Stagecoach 2023: Kane Brown brings out his wife, offers musicians lesson in vulnerability

I owe Kane Brown an apology.

Back in 2021 when I lived in Cheyenne, Wyoming, I was livid that he was chosen as a weekend headliner for Cheyenne Frontier Days, the "largest outdoor rodeo in the world," which closes with a country concert most nights. However, my strong feelings weren't because I don't like his music (quite the opposite, I'm a fan).

My quiet revolt against Brown was all because he got a better slot than my beloved Maren Morris, who had to perform on Wednesday of rodeo week, while Brown got to play on Friday (one of the coveted weekend slots).

At Stagecoach, however, Brown proved to me why he earned that Friday slot back in Wyoming, and why he earned his Saturday headliner slot at Indio's own country music festival.

From the jump, Brown emerged with way more showmanship — and a much higher production value — than any other Stagecoach 2023 performer thus far. The moment he walked out in a jersey from his "Family" clothing collab with brand Nahmias, the first pyrotechnics of the weekend were in full force, and the crowd was hyped.

The Chattanooga born, northwest Georgia-raised artist opened with "Lose It," one of the more memorable bops from his 2019 album "Experiment Extended," and the crowd was swaying along to his every word.

There was an odd energy shift among my area of the audience, however, when green lazer lights starting shooting out (DJ-at-Coachella style) and the first few notes of "Grand" started playing. The song, off his latest album, "Different Man," is perhaps his most hip-hop-slanted to date, and I was immediately bopping my head and dancing along — while many around me, on the contrary, appeared uninterested.

Brown is the first person of color to ever headline Stagecoach — his mother is white and his father is Black and part Cherokee — and to me, choosing to sing a hip-hop-esque song early in the show felt like a celebration of the various layers of his heritage. That's why it was an especially big bummer to notice nobody around me seemed as into the song as I was.

He quickly won them back, however, when he moved into the polar opposite song, "Like I Love Country Music," a song that frankly couldn’t be more country if it tried (it even shouts out fellow Stagecoach 2023 performers Brooks & Dunn, a band of which he's a "lifelong fan").

“You know I’ve got a lot of features, but I didn’t bring any of them with me, so you’ve gotta sing along," Brown said before moving into "Famous Friends." I was sad to learn so early into the set that I shouldn't expect the likes of Lauren Alaina, Khalid, blackbear, etc., but I held out hope that he'd bring his wife out for their song ... but more on that later.

Brown kept the crowd on his side throughout the high-energy "Famous Friends," and he even brought out a t-shirt gun to send several lucky fans a souvenir. At the end of the song he held up a shirt that said "Marines" on it, and yelled “Go USA! Thank you for your service.”

What happened next was perhaps the most surprising part of the set — and perhaps the moment Brown became the most vulnerable man in country music.

"How many of you go through depression?" he asked the crowd, without an ounce of shame. "Don’t be scared. How many of you? I go through it."

That comment dovetailed into a brief discussion of his and his wife's mental health struggles, and how they help each other through it. It was the perfect intro to his collaboration with blackbear, "Memory," which features surprisingly deep lyrics like "Help me now, I'm runnin' on empty / And I don't wanna be a memory."

I might be biased as someone who's volunteered for mental health organizations for the past 10-some years, but this part of the set really struck a chord. I was touched by Brown's refusal to let any possible stigma around mental illness keep him from discussing the topic in front of one of the largest crowds of his career, and I bet he inspired several young people in the audience to discuss their own mental illness without shame.

Brown took his emotional closeness with the audience to a new level when he jumped into the crowd and got physically close with everyone pressed up against the front barricade. He sang "Be Like That" to a sea of iPhones held within inches of his face, and a confetti cannon went off as he moved through the crowd with several security guards — whose serious faces were comically juxtaposed against Brown's huge grin on the large screens.

The musician got even more vulnerable at this point in the set, opening up about his past and why it's such a big deal for him to be headlining Stagecoach.

“If you’ve never heard of me … I’m a kid from nowhere who had nothing. I moved schools like 15 times. It’s amazing that I’m even here.”

He then moved into a beautiful rendition of his early hit "Used To Love You Sober" before a message of encouragement: "Everybody, if you have a dream, you can do it, no matter where you come from," he called out.

Brown dived into his life story again when he explained what he was doing before becoming a country star.

"I started working at Lowe's, Target and FedEx ... I’m the most normal artist you’ll meet," he said before moving into "Homesick," which got everyone in their feels, swaying with and/or kissing their partners.

But the emotional moment didn't last long, because Brown had to take a minute to show his rocker side with "Bury Me In Georgia," which featured more pyrotechnics and an amazing solo by Brown's lead guitarist Dane Kinser.

His band further proved their talent during "Go Around," when a string soloist came out with what I believe was a fiddle and absolutely killed it.

“Where my Rihanna fans at?” Brown suddenly yelled before the song morphed into a mashup with the Barbadian singer's hit "Needed Me," which brought a roar from the crowd.

The next portion of the show included various acoustic covers — with just Brown and his guitar onstage — most notably "Simple Man" by Lynyrd Skynyrd and "Redneck Woman" by Gretchen Wilson. The latter made the crowd erupt into a full singalong after he said he was playing it in honor of the women who raised him while his father was in jail throughout his childhood.

Perhaps the other highlight of the show came toward the end, when Brown introduced the one and only guest he invited onstage.

"Everybody always brings a special guest to these things, but can I bring my wife out?" he said to the ecstatic crowd before singing their touching love song "Thank God." Both Brown and said wife, Katelyn, got to show off their beautiful voices for the hit, and Brown couldn't stop gazing admiringly at his beau the whole time.

Brown rounded out the set with crowd favorites "One Mississippi" and "Good As You," the latter of which he said he had to "fight" to get on country radio.

As the final fireworks soared into the sky, I reflected on the humility Brown's set encompassed. He really is just a guy raised in rural Georgia by a single mom, and he's had to work for every bit of success he's achieved. I think some of the other male country stars on the Stagecoach lineup could learn a thing or two from this vulnerable artist.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Stagecoach 2023: Kane Brown becomes first person of color to headline