On "Famous Friends," Kane Brown joins Chris Young to raise a glass to hometown legends.
During the upbeat track's trio of choruses, the pair reference three counties of significance. In the first chorus, Young and Brown celebrate Rutherford County in Chris' hometown of Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
I've got some famous friends you've probably never heard of
But back in Rutherford County, our crowd is second to none
In the second hook, the pair sub in Brown''s native Hamilton County, on the Tennessee and Georgia border. A final chorus name-offs Davidson County, where they both live in Nashville.
"This song is a piece of me, and it means a lot because it's honest and it's real life," said Young in a press release. "Plus, Kane and I are good friends, and being able to have that history together, it adds a whole other level to the track."
Young told Radio.com's Kelly Ford that the tune speaks to a universal support system most people feel growing up in a community. "This song is our take on the people you grew up with, and a small town song," he said. "Maybe not even a small town, but your home town. Just reminding you of the people you grew up with."
Young and Brown based the lyrics on the personal relationships they have in their communities.
My buddy Brandon holds the record
For single-season touchdown throws
And good ol' Johnny, he's the life of every party
It's like cheers the know him everywhere he goes
When Young dropped the single, he and Brown hadn't warned their friends they were about to be name-dropped. "These are all real people. Not all of them know they're in the song yet," he admitted. "So I expect at least one or two text messages asking, 'Is this me?'"
The two country stars have worked together before: They previously collaborated on "Setting the Night on Fire," a track on the 2017 deluxe edition of Brown's eponymous debut album. Brown also guested on Young's 2018 Losing Sleep World Tour.
Young originally wrote "Famous Friends" with Cary Barlowe and Corey Crowder in Tampa, Florida, in 2018. Young then texted Brown and asked, "What do you think about this?"
Brown and Young first teased "Famous Friends" in early 2019, after Brown recorded his vocals for the track. Kane offered fans a one-minute snippet on social media in May 2020 where the singers can be heard chanting the first chorus. He told fans to "blow up" Young to get him to release the song. The Rutherford County singer listened and dropped it as a single on November 20, 2020.
Every name you hear on the song is an actual person, but "my buddy Brandon" doesn't answer to that name. Young explained during an interview with Taste of Country Nights that everybody calls Brandon by his nickname of Bubba. "A lot of people don't even know his name is Brandon," he said. "So he knows that's him in the song, but outside of that, I don't know how many people are actually gonna know who that is."
Chris Young, Cary Barlowe and Corey Crowder wrote the song the same weekend they penned "
Raised on Country." Young got the idea of spotlighting his not-so-famous friends after writing "Raised On Country."
"With 'Raised on Country,' what we were trying to write was an anthem about the music I grew up on," Young explained to
Billboard. "And obviously, when you start talking about how you grew up and what shapes you outside of your town and the music you listened to, it's definitely your friends. And I think that was kind of the seed in 'Famous Friends.'"
Peter Zavadil/Tiny Terror Productions (Eric Church, Lindsay Ell, Blanco Brown) directed the video. Filmed in Gallatin, Tennessee, it sees Young and Brown performing on a rooftop celebrating their famous friends. Several of the singers' real life buddies get the opportunity during the clip to shine on their own red carpet.
Chris Young and Kane Brown performed this song at the 2021 CMA Awards. As they sang the lyrics, a giant video screen in the background flashed up high school photos of some of their fellow artists, along with some cheeky awards. Tim McGraw was "most likely to have a misspelled tattoo," Blake Shelton "most likely to make the mullet famous" and Chris Young, naturally, was "most likely to have famous friends."
"Famous Friends" topped Billboard's list of most-played songs on Country radio in 2021.
