Kelsea Ballerini Announces New Song “Cowboys Cry Too,” Shares Why She Picked Noah Kahan for the Duet

Kelsea Ballerini and Noah Kahan have teamed up to drop a new single from Ballerini’s forthcoming, currently untitled, album. “Cowboy’s Cry Too” is the first single from that album, which Ballerini has shared is finished, but hasn’t officially announced yet. After their medley lit up the ACM Awards stage earlier this year, it only makes sense they would release a song together.

“Cowboys Cry Too” will be released on Friday, June 28, and Ballerini recently shared her first reaction to hearing Kahan’s lyrics. She also explained why Kahan was her first choice of duet partner.

“He opens his mouth and sings this whole verse and I just was like, ‘Oh my gosh,’” Ballerini said, speaking with Taste of Country. Additionally, she shared that this is the only collaboration on the new album, so it’s clear she has been a long-time fan of Kahan.

Specifically, the line, You can’t outdrive pain / Somebody’s gotta take the wheel, captured Ballerini’s emotions. “It’s true!” she said of the line. “If you don’t deal with the things that are living inside of you and your emotions and your traumas and your past and whatever it is, it manifests in your life somehow.”

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The song tackles toxic masculinity from both a male and female perspective, as Kelsea Ballerini explained. “I wrote the chorus on my back porch last November,” she said, “and I love the idea of writing the song from a female perspective, kind of tackling toxic masculinity.”

She continued, “Then as I was making the whole record and kind of putting the puzzle together, I was like, ‘Man, if we could have a male perspective on this who’s willing to go there and really be emotionally available to write his perspective into the song, that’d be amazing.’”

The natural choice for Ballerini was Noah Kahan. The two had met at the 2024 GRAMMYs, along with Ballerini’s boyfriend Chase Stokes. Speaking with Billboard, Kahan said, “I kind of felt overwhelmed and out of place,” but “Kelsea and Chase made me feel really comfortable, and I think that’s why I was so excited to work with her. Kelsea’s just one of those people that the voice is so special, but the songwriting is so real, and you can see that she lives her songs. I really look up to her and admire her for that.”

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