Max McNown is in the middle of some festival dates, ahead of launching his latest headlining tour on Aug. 21. His rise to headliner status has come very quick: It wasn’t that long ago that the “A Lot More Free” singer was playing for money on a pier in San Clemente, California.
“It was about a year between putting out my first song and promoting it through social media and then playing my first show,” Max tells ABC Audio. And in past year he’s gone from “opening a show of 30 people in St. Louis” to playing for thousands of fans each night.
“It’s happening very fast in the grand scheme of things,” he notes. “It’s been surreal. I don’t know if I’ve been able to fully kind of process it and comprehend it quite yet. … Every accomplishment, I’ve been like, ‘OK, what’s next? What do I got to do? Let’s keep going.'”
The concept of people actually paying money to see him is something else Max is having a hard time comprehending.
“It still doesn’t make sense to me in my brain when people are buying all these tickets to see me,” he says. “Because I’m always Max and I always will just be Max.” He laughs, “It’s like, there’s so many tickets being bought, so many people coming to see me and I never believe that I’m gonna sell out — and then it happens.”
In fact, Max’s rise has been so quick that he’s still getting the hang of performing.
“It’s always come somewhat natural to me, but I always talk with my band members after each show,” he says. “And we’ve had so many conversations like, ‘Oh, you unlocked something new today.’ So every show I kind of learn a little bit more and get a little more comfortable.”
Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
