Kane Brown has never spoken about the racial slur Morgan Wallen uttered last year, until now. The father of two reveals that he personally reached out to Wallen when the news first hit, and while Brown doesn’t condone what Wallen said, neither does Brown hold it against him.

“This is the first time I’ve ever even talked about this, but I personally know Morgan,” Brown tells the New York Times. “I texted him that day. I told him he shouldn’t have said it, but also knowing Morgan, I knew that he didn’t mean it in the way that the world thought that he meant it … I think if it was in a different context, I probably would have been fighting.”

Country music might have come a long way in recent years in the long-awaited inclusivity of Black artists, thanks to the hard, and often uncomfortable, work done by Brown, Jimmie Allen, MIckey Guyton and more. But as far as the country music audience has come, Brown says they still have a long way to go.

“Even today, I walked in somewhere and they were like, ‘Oh, my God, you did so good on Dancing With the Stars,’” Brown says. “I’m like, ‘That wasn’t me; that was Jimmie Allen. That’s the other Black guy.’”

Brown’s Different Man album is out on Friday, September 9. The 17-track record includes a duet with Blake Shelton, on the title track, as well as one with his wife, Katelyn, on “Thank God.” Ever since Brown’s eponymous debut, people have, unsuccessfully, tried to categorize his music into one genre. With Different Man, the 28-year-old combines all of his musical influences, without regard to any specific genre or format.

“I released ‘Grand,’ and there are so many comments that are saying, ‘This isn’t country.’ …I wasn’t trying to make this country,'” Brown says.

“When I first came in, with how I look — tattoos, biracial, all that stuff — I was already getting perceived as a rapper, and it kept going on for years,” ‌he adds. “So … I might as well just take on that role.”

Brown will embark on his Drunk or Dreaming Tour on March 16, 2023, with Dustin Lynch, Gabby Barrett and LOCASH serving as his opening acts. See tour dates and order Different Man at KaneBrownMusic.com.