Chris Young might not have been the headliner, but he kept the crowd on their feet during a recent show. Young performed ahead of Brooks & Dunn at the recent Hoofbeat Festival, later sharing a video of him taking the stage ahead of the Country Music Hall of Fame members.

Young captions the video by sharing a story about Young and Brooks & Dunn, which took place long before Young’s own superstar career began.

“Little known fact… I got to watch Brooks & Dunn when I won an online contest to open a festival in Wisconsin when I was a teenager,” the 40-year-old says. “They crushed, and their team couldn’t have been nicer! Wisconsin you were awesome!!”

@chrisyoungmusic Little known fact… I got to watch Brooks & Dunn when I won an online contest to open a festival in Wisconsin when I was a teenager ?. They crushed and their team couldn’t have been nicer! Wisconsin you were awesome!! #Thankyou ♬ Til The Last One Dies – Chris Young

 

Young has a hit at radio right now with “‘Til the Last One Dies.”  The song is the debut single from his forthcoming new album, his first on Black River Entertainment.

“I had the chance to be a free agent. I felt sort of like an athlete a little bit,” Young recalls, explaining his decision to switch record labels. “I was prepared to take all these [label] meetings, and I went in and [Black River Records] were the first meeting. By the end of that meeting, I told them, ‘I want to be here.’”

Young released a total of nine albums on RCA Records, and had plenty of success there. But with his new project, the Grand Ole Opry is eager to make the record he has always wanted to make.

“I think this is really just about having a whole lot of freedom,” Young tells Audacy. “The ability to, if I wanna do a song where I’ve just got steel guitar all over it, that’s totally fine. If I want to do something where I’m standing in the studio with two of my good friends, stomping with a mic set up next to our feet to get part of a track that we want like a stomp clap thing, and all of us just like laughing, telling jokes and goofing off, that’s totally okay.”

Young didn’t write “‘Til the Last One Dies,” hinting that there are others on his next set of tunes that he didn’t write as well.

“It’s not the only one that’s going to be on the project that I wasn’t a writer on,” Young tells Country 102.5, speaking of “‘Til the Last One Dies.” “I’ve had songs before that have been singles that I wasn’t a writer on. I obviously sang and produced this one. But I found it. Someone played it for me right after these guys wrote it, and I was just like, ‘Oh God. That’s really, really good. I gotta cut that.”

Find all of Young’s music and upcoming shows at ChrisYoungCountry.com.