Kelsea Ballerini shared a sweet backstage photo on her Instagram story on Thursday (January 30) as she continues her first-ever headlining arena tour.
The photo showed the country star’s boyfriend, actor Chase Stokes, sitting on the floor with Ballerini’s dog, Dibs, who attended the show amid his battle with inoperable heart cancer, as they appeared to watch the concert together from offstage. Ballerini said “this man is in the middle of releasing TWO films and working on a million other things, and the first break he had, he met me on the road and sat side stage with our Dibby so he could watch part of the show.”
Ballerini added that she’s “in awe of (Stokes’) heart and this photo shows a peek at how pure it is, behind the curtain. Love is special. I feel so lucky.”
Ballerini and Stokes celebrated their two-year anniversary earlier this month. She’s since thanked him “for making me write love songs,” including “First Rodeo,” one of 15 tracks on her latest studio album. Ballerini released Patterns in late October, and celebrated with an album release show at Madison Square Garden in New York City before launching her arena tour. Stokes said as Ballerini kicked off the tour that he’s “so endlessly proud,” and had “an obnoxious amount of FOMO.” Ballerini’s tour includes social guests Sasha Alex Sloan, Ashe, The Japanese House and MaRynn Taylor. See the dates here.