Memory
by Kane Brown (featuring Blackbear)

Album: single release only (2021)
Charted: 50
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Songfacts®:

  • This rambling midtempo track finds Kane Brown linking up with the Florida-based producer/songwriter Blackbear. Both artists reflect on living a fast-paced life and resorting to vices in order to manage the stress. During the chorus, they ask for help, as they're "running on empty" and "don't want to be a memory."
  • Released as a single by RCA's pop promotion division on July 9, 2021, this follows other Brown collaborations with non-country artists. They include:

    Marshmello on "One Thing Right"

    Swae Lee and Khald on "Be Like That"

    John Legend on "Last Time I Say Sorry"
  • Brown and Blackbear wrote the song with:

    Blackbear's frequent collaborator, Andrew Goldstein. The former The Friday Night Boys vocalist co-produced Blackbear's hit singles "Do re mi" and "Hot Girl Bummer."

    Joe Kirkland of the American power-pop band Artist vs. Poet. He also collaborated with Blackbear on the writing of Maroon 5's "Beautiful Mistakes."

    Nashville songwriter Ernest Smith. He's co-penned country hits for the likes of Morgan Wallen ("More Than My Hometown," "Wasted On You") Sam Hunt ("Breaking Up Was Easy In The 90s") and Chris Lane ("Big, Big Plans").
  • For Brown, the message of the song is anyone who goes through depression or anxiety is not alone. "There's many people out there," he told American Songwriter. "You just got to find them and talk to them. So that was kind of me, that was my way of saying, "I go through it as well. You're not alone in the world."

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