Max McKnown
Benjamin Edwards
Max McNown’s music is imbued with stories of grief and darkness, resilience and light—and ever-evolving perspectives.
As the Nashville-based singer/songwriter’s star rises with more than 10 million monthly Spotify listeners, the recent release of deluxe edition album Night Diving (The Cost of Growing Up) and current U.S. headlining tour, he’s also evolving his perspective on self-care amid rapid success.
One of his biggest recent game-changers came courtesy of sage words he received at the Boston Calling music festival in May 2025, where he was performing alongside artists including Luke Combs, Fallout Boy, Dave Matthews and Megan Maroney.
“I have a couple band members and crew members that are close with some of Luke Combs’ team,” McNown says. “And so I was able to meet Luke and I was talking with his production manager and he told me, ‘Man it’s so cool; I can tell you’re on the rise.’ And then he got really serious with me and he was like, ‘Are you writing everything down? Do you have a journal or anywhere that you’re writing these experiences down and processing them?’ And I said, ‘I have a journal but it’s at my apartment. I haven’t used it in a long, long time.
The manager continued: “‘The number one piece of advice I would give is to write down what you’re doing, not only to process what’s happening but to also look back on,’” McNown says. “’Because you’re going to miss so many important life lessons and moments.’”
The guidance resonated. “I now journal every single morning. That’s very, very key to my mental health. Usually the first thing I do when I wake up is find the nearest cool kind of local, hopefully, coffee shop and just sit here and grab a cold brew and write in my journal for about an hour. That’s how I start every day,” he says. “The journal has been pivotal. I think it’s a huge piece of why I have felt so good. So thank you to Luke Combs’ production manager.”
While he’s focused on being self-aware, McNown is also mindful of not letting it overwhelm his organic process.
“I think there’s a fine line between self-awareness and self-consciousness. It took me years of being extremely self-conscious and kindof, you know, not comfortable in my own skin to finally learn the balance between understanding where you are and having the humility that, there’s always something greater. And also just not obsessing over it because if you get stuck in your own head it’s hard to escape sometimes. There’s that distinction. And when you get some big life lessons at a young age, you’re really thrown into it.”
McNown’s family dynamic turned inside out in 2019 when his brother Brock was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. After five years of treatment, today Brock is in remission and accompanying him on tour. But the emotional toll and those unimaginable “life lessons” pouring in just as McNown was finding his voice as a songwriting left indelible marks.
“It’s just a perspective shift that I think is a game changer for my life. If I’m going on stage and I’m worried about my voice cracking or not hitting certain notes, I think about what he’s been through and the fact that for every single human on earth, just to wake up is a privilege,” he says. “That’s the perspective Brock gave me. And I think that’s the reason I’m able to not tire and burn out. I just kind of keep going because it’s like, How lucky am I?”
McNown poured many of his experiences and epiphanies during that pivotal time into the songs that comprise Night Diving, which debuted in January 2025, and The Cost of Growing Up, which joined the initial release form deluxe package Night Diving (The Cost Of Growing Up) in July. Not without intentionality, he refers to the two title tracks as “sibling songs.”
“Night Diving and The Cost of Growing Up have always been one project for me; they were coming together at the same time. When I wrote Night Diving there were loosely 14-15 songs, some finished, some not finished, and then I wrote five more before it was released,” he says.
“So I separated them. A lot of the songs on Night Diving are not necessarily pessimistic but it has more of a brooding, an introspection. It’s the feeling of desperation, of like, ‘Man, no matter how hard I try to keep in front of this I end up hating myself.’ Whereas The Cost of Growing Up, the sibling song, has more of the optimistic view on a lot of those sadder moments because that is just what life is. The Cost of Growing Up is the cost of healing and being able to come toward joy. It’s both sides of the coin. Those two songs and the relationship between them represent the music I hope to make for the rest of my life.”
Noting he starts “with poetry,” McNown says, “Lyrics have been the focus of every single form of music I’ve ever listened to. I’m a fan of a beautiful electric lick as much as the next guy but I was never one for the trap music of the dub step if it didn’t have lyrics that meant a lot to me. I have always found joy and comfort in that type of music. So when it came to writing music, there was no other way.”
As he traverses the country, informed by new encounters he’s no doubt documenting in his journal, McNown is deep in writing new music that will chronicle his current chapter. Songwriter and producer AJ Prius, who produced his 2024 debut album Wandering, and Trent Dabbs, who co-wrote McNown’s Night Diving single Better Me For You (Brown Eyes), joined him on the road early in the tour.
“I was writing five to eight hours and then would do meet and greets, interviews and play a show and then wake up and do the same thing over again. Every single day. So actually we’ve got 11 solid tracks already for the next project,” he says.
“And any time I’m home I write. I got five solid writes in last time I was in Nashville for seven days. You just go with the flow—and the flow is strong right now.”
Mind Reading (formerly Hollywood & Mind) is a recurring column that features interviews with musicians, actors, athletes, creators and other culture influencers who are elevating conversation and action around mental health, and breaking stigma.
