Grace Potter Brothers of the Sun Tour Role Is ‘Missing Link’

Grace Potter is staying busy this summer, crossing the country with Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw on their Brothers of the Sun tour. While it may have seemed like an odd choice for the headliner to invite her rock band, Grace Potter & the Nocturnals, out on a country trek, the Vermont native says it makes perfect sense.

"Kenny sees that so much of music is colliding these days, and usually beautifully," she explains to CMT. "There are a lot of broad, sweeping changes happening and all those lines are getting blurred. And he saw that the missing link on tour was the straight-ahead rock and roll band."

The songstress, who was introduced to millions of country fans thanks to her "You and Tequila" duet with Kenny, admits most people still don't know her music. "I love that we're here," she notes. "To see the fans who are so in love with Kenny and Tim's music -- they know every word. No one knows our words. But I love the fresh feeling you get when no one knows anything about you."

Grace admits she was unfamiliar with Kenny and his music before recording their Grammy-nominated hit, but that she now sees herself aligning with his genre.

"I didn't know anything about [mainstream country music]," she tells The Boot. "I was more a fan of the outlaw country. I loved Willie Nelson my whole life. Lucinda Williams, Emmylou Harris, Gram Parsons, George Strait, Waylon Jennings -- those are people that were a part of my childhood. But I never associated that kind of country music with what Kenny does. The truth is, it all comes from the same place, and I'm seeing that now firsthand."

Grace Potter & the Nocturnals are working on a new album, which she promises will sound "all kinds of country." The Brothers of the Sun tour will play two shows in California this weekend, followed by stops in Colorado, Indiana and Ohio. Keep track of the tour schedule here.

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