Sixteen years ago, Mae Estes was just a wide-eyed fan in Little Rock, clutching a meet-and-greet pass she never expected to have. A stranger outside a Luke Bryan concert had handed her and her sister the tickets — a chance encounter that gave her a quick photo with one of country’s rising stars at the time.
Fast forward to 2025, and that same fan is now standing beside Luke Bryan on stage, living out a true full-circle dream.
A Dream Come True
Bryan’s A Country Song Came On Tour kicked off in May, with Estes joining the lineup of rising country acts. At his recent Hartford, Connecticut stop, Bryan invited her on stage to perform with him — and Estes used the moment to reflect on just how far she’s come.
In a heartfelt social media post, she shared photos from the Hartford show alongside those throwback 2009 meet-and-greet shots. “Y’all already know I’m sappy and that ‘full circle’ is the name of the game round here sooo… Check out these pics from 2009,” she wrote. “That night changed everything for me.”
Now, nearly two decades later, she’s not just in the audience — she’s part of the show. Grateful, Estes thanked her team and Bryan’s for making the moment possible, adding, “We’ll see y’all this weekend in WV, Nashville, then VA!”
“Mountain of a Man” Strikes a Chord
Beyond the tour, Estes is also riding high on the success of her latest single, “Mountain of a Man.” Written by Jon Decious, Lauren McLamb, Liz Rose, and Paul Sikes, the breakup anthem is as powerful as its title — a raw portrayal of love that feels impossible to move past.
“Damn that mountain of a man… Got so drunk that I got sober / High as I got, I never got over that mountain of a man,” Estes belts in the soaring chorus.
The track leans into her neotraditional roots with fiddle, pedal steel, and dobro, drawing comparisons to country legends like Patty Loveless. During live shows, Estes makes it interactive by picking an “honorary mountain of a man” from the audience each night, a moment fans have come to love.
“I think lots of summertime memories will be made with this one blaring in the background,” she shared.
A Rising Star
“Mountain of a Man” follows the viral success of Mr. Fix It, which took off earlier this year on TikTok as fans dedicated clips to the “Mr. Fix It” in their own lives. With more new music on the way in 2025, Mae Estes is quickly proving that her voice, her stories, and her grit belong on the country stage.
And for fans who remember the 2009 photo of a teenage girl standing shyly beside Luke Bryan, her journey is more than inspiring — it’s proof that sometimes country dreams really do come full circle.
