Kane Brown was fortunate enough to earn an opening spot on Florida Georgia Line‘s Dig Your Roots Tour, which kicked off in 2016, even though he was hardly a well-known artist at the time. In fact, Kane says he had barely even performed any shows when Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley invited him on their massive tour, giving him a huge introduction to country music fans just as he was getting started.

“They took a big chance on me, and I’ll appreciate it for the rest of my career,” Kane told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe. “They took me out — I think I only had done six bar shows before I went out with them to [play an] amphitheater. You got to think, you’re going from a thousand people, 800 people, to 17,000 people. It was an amazing experience, especially getting to hang with them.”

The memory of the tour is special to Kane for much more than the experience performing. He unexpectedly fell in love with his now-wife, Katelyn, while on the road.

“I got her to come down to Nashville, and we hung out, and it was just like, she was fun,” Kane shared. “She was cool, kind of like a little mini-me, a little blonde-haired girl. She first came to this bar. We were in Tampa for Tampa Bowl. It was like 1500 people. After that, she flew down. I forgot that I was going on tour. So I had her come to Nashville, and I was going to my first big tour the next day. So I was like, ‘Sh-t, I’m going on tour.’ I was like, ‘You want to come? Or you can either fly back home.’

“She was like, ‘I’ll come,'” he continued. “We pulled up to this amphitheater, and I was on tour with FGL. She was like, ‘Who are you?’ I was like, ‘No, no, no, I’m the first of four. I only get 15 minutes onstage.’ But it was just I guess that experience with her, just being out with FGL and just … I was excited for what I was doing, and then they were up there, singing ‘Holy,’ and all these love songs. I remember just holding her, and it was just such a cool moment. She’s just been with me ever since.”

Kane might have been falling in love with Katelyn at the time, but he was also learning how to engage large audiences.

“It was my first time getting on a big tour like that, just seeing everybody as a family,” Kane sad. “Then after half the tour, they started bringing me out with them and I was a nervous wreck because the amphitheater was actually full and I had never seen that unless I was in the audience.”

Kane credits both Florida Georgia Line and Sam Hunt with convincing him that he could make the music he wanted to make, and still be accepted in country music.

“I feel like I’m just a little guy just doing music,” Kane said. “I’m just doing my thing … Music, it was already changing, [with] Sam Hunt and Florida Georgia Line, and I felt like that was my open door when I heard them. So I feel like they made the change and I’m just the guy that’s jumping on that train, but switching it just a little bit … I’m turning the train that they started.”