Kane Brown will launch Different Man Radio on Apple Music on Tuesday, April 4, Billboard has learned. The four-episode series finds Brown welcoming guests to discuss their experiences with success, including how they navigated the life and career changes that come with it. Brown will also share songs that influenced his own artistry, as well as tracks that have special meaning for his guests.
The series will launch at 8 a.m. PT on April 4 for Apple Music subscribers, with all four episodes available on demand. The first episode, featuring six-time NBA All-Star and Miami Heat player Jimmy Butler, will be on Apple Music Country at 5 p.m. PT for non-subscribers.
The guests on the other three episodes will be Max Thieriot, Darius Rucker and TimTheTatman.
In addition to his basketball career, Butler is a longtime country music fan who starred in Luke Bryan’s “Light It Up” video. During the episode, Butler tells Brown about his work on his own upcoming country music album.
“I’ve just been writing songs with some incredible song writers, and they have been teaching me the ropes,” Butler shares with Brown. “Basketball is way easier than making sense of a story and putting it in a song form and then doing videos and radio. Like, look, I tip my hat to y’all because it stresses me out, and I’m not even the person that really does this for a living. I do want to do this music thing for a little bit. I’ve got to see.”
“I think the tough thing for you is having basketball and then going in, basically doing a whole other career,” Brown replies. “I think that’s what makes it stressful for you. I think if you just got to work on music, I think you would really enjoy it.”
Butler, however, was quick to distinguish his own musical exploration from the careers of top artists in the country music genre.
“I wouldn’t call music a career though, bro. Not for me. Music is just a hobby, and I think it’s a way for me to hone my [craft and] does not mean you’re good at everything,” Butler clarifies, referring to himself more as a country music fan with a hobby, rather than a full-fledged artist like Brown.
“Come on,” Brown counters. “We all started off as fans of somebody, bro.”
Butler also talked about listening to country music in the locker room.
“I’ve actually gotten a lot of my teammates on country music,” Butler says. “And I think right now the song all the way around the locker room is ‘Heaven,’ honestly. But it’s really not even because of me. Tyler Hero adores … loves your song, bro.”
Butler adds, “[Country music] puts me in the mood to want to go out there and compete, knowing that this is y’all’s livelihood, this is what y’all do and y’all are so great at. It kind of flips a switch in my head like, ‘Yo, you’ve got to get like that. You’ve got to be great. So you’ve got to go out there and do it.’ That’s what country music does for me for the games.”
Brown, who has nine Billboard Country Airplay chart-toppers to his credit (including his latest, “Thank God” with wife Katelyn Brown), is set to bring his headlining Drunk or Dreaming tour to Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on Friday (March 31).
Watch a trailer for Different Man Radio below:
