ABC/Lou RoccoNewcomer Kane Brown and Lauren Alaina are currently climbing the country chart together, thanks to their top-20 duet, “What Ifs.”
If you wonder how the pairing came together, the answer dates all the way back to the duo’s formative years in Rossville, Georgia.
“I grew up with Kane Brown…” Lauren reveals. “I’ve known him since we were kids. We went to school together. I actually was the first person to hear him sing, because we were in chorus class and I kinda heard him humming. And he NEVER sang in class. He’s very shy…”
“And I was like, ‘Uh, can you sing?’” she explains. “And he was like ‘I don’t sing in front of people.’”
As you might expect, Lauren’s not one to take no for an answer.
“I was like, ‘Well you’re gonna sing in front of me!’” Lauren remembers. “So, after class I made him stay and I told the teacher that I heard him singing and that he needed to hear him sing. And he sang ‘I Can Only Imagine’…” she recalls, mentioning the 2001 Christian hit by MercyMe.
“He had that deep voice in seventh grade!” Lauren says. ” I was like, ‘What is going on here?’ So I like to joke and tell people that I’m the reason Kane Brown sings.”
Earlier this year, Lauren scored her first #1 with “Road Less Traveled.” Her follow-up is the autobiographical single, “Doin’ Fine.”
“What Ifs” is on Kane’s self-titled debut album.
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