LISTEN: Caleb Kennedy Releases a Sneak Peek of His New Single

Caleb Kennedy is coming out with new music, and he’s giving his fans a taste of what it will sound like.

On September 3, the former “American Idol” contestant released a sneak peek of his new single, “Raised On Dirt,” which will be released in full on September 11 at noon ET.

He captioned the Instagram post, “Y’all have been asking for a while now… so here ya go.”

The lyrics to the song are: “It’s where I took my first breath / And it’s where I’ll take my last / Raised On Dirt / Baptized in the rain / For what it’s worth.”

Early on in the latest season of “Idol”, per Country Now, Katy Perry told Kennedy, “I want to know more. You just have this grit, this real country. You are becoming the outlaw…”

Here’s what you need to know:

The Song Was Intended for the ‘American Idol’ Top 5 Performance

According to Country Now, the song was produced by Brad Phillips at Studio 101 in Southern California.

The Upstate Music Awards website reveals that Phillips won Best Studio Producer/ Engineer at the Upstate Music Awards and has worked with artists like William Shirley and Kendall Allen.

According to Talent Recap, Kennedy’s debut single was one he initially intended to perform on “Amerian Idol” for the Top 5 performances.

As highlighted by the outlet, he worked on the song with Ross Copperman who worked with winner Chayce Beckham on “23”.

Kennedy, 16, hails from Roebuck, South Carolina. For his audition song for the judges, Kennedy sang “Nowhere”. He explained to Luke Bryan that he is a songwriter, to which Katy Perry exclaimed that he had “something real special.”

Lionel Richie told him that he had a “storyteller’s voice” at a young age.

The Video That Sent Kennedy Home

Kennedy, as viewers may recall, left “American Idol” after a controversial video was released online.

The video showed a 12-year-old Kennedy sitting next to someone wearing what appeared to be a Ku Klux Klan hood.

Kennedy announced his departure from the show on Instagram, writing, “Hey y’all, this is gonna be a bit of a surprise, but I am no longer gonna be on American Idol. There was a video that surfaced on the internet and it displayed actions that were not meant to be taken in that way. I was younger and did not think about the actions, but that’s not an excuse.”

In an interview with Go Upstate, Kennedy later said of “American Idol”: “You think it’s all going to be fun, and a lot of it is, but it will slap you in the face really quickly. I wasn’t ready for it.”

Anita Guy, Kennedy’s mother, has also spoken to the outlet about the polarizing clip.

She shared, “I hate this has happened and how Caleb is being portrayed by people online. This video was taken after Caleb had watched the movie ‘The Strangers: Prey at Night’ and they were imitating those characters. It had nothing to do with the Ku Klux Klan, but I know that’s how it looks. Caleb doesn’t have a racist bone in his body. He loves everyone and has friends of all races.”