In a world where celebrities relentlessly battle for a chance to hog the limelight, it is always nice to know there are some Southern gentlemen out there who actually want to perform music together and have some fun in the process. Singer-songwriters Josh Kelley and Ryan Cabrera, who originally hail from Georgia and Texas respectively, fit this bill to a T and plan to showcase it tonight at the Majestic Theatre.

“We are actually sharing the stage together,” Kelley said. “It is not like a co-headlining tour. This is more like a Simon and Garfunkel kind of thing where we are both playing each other’s songs on stage and telling stories.”

“It is just like a big party,” Cabrera said.

“Dude, I am learning how to party because of Ryan,” Kelley said. “I thought I knew how to party, but I did not know how to party. Ryan knows how to party.”

This self-proclaimed party — more commonly referred to as the Tell It Like It Is Tour — will feature both Kelley and Cabrera each performing eight of their most popular songs while the other plays guitar and sings harmony, creating a fresh and electrifying collaborative that is sure to captivate tonight’s crowd.

“The best part about being up on stage is the audience, having them with you and feeling you because you are creating music onstage,” Kelley said. “There is nothing like creating something from out of nowhere. It is not even tangible. So when people are sharing that experience with you and you all come together at the same time, it is the ultimate drug.”

Although neither artist is a stranger to the stage now, Kelley and Cabrera both owe their initial success to the people who supported them during their time down South. As a teenager, Kelley formed a band called Inside Blue with his younger brother Charles Kelley, who is now a member of the emergent country trio Lady Antebellum. It was during his sophomore year at the University of Mississippi, though, when things truly started to pick up.

“I started playing all these solo acoustic shows, and I started making a ton of money and had a lot of people from neighboring states coming to see my shows,” Kelley said. “That is when I knew that I could support myself for the rest of my life with music if I did it properly.”

Cabrera’s path to stardom was not unlike Kelley’s. After paying his dues for years playing crappy shows, Cabrera all of sudden hit it big when his manager flew him out to L.A. after seeing him play solo acoustic at the Hard Rock. Yet, when asked what they missed most about living in the South, neither hesitated to respond.

“Nothing,” Kelley joked. “The food is so fattening. I love living in L.A.”

“I like the food and the women,” Cabrera said. “I like the Southern girls.”

“Yeah, the Southern girls are pretty hot, but I am married now. So I cannot comment on that,” Kelley said.

Kelley did comment, however, on how he first met his wife, actress Katherine Heigl of “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Knocked Up” fame.

“We first met during my music video for the song ‘Only You.’ She got cast to be the leading lady in the video,” Kelley said. “We just fell in love on the shoot, and there has not been a time when we were not a couple since that day.”

Even though both artists happily live in L.A., Kelley and Cabrera said they do enjoy spending time in certain cities while on the road, including Madison.

“I was in Madison last tour,” Cabrera said. “That city is so much fun, man. It is like the college town.”

“People definitely like to party out there, that is what I remember,” Kelley said.

When Kelley and Cabrera are not on tour, they spend a lot of their time both writing and recording songs. In 2008, Kelley released three studio albums, and he does not intend to slow down this year. In fact, he plans to release a Southern rock record that will include some songs he co-wrote with Charles into the country market in late June.

Cabrera, on the other hand, said after this tour he will go on his own tour, and then he plans to reunite with Kelley in the fall and begin work on a new album to be released early next year.

While both artists still have a long road ahead of them — Kelley is 29 and Cabrera is only 26 — there is one definitive memory that has defined each of their musical careers up to this point in their lives.

“The record I put out last year on my own label, Special Company, went platinum. That was a big accomplishment for me,” Kelley said. “I basically got down to my last dollar making that record and trying to make it as impactful as a major label record and it ended up exceeded my expectations.”

“For me, it was being on stage singing with Bill Withers, Lalah Hathaway, Smokey Robinson and John Fogerty,” Cabrera said. “We all sang ‘My Girl’ which was Smokey’s song, so singing that with him, it was like you got to be kidding me. I will never forget that.”

Yet, as far as tours memories go, Kelley and Cabrera said they have had more fun on this tour than on any other one they have been on in the past, making this show one not to be missed.

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Josh Kelley and Ryan Cabrera perform tonight at 8 p.m. at the Majestic Theatre. Visit www.majesticmadison.com to purchase tickets.

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