Kelsea Ballerini and Noah Kahan‘s partnership on “Cowboys Cry Too” started out with a simple text. And in honor of the twangy slow-jam arriving Friday (June 28), the former shared exactly how she reached out to the latter to get him to agree to the collaboration — not that it took much convincing.
According to a screenshot posted to Ballerini’s Instagram, the “Peter Pan” singer reached out to her duet partner mid-April. “i’m making my record and have a song i think could evolve into a true duet that i just haddd to send to you,” she sent him. “it would need your perspective rewritten in the second verse and fingerprints on it, but i think having both sides could be really special.”
“you know im such a fan and i know you’ve got a million things going on so if you don’t have the space right now i totally understand, but you’re my first text,” Ballerini added in her message to Kahan, who responded just an hour later: “Oh man I am so so honored you even thought of me.. you are amazing this is a dream come true!!”
The pair jumped into the studio together shortly afterward, as documented in a few behind-the-scenes pictures Ballerini included in her post. In one selfie, she smiles as Kahan records vocals behind her; in another photo, he smiles at the camera while strumming his guitar.
“in a world that says ‘saddle up and be a man’, i hope this song finds you in your humanness,” the Tennessee native captioned her post. “thank you @noahkahanmusic for adding your uninhibited perspective and songwriting brilliance into this song. (LIKE CAN WE TALK ABOUT THE SECOND VERSE YALL?!?) i couldn’t be more proud to put this music and message out alongside such a lovely artist and friend.”
The two stars first teased their collaboration in May, when the “Dial Drunk” singer joined Ballerini for a joint performance of his Billboard Hot 100 top 10 hit “Stick Season” and her 2023 ballad “Mountain With a View.” They announced “Cowboys Cry Too” just two days before it dropped, with Ballerini writing, “so proud and excited to release this first song in a new chapter of music” on social media and Kahan replying, “Can’t wait for this.”
See Ballerini’s post below.
