Like any artist on the verge, Kane Brown is grappling with the stirrings of fame. Last night, 12 separate people asked him for photos at his neighborhood grocery store. But as he explains today over the phone from Nashville, he’s not being recognized simply because he’s got a No. 1 album. (That would be his self-titled full-length debut, since dropped to No. 2, but with nine previous nonconsecutive weeks atop Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart.)

“I have lots of tattoos and am biracial. Even if they don’t know me, people are like, ‘Hey, you’re that Facebook guy,'” says Brown, a 24-year-old Chattanooga, Tenn., native who launched his career posting covers on the social network. “You’ve got Dustin Lynch, [Jason] Aldean and people like that who wear cowboy hats to stand out, but switch to a ballcap, and it’s kind of hard to tell them apart, unless you’re a diehard fan.”

While it’s true that Brown stands out from the white faces under the vast majority of those hats, the bashful, blue-eyed heartthrob has also distinguished himself with an unorthodox path and unvarnished lyrics. Before signing with RCA Nashville in early 2016, he capitalized on those Facebook videos by self-releasing a Kickstarter-funded 2015 EP. He sings — in an old-school, nasally baritone reminiscent of Randy Travis, who’s a fan — about racism and growing up poor. And he packages it all in a radio-friendly, state-of-the-art sound that’s irresistibly accessible.

For the full story, visit Billboard.com.

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