Noah Kahan just wrapped up an epic tour with two special shows that would surely be special for someone from New England. The “Orange Juice” singer, 27, played a pair of concerts at Boston’s Fenway Park on Thursday, July 18 and Friday, July 19. The shows marked the end of his We’ll All Be Here Forever tour, but some fans have begun to speculate on a special guest who skipped out on the performance, and some have been led to believe that it was another white guy with an acoustic guitar: Zach Bryan, 28.
While Zach and Noah’s music is different enough, there are certainly similarities between the two, and there’s been some shows of fondness for each other. The Great American Bar Scene singer has covered Noah’s hit “Stick Season,” and the “Dial Drunk” singer appeared on Zach’s song “Sarah’s Place” from his Boys of Faith EP in late 2023. After the EP dropped, Noah tweeted his thanks to the country star. “Beyond honored you thought of me friend. The record is so great. Your writing represents everything I’ve always loved about music. I’m beyond grateful to play any part of your story brother,” he wrote.
During Thursday evening’s show, Noah brought out a handful of guests. Gracie Abrams joined him to perform “Everywhere, Everything.” The folk group The Lumineers came out to cover Jason Isbell’s ballad “If We Were Vampires.” They also returned to sing “Stick Season” with him at the end of the show along with openers James Bay and Mt. Joy.
For Friday’s gig, Mt. Joy singer Matt Quinn came out to perform “Northern Attitude” with Noah, and before he started the encore, the singer shared that they had another guest planned. “I’m gonna be honest with you, we were supposed to have a special guest tonight but it didn’t work out,” he said.
While Noah didn’t tip his hand as to who the guest may have been, a few fans pointed out that his “Sarah’s Place” collaborator had just played in New England at Gilette Stadium earlier in the week. A fan account shared a screenshot of Zach’s girlfriend Brianna LaPaglia’s Instagram Story, where she showed that she was at Fenway for Noah’s concert.
Following the show, a blind item was leaked about a “country star” getting “so drunk” at his friend’s “biggest show.” While the blind item didn’t reveal who it was about, the piece started making rounds in Zach and Noah fan communities. “This country star was supposed to guest at his friends [sic] biggest show ever but ended up getting so drunk leading up to it he had to back out. On top of that he was seen arguing with security at the venue and being generally disrespectful towards his friends [sic] family. It’s no surprise he and the other star no longer follow eachother [sic] on socials,” the piece read.
A search of each of the singer’s Instagram accounts indicates that neither follows the other. Neither has spoken about the rumor.