Kane Brown rolled into his CMT Music Awards performance in a vintage convertible, then strutted onto one of CMT’s outdoor stages and whipped up the crowd with his hit “One Mississippi.”
Fans pressed as close to the stage as they could get, shouting the lyrics to his hit as Brown – wearing a tan trucker hat embroidered with the word FAMILY – worked the stage with a wide smile. Brown’s fiddle player took the spotlight for a solo.
“Play that thing!” Brown said excitedly, his energy infectious. Fans excitedly jumped up and down as he sang.
“One Mississippi” was written by Brown, Ernest K. Smith, Jesse Frasure and Levon Gray. The song’s video was nominated for Male Video of the Year and Video of the Year at the 2022 CMT Music Awards. Brown unexpectedly helped co-host the night with actor Anthony Mackie after Kelsea Ballerini tested positive for COVID-19.
Brown is the show’s top nominee.
“One Mississippi” is Brown’s seventh No. 1 song and the debut single from his upcoming album. And he owes it to Instagram.
“This song means a lot to me because I found this dude from Alabama; he tagged me in an Instagram story,” Brown told Katie Neal of Katie & Company of finding Levon Gray. “I told him I’m starting my publishing company. I told him to come up to Nashville and write a song with me. He brought ‘One Mississippi,’ he brought the idea and everything around it. We let him run with it.”
If you missed the performance the first time, catch CMT Music Awards Extended Cut at 8 p.m. (ET) April 15 on CMT. The bonus version comes with 30 additional minutes of new performances and extra content.