acting but I don't think I've found the perfect role for me yet. I love movies but at the end of the day, my favourite thing to do would be to write or produce a movie. When we do music videos and things, I get involved in that side of the business. I've said to Alex, my creative director, a couple of times, that ‘this is going to look weird from here, how about filming it from this angle?'
I did a week-long run of skits and content on Instagram in the summer when we released ‘2 Pair' and they were all my ideas. When I want to get creative it comes so quick but I just have to find that fuel.
Given your love of ‘Call of Duty' you should put yourself in a way film – that would be a great role for you!
(laughing) That would be sick too! An army movie? Cool – those are my wife's favourite movies. She hates anything with gore in but she loves a good army movie.
Your Instagram account is one of my favourites – so varied from the gym shots to the family stuff that is so heartwarming. Kingsley and Kodi (Kane's daughters) are stars in the making. How do you and Katelyn go about making sure you get the balance right between the private and the public side of the Brown family?
I don't know, man, we just live our lives as normal. Our kids….. We're really pretty sheltered to be honest. If we go anywhere we normally get to go in through the back door. We try to raise the kids in as normal an environment as you can possibly get, doing what we do.
We just went through a thing where we took their TVs out of their room. Kingsley did not like that, I can tell you! (laughing) We would turn the TV off and Kingsley was, like, ‘I don't know how to fall asleep' because she would basically watch TV until she fell asleep so I'd put a timer on them but I was on Facetime with her last night and said that I'd heard mommy had taken the TVs out of the room. She said, ‘Yeah – now she got me a stuffed animal that sings to me and I have to hug it till I fall asleep!'
Tough parenting – Brown style! In the aftermath of that spat between Zach Bryan and Gavin Adock the Bobby Bones show ran a segment on who they thought the best scrappers and fighters in Country music and you were in there because you've got this jacked up, muscle bound body now! What are your fitness goals? Are you aiming to just keep getting bigger? Maintain? Does it help your mental health some?
It definitely helps with my mental health, for sure. The biggest goal is that it helps me play sports. I've always been into sports – I can't play to the level that I'd like to anymore for a variety of reasons but whenever I play basketball, usually most Mondays when I'm at home, and I'm running around people with the ball that used to be able to guard me, it makes me feel good, that's the biggest benefit of the exercise.
I'm a competitive kind of guy so if someone invites me over or out to do something sporty, like a celebrity game or race I want to be the best or the fastest one there! I've just had a text from Michael Chandler, the UFC fighter, and we've talked about me coming out to train with him a little when I get back home from this tour!
Grab tickets to see the UK and Irish leg of Kane Brown's tour, starting in Dublin on October 3rd right here.
