On his road to success, Kane Brown dealt with a bad case of imposter syndrome.
According to the National Institutes of Health, imposter syndrome is when a high-achieving individual experiences a great deal of self-doubt about either their skills, intellect or accomplishments.
When it came to Brown, the singer told TODAY's Willie Geist that he started to feel imposter syndrome when his career started taking off.
"When I f---ing started playin’ bigger places I got, like, imposter syndrome of it moving too fast," he said. "I wasn’t the greatest on stage, I wondered what everybody thought about me."
However, Brown said that feeling was put on the backburner when he was asked to perform at Boston’s Fenway Park.
"But when I did Fenway, I knew that I was supposed to be there," he said, acknowledging the importance of being the first Black artist to ever headline a concert at the stadium.
"Fenway was very iconic to me," Brown said. "And when I got out there, you know, there were no nerves. There was no, 'Oh my God.' It was like, 'It’s showtime and I’m going to put on a show and let these people know that I’m so glad they’re here and that I’m so glad to be here.”
As a kid, Brown grew up in Northwest Georgia and Southeastern Tennessee. Born to a white mother and a Black and Native American father, the country music star said he received a lot of criticism about his appearance on social media.
"They’d be like, 'Just look at him. He’s not country. That’s not what country looks like,' yada, yada, yada. But I feel like it’s also what made me blow up on Facebook. ‘Cause, I had a lot of people that clicked my video and they would be like, 'I thought you were going to rap, excuse me,'" he laughed. "And then I started singing. So it kind of shocked them and they wanted to share."
After becoming an overnight sensation on Facebook, Brown released his self-titled debut studio album in 2016, which featured his multi-platinum songs, "What Ifs" and "Heaven."
Though he found much success with his first album, Brown admits that he was "really scared of everything" when he "first got into music."
"I was like, 'Well, if I do this wrong, if I do this wrong,' and now it’s just I get to be myself," he said.
When asked if he ever looks back on how far he came, Brown said he doesn't like to think about it because it helps him stay present.
"Everything that I went through is a part of my life that got me here. And I’m actually proud of it," Brown added. "Even though a lot of it was tough and hard and you didn’t know what was going to come out of it. But I feel like that’s who made me who I am today."
"It made me strong. It made me want to get back to people, and made me humble. And just made me proud of who I am and where I came from," he added.