There’s a new class of twang overtaking country music and Braxton Keith is at the forefront.
Even Post Malone has taken notice. Earlier this spring, Posty invited the Midland, Texas, singer-songwriter onstage at Stagecoach to perform not one of Malone’s songs, but Keith’s own “Cozy.”
In a new interview with Rolling Stone’s Nashville Now, Keith says he first connected with the rapper turned country crossover when Malone found him online last year and sent him a direct message asking him to text back. Keith did, and Malone told him he was a fan of his music.
“Little bit later, he got ahold of management and said, ‘Does Braxton want to get up onstage and sing a song with me?’” Keith says, recalling how he was surprised that Malone wanted to sing Keith’s “Cozy.”
“I was nervous. All the way up there until we walked onstage,” Keith says. “This isn’t my set, none of these people know my songs. But he was really chill. [He said], ‘Listen, there’s gonna be noise coming out of those speakers and the people are gonna hear it and that’s all that matters. It’ll be all right.’”
During his Nashville Now podcast appearance, Keith also opens up about his viral moment: when he stopped a concert to admonish fans for throwing beer at the stage. Watch the full interview below.
Download and subscribe to Rolling Stone’s weekly country-music podcast, Nashville Now, hosted by deputy editor, head of country Joseph Hudak, on Apple Podcasts or Spotify (or wherever you get your podcasts). New episodes drop every Wednesday and feature interviews with artists and personalities like Shania Twain, Vince Gill, Lainey Wilson, Shaboozey, Hardy, Charley Crockett, Blackberry Smoke, Jason Newsted, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Kings of Leon, Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys, the Black Crowes, the War and Treaty, Carly Pearce, Amy Grant, Luke Grimes, Brandon Lake, Breland, Bryan Andrews, Noeline Hofmann, Adam Mac, Devon Gilfillian, Gavin Adcock, Amanda Shires, Shooter Jennings, Margo Price, Michaela Anne, Ink, Ne-Yo, Rival Sons’ Jay Buchanan, Halestorm, Dusty Slay, Lukas Nelson, Ashley Monroe, Old Crow Medicine Show’s Ketch Secor, Clever, Love on the Spectrum‘s Tyler White, Willie Nelson scholar John Spong, and authors Marissa R. Moss, Josh Crutchmer, Mark Gray, and Jonathan Bernstein.
