Play it again! Luke Bryan, Carly Pearce and Kane Brown were just a few of the musicians to take the stage at the 2023 iHeartCountry music festival.
The Saturday, May 13, event — which was held at the Moody Center in Austin, Texas — served as an unforgettable night for concertgoers, who got to see their favorite country stars play their biggest radio hits. While the lineup included heavy hitters like Bryan, 46, Pearce, 33, Brown, 29, and Sam Hunt, there were also a few surprise guests along the way.
The Brothers Osbourne — a musical duo that includes T.J. Osbourne and brother John Osbourne — shocked fans when they appeared on stage during the “iHeartRadio We’re All Country Guitar Pull” alongside the “What He Didn’t Do” songstress and Bailey Zimmerman.
Another bombshell moment came when Brown — who closed out the evening — brought his wife, Katelyn Jae Brown, on stage to perform their duet, “Thank God.” The twosome, who tied the knot in October 2018, gazed into each other’s eyes as they belted out the romantic ballad.
“I was lost / You found a way to bring me back / Needed forgiveness / You always gave me that,” the “Heaven” artist sings on the record. “Girl, I’m a witness of your love / ‘Cause you don’t be giving up / And It’s crazy / How you saved me.”
The couple have often been candid about their love. During a 2020 interview with Radio.com, Kane opened up about how he and the Pennsylvania native first connected.
“We met down in Florida at my very first show ever, I believe it was in 2015,” Kane recalled. “The day before that show, I was supposed to be in her music video because she was an artist as well, and it couldn’t happen cause my show was the same day as the music video.”
He continued: “So a year goes by and the same guy we were working with brings her to a show, she didn’t want to come and he forced her, basically. We met, we didn’t talk at all — I maybe said hey to her — but I thought she was adorable and I kept looking at her all night. So I asked her to come to Nashville, like, the next day, I flew her down and we just hit it off and she never left!”
The pair’s romance continued to heat up, with the ACM Award winner proposing in April 2017. Us Weekly confirmed the duo had tied the knot in October 2018 and they welcomed daughters Kingsley and Kodi Jane in October 2019 and December 2021, respectively.
The couple’s musical collaboration came after Kodi’s arrival, with “Thank God” dropping in September 2022.
“We’ve been talking about [a duet] for a while now,” Kane told iHeartRadio Canada of singing with his wife at the time. “‘Thank God’ came across the table at the right time. … What’s really cool about it is I’m not singing it with another artist, that’s what would be weird to me [because] that’s what completes the circle and it is like a wedding song, so there’s nothing in there that’s fake at all.”
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Keep scrolling to see all the best performances at 2023’s iHeartCountry music festival:
