Bobby sits down with one of his favorite new artists, Morgan Wade. She made waves with her debut album “Reckless” and had a huge year in 2021. Morgan talks about how she didn’t start performing in front of people until she was 19, finding her first bandmates on Craigslist and performing her own songs right out of the gate. Morgan talks about the success of her first project and how it led to major label interest and how her song “Wilder Days” changed from when he first wrote it to when it was released.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, welcome to episode three thirty two with Morgan Wade
and Mike. You know, she mentioned in this interview later
on that one of her friends used to tag her
and stuff all the time. To me, I remember that,
and I remembered it then, but I thought about it
even more after it was all the time. Really yeah,
I remember that and I remembered it. What she said
(00:21):
it sounded familiar and I was like, yeah, I do,
but then I was thinking about it afterward. But you'll
hear us talk about that. I'm a big Morgan Wade fan,
but I had never met her until she came over
to do this interview, and meaning fan of her music,
I didn't really know. I mean as seking pictures about it,
I wouldn't have known her, Like I wouldn't have seen
her been like that's Morgan Wade. Um. That being said,
I really liked her. I thought it was a great interview,
(00:42):
didn't you It was awesome. Yeah, she's really cool and
like she and cool, not like hey, I'm so cool,
but just talked about stuff in a way of she
didn't worry about if what people thought about her. Very real, authentic. Um,
so we're gonna play this it's Morgan Wade. I'm a
big fan of her music as in right now, it's
basically what I listened to. If I'm listening to music
(01:04):
or a nineties playlist that it's either nineties alternative, nineties country,
nineties road trips songs. But it's a pretty good mixed
like Duncan Cheek and um you know nine Days Weadi
or Morgan Wade if it's on the new stuff. But
she's from a small town in Appalachia, uh Floyd, Virginia.
She was drawn music as a kid. You're here to
talk about writing songs in secret, never attempting a public
(01:26):
performance till way later on. She suffered a breakup during
her freshman year and that kind of got her going
into wanting to share her music through singing what do
you agree? Yeah? Right about her break Reckless. Her album
was named best Country album of the Year by Rolling Stone. Yeah.
She's currently out opening for Ryan Hurd on select dates
(01:46):
of his tour de Pelago early two She'll open. Oh,
she's doing the stadium shows in Blue Cone. Yeah. I
saw Luke in an empty stadium playing in wilder days.
It was cool. That's pretty cool. I'm a big fan
and I hope you are too, and I really enjoyed this.
Here is Morgan Wade here on the Boby Cast. Morgan,
(02:06):
how are you. I'm good? How are you? I'm doing
pretty good. It's nice to finally meet you as well.
I think we've missed each other a couple of times.
You were coming last time, and then I didn't have
a voice yesterday, so I appreciate you. I don't know
if you stayed the extra day or not, but I
appreciate that. I'm going to tell you that I did
even though I was already here. Are you gonna be here?
You don't live here, though I don't. Do you have
a plan to move here? I do? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
(02:28):
I need to move out here. It's just kind of
like figuring out where I want to live because I
thought it was so punk rock that you didn't live
out here and you just like screw it. Yeah, And
I've been like that for the last two years. But
now I'm like, uh, everything's like based out of here
in my bands here, so I'm like the outlier. So yeah,
it's tough. Like I have a couple of friends justin
Moore because I'm from Arkansas. We grew up near the
same town. He lives in Arkansas still, and as much
(02:51):
as that's home, it's still a pain in the butt
to have to come out and work. But he also
moved here, established himself, you know, and then moved out. Okay, yeah, no,
I get that. There's no direct flights from where I am,
so I have to fly like down to Atlanta and
then from Atlanta to here. So where where do you live? Uh?
Like near Bristol, Virginia, So like Tri Cities area? Did
(03:12):
you grow up watching? Uh? Because I don't know anything
about racing, I will just say I hated it. Every
Sunday after church, my grandfather would watch the race and
I just never understood why it was such a big deal.
And he would like fall asleep in his chair and
I'd like want to change the channel, and he wouldn't
let me. So that's like my memories of the NASCAR.
(03:33):
I went out there once. I was like nineteen. They said, hey,
move out here and come work at the radio station
out here. And I went out there and I remember
seeing a massive racetrack and that was about it, and
not for a really small town. But I was like, dang,
and the culture was was a lot of of NASCAR
and a lot of racing. But as as you know,
growing up in the South, I still never got into racing.
(03:54):
You know. I was a lot of football and baseball,
but never racing. Yeah, yeah, I'm not. I don't Yeah,
it's it's not my thing. I can't sit still that long.
When when did you start tinkering around with music? Like
at five six seven? Yeah, I was like the early
seng I remember, like seven years old writing songs, writing songs,
not just listening. No, I remember like writing songs in
(04:15):
like a very early age. So how did you even
know that you could write a song? Because when I
was seven, I didn't know you could write a song.
Did you have musical people around you? No? No, not
at all. Um. You know, my my grandfather was really
in a bluegrass music that's like a really big thing
where I'm from, from Floyd. Um. And so I would
go with him on Friday nights up to the Floyd
Country Store and we would sit and listen to music.
(04:38):
I fall asleep on his lap, like you know, that
was like every Friday for me. Um. But yeah, and
and then he was really into the fiddle, so he like,
like I want you should play the fiddle. And so
it took me the lessons and it was in it
was classical violin. And I hated it. When you said
they took me to lessons, yeah, I hated it so bad.
(04:59):
I did that for like two years. I didn't want
to do it. I wanted to play the guitar. And
the teacher told my mom, She's like no, if she
won't stick with this, she won't play guitar. So my
mom listened to her. I was like no, And then
of course my grandma went and bought me a guitar.
So how old were you when you got a guitar,
maybe like ten or eleven something like that, but you
had already started writing songs at least sortit. Yeah, I mean,
(05:20):
and and that was that was my big things. I
wanted a guitar because I wanted to put you know,
instrumentation to that. You know, what kind of music did
you like? I know you said you were influenced by
blue grass because your grandfather, But what kind of music
were you listening to or when did you first find
your type of music? So I was in like first
grade and I discovered Elvis and that was like all
(05:42):
I wanted to listen to. I was obsessed with Elvis.
I drove my mom insane. Where did they have Elvis?
Like records are house? We lived with my grandparents and
I came home one day and there was like a
VHS of Joel house Rock sitting on the table and
I asked my mom, was like, can I watched it?
She's like, it's in black and white. You're not gonna
I get. I watched it like five times that afternoon,
(06:02):
and then you know, she broke the news to me,
Elvis is not alive. Like you know that that whole
time you went through it all, you discovered him and
he died the same day. It was. It was a
very uh it was. It was a very tough day
for me. But I was just obsessed with him after that.
I mean, you know, it is Elvis. He was very
electrifying and but he was so different. You know, I've
never heard anything like that, and so I just really
connected with that. You know, it's interesting to the think
(06:24):
about Elvis and again me growing up in the South.
You're you considered Virginia at the south, right, do? Yeah?
I guess it depends on who you talked to in
what part of Virginia because if when if we're if
I'm touring and we're in northern Virginia, they don't consider
that the South. That's like d C R R UM so,
but Elvis being from the South, being from Mississippi then
(06:46):
Memphis was both country, pop, rock, gospel. He kind of
was the first major crossover artist that existed because what
he did was so different than everyone else. Yeah, and
you were drawn to that because of a singing, because
of the total the dancing, the singing, Like what about
Elvis kind of struck you. I mean obviously first like
(07:08):
the singing, but I mean he was just an electrifying dude,
you know what. Everything he did was different. And then
of course, um, you know I should have known early on,
I get very obsessed and addicted to certain things, and
so I was very obsessed with Elvis, and and so
I engrossed myself and like everything, you know, reading books, whatever,
and so just hearing like the documentaries and stuff about
(07:29):
you know, everything he went through him just being different,
but he just like stayed true to that, Like he
didn't care what about like your teenageers, like when did
you find current music that spoke to you? Yeah? I mean,
I think when I really started to find music that
that stuck with me was when Casey Musgraves first right
like Follow Your Arrow came out and I heard that
(07:50):
and I was like, wow, that's that's really different. I
haven't really heard anything like that. And of course, like
with Miranda, you know, I remember the Kerosene music video
coming out and I ripped holes and all of my
jeans and I got a lot of trouble for that.
I want my grandma threw my pants away. She's like,
what did you do this for? But I was just
like so obsessed with her, because you know, just these
these women that just like speak their mind. And so
(08:11):
that's when I really started towards to gravitate towards that
kind of music. In the house that you grew up in,
you know, were you raised to speak up and speak
your mind or were you raised to, you know, just
bide your time and find your place? Yeah, you know it.
It's I was such a quiet kid. It was like
I say that I was quiet, but it was also
(08:32):
not quiet. It just depended on the moment um. I
don't really feel like I grew up in a house
where we you know, really spoke our minds very often.
My parents divorced when I was like five, UM, and
so I spent a lot of time at my grandparents house,
which you know, I felt like the the safest place
for me back then. But my grandma really let me
(08:53):
just be whoever I wanted to be, you know, saying
my grandmother adopted me for a while. But your grandmother
being such a strong influence on you, what what was
she like as a woman. Yeah, she you know, she
gave me some really good advice one time, and it
was just I was just so upset, you know, about
different things. And I remember she was just like, don't
(09:13):
try to be like anybody else. Don't put you know,
all your happiness in one person. I'll never forget that.
It was in her front yard is probably you know,
eleven or twelve, and she's like just stopped putting everything
into into other people, like, you know, you gotta have
that inside of yourself. And and so she she was
always very just supportive of me being me. Um, I
(09:35):
have like a really fond memory. Um. We couldn't figure
out she she got really sick, and uh, I remember
she she had double vision and we couldn't figure it out.
And I had guitar lessons, and she put a patch
over so she could drive me to guitar lessons that day.
You know. It was just stuff like that that was
like really important. Herrificed a lot, she did. Yeah. Was
(09:57):
she like a mom to you? Oh yeah, for sure. Yeah.
My my grandma was like my best friend there for
you know, like a really long time. And so was
she in on your decision to pursue music, um, because
it sounds like she was influencing it a bit. She was,
she was influencing it. She she passed away, not naturally,
not long after that. I think I was third team
when she she finally passed away. We found out she
(10:19):
actually had pancreatic cancer the whole time that you know,
she's been going through all that. But I I just uh,
we would always ride around and listen to music. It
was funny because she grew up in a different generation,
so it was it was funny sometimes the songs that
would be on the radio. She'd like, I really, I
really don't like that song. Not a fan of that song. Um,
But she would, you know, let me listen to to whatever.
(10:42):
And we would ride around in the car. And and
then but even my other, my other grandmother was was
big into music, um as far as like listening to
old records and and CDs and stuff like that was
her and she comes out to all my shows now
and so she's been very supportive. So it's been very fortunate.
But it was something that I kind of kept to myself.
Like I played instruments and stuff, but I didn't sing
(11:03):
for anybody. Where would you play though, like at the house. Yeah,
it was just it. I remember just being like such
a secret. And I'm still not entirely sure why it
was such a secret. But I would write and like
seeing and stuff until i'd see, you know, one of
my parents come home, and I put it away so
like I didn't want anybody to hear me. Umhewn. I
was told one there was a there was a singing
(11:25):
group at school and I was the only kid that
didn't make it. And I was told my voice was weird,
and that just stuck with me. It's like, all right,
no more, no more, I'm not doing that. And and
I was I was sensitive, very sensitive. I mean, you know,
you're young like that and you get told that, and
so I was like, all right, you know, it's just
for me. Which I think benefited me the most because
(11:46):
I enjoy doing it, so I kept doing it. But
you know, you can be really honest with yourself if
you're not, you know, out there trying to impress anybody.
It was just something I did to like cope and
um so that's how I right now, you know, the
only way I know are right. It's funny you talk
about someone telling you your voice was weird at least
what you said. Was it a teacher that told you
your voice was weird? No, it was a student it was.
(12:09):
It was like, it's funny because a lot of them
were so proud of me. Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, we
we want to we want to come out to your
shows and stuff like that. Yeah. They hit you up
on social media like missy, you haven't senior forever. How's
it been heard you on the radio? Yeah? But you know,
like I said, like, I don't think i'd be I
(12:29):
wasn't rite like I do if I didn't have that
stuff going on like early in my life. I think
that that kind of pushed me. Well, if you're hiding
the fact that you're singing what you were doing early on,
when did you and why did you decide to do
it publicly. Yeah. So, uh, I was dating a guy
and my freshman year of college and we broke up,
(12:52):
and you know, he played music in a band, and
I was like, you know, it would really tick me
off if I broke up with somebody and they wrote
a song about it. And so I, uh, I got
on craigslist because that's what you do. Where I grew up,
it was like, you want something, you get on Craigslist.
And here's what's funny is like I remember being like
(13:13):
thirteen years old and I had like selling stuff on Craigslist.
And I look back, and that was really not safe.
But I remember like selling a foot on on Craigslist.
But how would you sell that? Would you have people
come to your house like a dog? Yes, look, I'm
just out there putting my address out there. Like I
look back and I'm like, okay, So yeah, my immediate
(13:33):
my immediate responses. All right, I'm gonna get on Craigslist.
And I found a group of guys that that needed
a singer, and so I got two of my friends
that were like five ft two and we um, you know,
the little trio went down there to this random house
and down into the basement with a bunch of men. Yeah,
(13:53):
so you were how old old? M M. They were
all in there, like thirties forties and you walk in
and you are at nineteen year old woman. And were
they looking for that or were they looking for another
big dude? No? I think they were just kind of like, okay,
I don't think they really expected but it hey, you
(14:15):
know they were like they're super nice fortunately, like really
good group of guys. Um and but yeah, not my
brightest moment. What was that band or were they a band?
They have a name that No, we didn't have We
didn't have a name. But it was just like we
just started, um kind of playing. I think only played
like one or two shows with with with that group,
(14:38):
and then it kind of uh merged into something else.
And I kept the bass player. He stuck with me
for years. Um. I still talked to talk to him now.
And again, what did you guys play? Were you doing covers? No? No,
it was all my songs. So you took your music
in and they learned it. Yeah yeah, yeah, So I've
(14:58):
never been like big on playing covers. Um, It's just
it's always I've always I've written so many songs. I'm
like Why would I play everybody else's songs when I'm
uh yeah, I get it. But to go from not
singing at all to walking room going I'm now going
to sing and all you older men are gonna sing
all my songs. I was on a mission. I was
on a mission to to you know, uh yeah, to
(15:20):
get that song out there. When you decide that you
want to sing, what was your career plan at that point,
because you're in school. Yeah, so, uh, I wanted to
be I wanted to go into cardios thorastics. That was
what I was doing. Help O Heart Heart, Yeah, Heart
doctor and um so that was on like the pre
med track. And then it was just like I kind
(15:43):
of was like, oh, this music thing, I'm gonna not
like keep this a secret anymore. And so casually one
day I just told my mom was like, hey, I'm
going to play a show. What are you what are
you talking about? You're gonna get play a show. And
then it was just kind of like, yeah, I play music,
and she's just like what you know. It kind of
came out of nowhere, but then um, you know, they
(16:06):
started coming out. My parents kind of really okay, but
it to me, it wasn't like, all right, I'm gonna
just go quit school. You know. I continued with school,
but music kind of started to to overtake that. I
ended up. I still graduated, um with the bachelor's. Um.
Obviously I'm not a doctor right now. So UM shocking,
I know. But um yeah, it just like it all
(16:29):
worked out how it was supposed to. Obviously, you stayed
in school. Was it because you knew how how tough
it is to work in a create a field You
needed a backup plan? Or did you ever make a
promise to yourself or why? You know? I think about
that often. I'm not entirely sure why I stayed, But
you know, I felt like, okay, I just all of
(16:53):
a sudden started doing this. I just all of a
sudden started publicly playing music. So I continued to actually
worked a job at the gym. Um all throughout college,
I had to be up at three thirty am every
morning at the gym, opened the gym. Every every morning,
I go down there and open the gym. And I
did that for for um. Why did that? Even after
(17:16):
after I graduated? So I did it for like five years.
You woke up at three thirty every yeah. I mean
I say that as someone who also wakes up at
that time. But I hate it. I've been doing it
since I was twenty two. Now it sucks every day
for me. Yeah, I don't know if it sucked every
day for you? It did it? Did? I? I hate it?
And of course at the time, you know, um, I
started drinking. When I started playing music, I started drinking,
(17:39):
and so I I don't know how many times I
went in there with you know, in an hour of sleep.
You know, I lived, um part of the time, I
lived really close to the gym, and so I just
kind of like stumble in there. But uh, no idea
how I pulled that off for so long. I don't
miss getting up that early. I get up early. I'm
like a five am or yeah, I got I always
(18:00):
go to bed early, you know, get up early. I
don't know. I'm just I'm basically ninety seven years old.
I mean, I'm a forced would I would stay up
until four am and then and wake up at noon,
but I can't do that because of my job. Um,
so talk to me for a second. Because you're nineteen,
you start playing these shows, and you had kind of
(18:21):
suppressed that muscle that's singing that you know, public performance
muscle for a long time, but you're doing it. Was
it like an aha, like hoh man, I love this
or was it a gradual thing? No? I immediately I
that was one thing it was like in college, like
public speaking or anything like that. Hated it, was terrified,
(18:41):
But it was like immediately as soon as I got
on the stage, it was fine, you know, as far
as singing goes, because I just felt like it was
something that I was always supposed to do. Um And
I feel like I kind of just like jumped on
in because I would you know, at the beginning. I
mean I look back at some of these shows I
played and you can't even call it a show. I
don't even know what it was. But I took every
(19:01):
opportunity that I could take. You know, I wanted it
to work, and I enjoyed it. Any thought of quitting
school and pursuing that full time were you did you
know you were going to finish? No? I thought about it.
There were there were a few times that I was like,
you know, I don't want to do this. I don't
want to be here. Um. But you know, obviously to
(19:22):
like your parents, like I look back, and you know,
if I had a kid, I probably would have said
the same thing, like this came out of nowhere, like
why do you want to just quit school? Um? But
you know, even my friends and stuff like why why
would you quit? Like you need? You need to go
to college. Which now I have such a different perspective
on that than what I did, because I'm like when
(19:44):
I have kids, like, Okay, you don't want to go
to college, don't go to college. Don't waste your money
on something. I don't even know where my degree is at.
That's something you might not have the paper, but it's
always I'm really glad you know that I did go.
I look back now, I think that I'm much more mature.
I do a lot better in school. If I went
to school now, I wasn't prepared then. You know, you're
nineteen and you just, you know, go try to be
(20:05):
an adult. You're not. I'm still not an adult. But
where were you playing? You know, you're talking about the
first band, but were you playing with different groups? What
kind of bars or clubs were you playing? Yeah, we're
playing bars. I mean I was like breweries and bars
and restaurants and stuff and um, anything like literally anything
that I could get, you know, to play, I would
(20:28):
do it. And you know it's uh oh god, I
mean I just look back, I just think it. You know,
you were background music a lot of times, but it
was just I was so happy to be there. And
I'd like to remind myself that. Can you think of
shows where maybe there were more people on stage than
there were in the audience. Oh yeah, yeah. I remember
this one specific show and they they had us come play,
(20:54):
and you know, when you start booking that stuff, like
I look about you know, now I play a nice
solid you know, we're whatever hour and a half at Max,
And I remember booking this one shows like three and
a half hours, not a soul there. They made us
play that whole time. And of course the guys they
were all like older guys, so they were like used
(21:16):
to planing to like nobody, so to them, they're like, well,
three and a half hour practice here, you know, we're
just gonna drink our beer and just you know, play along.
And at those were the nights that you leave there
thinking why the hell am I doing this? You know,
like this this is stupid. And I think that's part
of the reason why I was like, all right, I'm
gonna stay in college because I don't know that this
(21:37):
is gonna work out. It almost feels like a movie
when no one's in the theater. But they runed it
anyway in case someone happens to come in, like they
wanted you to keep playing in case someone does happen
to stumble in. I'm like, man, there was no one
in there, nobody. I will never forget that night because
I remember at one point we just I just stopped
singing and I was just that they're playing my guitar,
(21:59):
and when kind of stood there, it's like the same song.
We just kept running it and running and nobody knows
the difference that there's nobody there. There was no one
there except the bartender, and she was you know what
was she She wasn't doing anything. Yeah, exactly, absolutely. Okay,
So at this point, you're still living in Virginia, You're
(22:22):
still have you ever moved out of Virginia or have
you lived there the whole time? No, I've lived there
the whole time. Like I moved you know, I grew
up in Floyd and then I moved to Roanoke, which
is where I went to college, and then you know,
I moved out towards the Tri Cities area. Um, I've
lived there for a couple of years. In your hometown,
are people now that already know you, are they starting
(22:43):
to look at you a little different because you know,
you are popping up on the radio, you are popping up.
Are they like maybe people being nicer to you, or
people you don't know it coming up and be like,
hey can get a picture? Is that happening? Yeah? I
went home and I told my grandma. I was like,
when I come to see you, we just like I
just want to come to your house and like hang
out because it's a small town. And last time I
(23:04):
was there, I went out to eat and yeah, they
if I'm stuff in my face with food, like the
last thing I want to do is you know so.
And I appreciate it because it is really great, but
it was a little it was a little bizarre. It's
a little weird, you know, to go back there and
and and have that. But you know, I think my
dad gets it a lot too, you know, meet meeting
(23:24):
people you know that that know who I am, and
to him, it's funny. You're also kind of hard to
miss because just because the tattoos, Like even if you're
fully covered, your hands are still I would have to
wear like medical gloves, like you have to show up
in mitten's and like a big furry hat, and then
I'm gonna stick out. Yeah. Yeah, it's just it's just
not it is cool. I mean it's interesting. I mean,
(23:46):
I've been in the airport all over and and I've
started to have a lot of people recognize me there.
So I want to talk about your voice as a songwriter,
because I think you said it. You started writing songs,
and you started writing them from a different perspective, your
perspective started writing. I'm so young too, I mean, when
did you first start to feel that voice, not singing voice,
(24:08):
but that voice have an opinion or a perspective. Man.
I mean I remember I was like, you know, I
had to be like nine or ten, and my dad
was going through a separation and I was writing about
that just from his perspective, in which I look and
(24:28):
I look balent, man, you were a sad, sad kid.
I look back, and it was very like, you know,
I've always written just from whatever's going around, you know,
whatever whatever I'm around, you know, whatever I'm experiencing like
that's just that it was just my outlet. Did you
keep any of that stuff do you have from you know,
from a kid? So that was another thing. I didn't
(24:48):
write stuff down because I didn't want anybody to read it.
So if I would write stuff down sometimes, but I
would hide it. And my grandmother claims she finds stuff
in like cookbooks and stuff stash around or house. I
don't believe it. I think she's making it up so
she can sell something one day on eBay. I think
she's planning that story now so she'll have something. But
I just didn't write stuff down because I didn't want
(25:09):
anybody to to find it. So I will memorize stuff.
And until I came out here to Nashville and we
were in the studio, you know, satnur Baid and my producer,
he was just like, you need to write this stuff that,
like type it out because we have to be able
to like see it. But I would just memorize that.
If it was something that was gonna stick, you'll just
stick in my head. So you go to these guys,
(25:30):
that's all these songs you've written. Now we're gonna go
back to the basement or wherever you went to these
this room with these forty year old guys. What were
those songs about as a as a nineteen year old,
Like when you look back at you know, if you
were to paint brush to that with a broad stroke,
what was that collection of music about? Yeah, I think,
and most of it was just, especially the early days,
(25:50):
was definitely heartbreak, which I don't think I've steered too
far from that, but you know, heartbreak and and and
starting to drink and like experience experience different stuff, but
mainly heartbreak. And then that's that's all I've seemed to
really know how to write about. Did you ever because
sometimes I'll do this with comedy where I feel like
(26:12):
I'm so I'm extremely vulnerable and I'm exposing myself and
I'm right up on the edge. Are going, Man, this
is too much like I'm on the edge. I never
actually feel like I get towards too much, oddly, but
I feel like I'm on the edge a lot. Do
you ever feel like you're that way with lyrics or
when you're writing a song, Yeah, for sure, Because people
ask all the time, they're like, you know, do you
ever start to say something You're like, I shouldn't. And
(26:32):
I'm like, yeah, I think I think so. But then
it's like, after it's out there, you look back and
you're like, it wasn't really anything to me. I think that,
And I think that's good too, because you never, like
you said, you never reached that spot. But I think
it's good to push the envelope. When did someone come
to you, someone that had any sort of prominence in
I won't say Nashville, but any music, who came to
you and said, Wow, you're different, not that you sound
(26:55):
different and you look different, but you're different, that you're
actually pretty good and you have a perspective a voice.
It kind of gave you confidence that you can make this. Yeah,
you know I would. I would have to say. Like, So,
I played a festival and when I got done with
my set, um Jason Isabel in the four unit we're
playing later that night, and Jason's sound engineer came up
(27:17):
and he was like, hey, I had no idea who
he was. He introduced himself and he's like, I think
the guys would really like to hear your music. And
he's like it's really good, you know, like I really
enjoyed your set, and I didn't expect to hear anything.
You know. I was like, okay, yeah, I appreciate that.
And then like a day later, Um, Saddler hit me
up on Instagram. He's like, hey, love your voice, Like
(27:38):
I've looked up your music. You know what do you
have going on? Like we should chat, Like I would
love to write with you and just talk. And so
like two days later we hopped on a on a
FaceTime and uh, he was like, you know, play me
some of your stuff, you know. He his he was like,
you know, I want to get into producing. Do you
do you have a producer? He's like, I would love
(27:58):
to like aberate with you. And so I pitched him
the idea of Wilder Days. I sat down. That's the
first song I ever played him, and it just went
from there. It was so like organic. Um, you know,
he didn't want any anything from me, and so I
came out to Nashville and we just clicked. And his
thing was just I don't want any money. I know
(28:21):
you don't have any money. Like, let's just work together.
We'll work here at my house, let's write some songs.
And we started recording demos and you know, before I
met him, I didn't have a booking agent or manager
or or anything. And so that all just started to
fall into place because the demos kind of started circulating around.
When you say you came to Nashville, what does that mean?
(28:43):
Obviously you get in a car or I got in
a car and I drove here here? Do you like,
get a hotel room? Do you find that? Like? What
how long do you stay? Yeah? I came out there.
I think the first time I met with Sadly, I
came out here and I was out here for a
couple of days something like that. You just got a
hotel and cram rights in, Like you you're here, morning starts,
you're writing until you go to bed. Yeah, yeah, I
(29:05):
like And I've enjoyed that because it's like, I mean,
I've been doing stuff all day. It's like, okay, she's
out here right now. We have to get all this
stuff done so versus you know, me living out here
and they've been like, hey, we need you to come
here Tuesday at tune, Thursday at four, you know, stuff
like that. They have to get it done in the
x amount of time and then leave me alone. You know,
(29:26):
there's so many stories about new artists they're coming to
town or being in town and having someone take advantage
of them money. Um, hey, I'm promising you this and
they don't get it. But you come and you spend
the first couple of days here. Did you feel like
it was legit? Like wow, like this may not turn
into anything massive, but what was coming from him was sincere?
(29:48):
Oh yeah, I mean Saddlers like the nicest person ever
and and and he just um I could tell he
just he just believed in it. He was just like
really excited. And I didn't feel any pressure to do
anything other than just you know, throw ideas around with
him and make some music that he believed in. You
(30:10):
go back home, and how long until you start to
get these things back emailed you or texted to you like, hey,
check it out, listen to this Saddler. That's the thing
about him. He will work on something all night until
it's it's done, and and typically I'll have a rough
of something within a few hours. Did you hear a
slightly different version of you? Because now you had somebody
(30:32):
pretty good working on your stuff? Like, did you hear
you in a way you hadn't heard yet? Yeah? Oh
for sure, because it was you know, even though it
was just you know, a rough demo at his house,
it was still more professional than anything I'd ever had done,
you know, and I didn't know how to do that,
didn't grow up around those resources or anything. So hearing
(30:52):
something you've worked on, like actually recorded, actually sent to
you like that, and it yeah, it was. It was
incredible when to those dreams start to happen. Well, I
could actually be in music star. So at the time,
I was actually working a job in tax reassessment. But
what kind of taxes? So basically I worked for this
(31:16):
company and they would bid on towns that like and
and you would go around and assess the properties. If
they you know, built anything, you had to make note
of that basically to be taxed on it, you know,
for real estate purposes. No one likes that, and no
one likes the little tattooed girl showing up on their
(31:38):
porch either. I had the cops called multiple times, it was.
But I only had to work Monday through like Thursday,
and it was full time and so I had like
Thursday night, Friday, Saturday, Sunday I could go play shows
and I could take a hit, you know, not making
any money and try to like get my foot in
the door in all these different places, but yet not
(32:00):
be broke. Um. But Saddler finally set me down and
he's like, listen, you know you gotta go all in.
You gotta choose one or the other because you're kind
of starting to get at this this point where you
got to dedicate more to the music if that's what
you really want to do. And he was right, and
so I think. Um, driving back home, I called my
(32:20):
boss and was like, hey, I'm gonna give you my
my I'll finish out this job and then then that's
I'm done. They weren't upset because I was horrible at
that job. It was. It was. It was pretty bad. Also,
of all the jobs that maybe you look like you
would do, tax assessor, I think would be I don't know,
five on the list. Yeah, yeah, it was. I liked
(32:41):
it because like it's just the tattoos is all it is.
Yeah now, And it was. It was. But it was
funny because you see a lot of stuff, you know,
a lot of interesting people just and people would assume too.
I don't know how many times that had people be
like thinking I was like selling like cookies or something.
I was like, I am not a girl scout. Not
(33:03):
a girl scout. When did and what was the label
process for you? Like did multiple label say hey or
did one just dial in and go, we want you
to be on our label. Let's go yeah, uh like
(33:23):
Southern and I set out to just make an EP
and so we recorded like five songs and then that's
when a couple of different labels started kind of you know,
sniffing around, and we took some meetings. The first meeting
I took was with thirty Tigers and David mcs was
was great and he was like, I love it, you know,
(33:44):
but you should go around take the other meetings see
if you like them better. You know. He was like,
but regardless, you you'll have a home here if you
want it, Like, we believe in what you're doing. But
he was like, you need to make an LP, not
an EP, like you've got the songs. Like. So I
met with a couple full other places and they just
wanted to change everything. They didn't want They were like, oh,
(34:04):
we love what you're doing, but we want change all
of it. And I'm like, well this works. Uh. They
just wanted to like re record everything. I don't know
how many places. They were like, we should just do
an acoustic album, and I was like, that's really boring.
That's gonna get really boring really quickly. And so I
went with thirty Tigers and then you know, Reckless came
(34:26):
out last March. It wasn't even a month later. Every
label in Nashville was emailing my manager like, hey, we
want to talk. A lot of which wanted to talk beforehand,
and it was like, really, okay, you you wanted to
change everything and now you're like, I love it. But
Sony Sony Music stuck out the most. Um. You know,
(34:49):
I took a meeting with them, and I really made
them work for it. Poor Randy Goodman over there at Sonny.
I really made that poor guy like he was like,
I didn't know for at the first four meetings if
you liked me. He was like, we met and you
kept your sunglasses on the whole time. I was like,
it was bright outside, dude, That's that's what he claims.
I did it to like freak him out. But um,
(35:11):
the thing that stuck out with them is I finally
I was just like, what do you want to change? Ham,
what do you what do you want to do? I
was like, if I stay at thirty Tigers, I was like,
what can you give me? They can't. I was like,
because I own all my stuff, I'm making really good,
I'm I'm doing good. I'm doing the best I've ever done.
I was like, what can you guys do? Like why
would I come to you? And you know, essentially, Randy's like,
(35:33):
we don't. We don't want to change anything. We love
this record, like we just want to rerelease it. We
won't change a single thing. And He's like, we'll just
give you that platform and that push that a major
label can give you and more opportunities and and um
it just it ended up being the right move and
and I've I've been really happy. But they didn't. They
didn't want to change the darn thing. Yeah, I love
(35:55):
the music. I mean, and I'm so jaded, I'm just
around everything all the time. But you know, the record
is so good. And I like to think that I
like albums, but I'm becoming more a d D the
longer I have the option to become a d D. Honestly,
it's I'm like, I'm a big album guy. But then
it's like, if I don't love love the artist, I'll
(36:17):
just check out a few songs, skip over a couple
and so I find myself being a huge hypocrite and going, uh,
that being said, like your entire project is a plus,
and I haven't said that about anything and probably maybe
old dominion, but other than that, and like a couple
of Casey records ago like it's as good as anything
(36:37):
I've heard in years than you like, just just love it,
and um, I mean from from the Beginning and Wilder
Days is the first song on the record, right, it's
the first it's track one, and it's the first one
you wrote. Why why I put that one up front?
Was it because you wrote it first? I think we
just really I think it's important especially to like anybody
goes a record comes out and you click on that
(36:59):
first song right there, you want to hook on, man, Like,
don't just put some kind of weird something on there,
Like I wanted to put the best foot forward, and
and uh, Sadler Saler did too, and I think it
made sense. It was it was the song that we
based the whole album around. It was the first one,
and and to me, I think that's really important you
get that real core piece of that record and then
(37:20):
you you're like, Okay, this is the direction I want
to take it, and so it made it made sense
to put it first. Let me play a clip of
Wilder Days. Here you go, Hey Smith, So let's talk
about this song specifically. Where did you write it, who
did you write it with? So I actually wrote kind
(37:44):
of a version of Wilder Days myself and I and
that's what I had pitched the Saddler and he was like,
all right, this is this is great. Obviously needed to
change some things up, and um so we we kind
of sat down and and and like said, I had
to draft it out, but we made a lot of
changes and and I'm so glad we did. I found
(38:05):
the old version of it that I had written one
day and I listened to it. I was like, dear God,
I would never want anybody to hear this version of it.
But we we sat down and really he helped me too,
as a writer. You know, I've never co written with anybody,
and so he really helped kind of push me to
to dig a little deeper and and and be more
honest and authentic with it. And um, so we God,
(38:29):
we worked on that song. I'll never forget. There's just
like parts of it, like the Wilder Days, just singing
Wilder Days. I stood in front of that microphone for
a solid forty five minutes, singing that one line over
and over and over, and I was like, I never
want to hear the song again, which Wilder Days like that,
(38:52):
that part of it he made me. And he was
in his kitchen fretting chicken for tacos and he would
be like, yeah, you can keep going. I think you
and I I could see that part of my sleep now.
I hated it, but he I remember we finally finished
that song up. It was like eleven PM, and I
was like, all right, I'm gonna go back. He's like,
no, no no, no, We're gonna go to Jenny's ice Cream
(39:12):
and we're gonna listen to this. And we go and
we're getting his Honda element and he is blasting Wilder
Days as long as he are, as loud as he
possibly can on our way to get Jenny's ice cream
at like eleven PM. But he was so excited. And
that's how I knows, like, man, this man believes in
me more than you know anybody else. Your version wasn't
melodically the same, or did you did you change lyrics. Yeah,
(39:34):
we change lyrics, and it made more sense and flows better.
You know, I there for a long time, didn't like
I didn't have the bridge or any of that in there.
But then, of course Sadler is a guitar god, so
you know, he really came in with the riffs and
kind of helping me mix things up to where it
wasn't just so repetitive. The whole song is all of
(39:55):
the the information in the song. True, it's Chicago. Is
that a real reference? Yeah? You just rhyme words? No,
there they were, They were all real references. Yeah. And
does the person that the song is about This is
the question you'll get asked in thousand times. Do they
know it's about them? Yeah? For sure? And have they
reached out? No? No, no, And if if if that
(40:17):
person hears this, um um, you know it's all good.
It's all good now, you know, young and dumb and
times were different than then. But was this the person
at nineteen the same person? No? Different person? Matches of metaphors.
Track number two And I'm not going in order for
any reason other than like when I listened to these songs.
When I was listening, because I've listened to the record
(40:38):
a hundred times at this point. Um, I think it's
the only album I have saved right now my entire Spotify,
to be honest with you. And so this is maybe
my second favorite song by kid right now. That was
(41:02):
the song that you a new new song you wrote
for this or did you have a version of it
already as well? Now this one, this one UM just
wrote straight through. Um, I had, uh, basically the verses
in the chorus down and and then Southern kind of
helped me add the bridge in there. That was one
thing before I met Southern, I wasn't putting any bridges
(41:23):
or anything in my songs, so they were pretty pretty
straightforward and repetitive. And uh, he kinda he kind of
helped me there get into ah adding some more dynamic
to these songs. But we we wrote that. I had
that one. Actually stayed up all night one night. I
drink way too much coffee that day and when when
I set up and it was pouring rain at my house,
(41:46):
and uh, I didn't have internet or anything where I
was staying at the time, it wasn't working, And I
just set up and I wrote that song. Do you
write lyrics first? Do you write a melody first or
do you have do you have an idea? Like what
is it for you? Weirdly and off, I hear the
words in my head. I hear them in a melody,
So like when I when I write a phrase out,
(42:09):
that's how I hear it in my head. And so
I try to just figure out that. On guitar, Okay,
you did your hands like you're playing keys. I don't
know why I don't. That's a weird guitar. That's a
very weird guitar. Yeah, I don't know why I did that,
but yeah, I meant like that. I promised you know
how to play guitar. Confusing a bit, at least at
first when I heard had heard of you, um the
(42:31):
Morgan w Morgan wall and Morgan Wade. Yeah, I think
I was typing in your name and Morgan. I don't know.
It was just do people often not confuse you too?
But do they ever call you Morgan Wallen on accident
because it's just in their head like I've been tagged
and stuff and and and then they're like oops, yeah
(42:52):
you know, yeah that kind of thing. It's both Oh yeah,
a second letter was he already on the scene when
you were here and starting yeah oh yeah yeah yeah
yeah yeah. No no talk of changing Morgan Wade like
Morgan bad or something. No, no, no one, No one
came up with that. No. No. There's also a bye
(43:17):
pro bi m x R. Yes, And it is funny
because his friends and fans and stuff will tag him
and stuff and they'll be like, dude, what the hell
you know we we thought you were right, you know,
making jokes. And I've actually messaged him about it before.
So I was watching on maybe it was last night
or the night before. You were doing a live TikTok
(43:38):
last night, that was last night, and you're playing Are
you reading the comments as you're on there? Or are
you just I can't because I read a couple of
comments and they maybe want to laugh, and so it
kind of like messes me up, and I'm like, but
it's I've never I've never done the TikTok. I've never
really been on TikTok. And so my team was like,
(43:59):
we need you need to like do a TikTok live,
you know, and so they kind of helped me set
that up, and you know, try not to read the
comments too much. I don't read the comments to anything.
I think people like you, though. That's a difference in
you and me. People have a lot of opinions about me,
and they go all different directions, not all good. I
think people like you. I think you're gonna be pretty positive. Um.
I do want to play reckless here is I'm a
(44:20):
reckless dech lovely. So you wrote every song on this,
(44:47):
which I would have expected, especially since you said you
just write songs all the time. What's the oldest song
on this new project? Um, the oldest song would be
meant and Um. That's the first song that Saddler had
like looked up of mine and heard and he was like,
(45:07):
you really need to put mint on there. It was
it was one of his favorite songs, and it almost
didn't make it because I was just so tired of it. Um.
I was like, I don't want to, you know, you
always want to put your news songs out right exactly,
and and he just really loved that song so much.
And I'm glad we put it on there. Um, But
that that's the oldest song. Have you done any sort
(45:29):
of radio tour yet where you go to radio stations?
Have you done that at all? Um? Yeah? Yeah, yeah.
I mean it's been kind of kind of weird with COVID,
you know, so there's a lot of different protocols and
a lot of people are you know, still work it
from home and stuff like that. But does everyone go
straight to the tattoos first? Um? Most of the time. Yeah,
they're like a lot of the ti who kissing Kate
(45:51):
kates all the yep. And so what is your stock
answer when someone goes what's up with the tattoos? Yeah?
A lot of times I'm just like, oh, I forgot
I had tattoos, you know, I just say something like
and then they're just like, okay, this girl, when did
because you mentioned earlier? And I've held onto it because
I'm the same way. I get addicted to things quickly
(46:11):
and hard. When did the tattoo things start? And was
it all at once or did you just kind of
just mess around with a little bit? No? No. Um.
Also my freshman year of college, UM, I remember I
was sitting in my like apartment and one of my
friends was there and she was just like, I think
you would like tattoos. I don't know why she said that,
(46:34):
and I was like, I should do that. I think
I had ninety dollars in my bank account, and I
went and I got a tattoo, and then I was
just like, Okay, I really like this, and I think
a few weeks later I went and got like three
more at one time. A few weeks later I got
paid between with the goal of covering. Is the goal
(46:57):
now to cover your whole body? No, I don't really
know what my goal is anymore than I'm gonna be
honest with you. The you know, getting tattoos at nineteen
and then getting tattoos now at the pain is a
lot different. I swear it hurts more now. And maybe
it's just because I've ran out of all the easy spots.
(47:17):
Um And I used to say, oh, I'm just gonna
get like one. I have one on the inside of
my arm. Was like that's it. And you know, it
was like, I won't go past here, and I promised
my mom wouldn't go past here. And then here we
are and I have my throat tattooed, and literally there,
I'll tell you, I'm gonna be honest with you. It
really was not. It wasn't It wasn't bad. My chest
is not filled in because that hurts so bad. I
(47:39):
felt that in my throat. I didn't feel my throat
at all. Your chest you felt, yeah, in my throat,
but the throat throat, I didn't feel it. The throat
really wasn't that bad. I mean, I would like to relate.
I've got like four or five but the only thing
that hurt me was up near this crease of the arm.
(48:00):
But that's like I'm like a second grader being like,
lookam boo boo, and you're like a college graduate like
that's nothing, kid, no, no it. I complain like the
whole time. But yeah, my mom used to be kind
of like, please don't. But I mean the other day
she's like, when did you get that clover on your hand?
I was like, oh co She's like that's really cute.
I'm just like, what is happening. It does in a way,
(48:22):
not that you need it, but especially whenever you're being introduced,
it does legitimize you as like I'm an artist, Like,
regardless of of how you feel about me or if
you like my music, like, I'm an artist. I'm not
a prepared little pr singer. Like you are a legitimate
(48:45):
artist before you even hear you sing, because visually you
go well, this girl isn't have round yeah, and you
know that right, like you know it. You know that,
like people believe you because it's almost like you have
the story written on you up. Like people know I'm
a nerd because my glasses. I wear glasses because I
need them, but they're part of the story, right, I
(49:05):
have big, dark, grim glasses, and they're like that guy
is a nerd, and he's probably pretty smart, and he
probably got pounded as a kid, and that's why it's
kind of funny, like you can tell just boop glasses here.
I am the same thing with you, Like I look
at you. I haven't met you before now. I've been
a big fan, but I haven't met you until now.
And I go one. She's hardcore about it whatever she's
involved in, because she's committed these tattoos, so she she
(49:27):
feels and then two like I wouldn't I wouldn't mess
with you, like I feel like you would shank me.
That's what I feel like it what happened to Like
that's I wouldn't cross you because you can take the
punishment of a needle in a tattoo over and nowhere.
I mean, am I wrong? I pass out when I
get my blood drawn. Okay, I don't need to you
don't need to kill would I have to feel? Well,
(49:47):
I'm just I'm just being honest here. We've we've talked
about honesty. I'm honest. Um yeah, yeah, I mean, I'm
glad you see it that way. A lot of people
are just like she's just got so many different ones.
She can't make her mind up. Okay, you know I
never thought about it like that. You thought about it
in a positive way. I thought about it in a
way of you have committed to who you are. Yeah,
(50:08):
I like that way better. But is it that now
she's running a second one? Is it because you're good?
Like I really? I really did. And I had this
conversation with somebody, UM, just about how you know, I
am tired of just like listening to what everybody else
wants me to do. And I'm like, you know it,
(50:29):
it doesn't it doesn't matter because at the end of
the day, those people they just have they have to
live with their choices. I have to live with mine.
And I'm not gonna go not do something because I'm
afraid of what. You know. I remember when I got
my hands tattooed, I had somebody look at me and
they're like, well, I hope the music thing pans out
because you're not gonna be able to do anything else.
And I'm like, okay, I don't I'm not gonna worry
(50:50):
about that. But well, I'm not gonna get my hands
tattooed because I might not be able to do this
music thing and the hands are hardcore there. I'm glad
I got that. I'm glad I got those done a
long time ago because they hurt. What do we see?
Hold them up? Rock rock roll? Rock and roll? What's
on the underside of that? They're like old sailor tattoos.
I ever had a you know, we ever wanted to
(51:13):
sail I ever thought about getting on the old ship.
You could do that if musically didn't work out with you.
That's true, I could be a sailor. What else? What else?
Are you passionate about? Shoes? Sneakers? I do like sneakers.
I saw you got some new ones. Yeah, I mean again,
(51:35):
I'll give you a quick I have I come from addicts.
I'm an addict. Just I've never had a drink because
I know I'll drink everything, and I'll never do drugs
because I know I'll do. I'll win at drugs. There's
not even a game, but I'll win. But what happens
is I put that in other places because I know me.
I was always jealous of kids who had nice shoes.
(51:55):
And in the first like check I ever got where,
I was like, wow, I'm not living paycheck to check.
I bought a pair Jordan's like they mean so much
to me because I never had. That's that's how I
feel about my so up until I guess I've had
my car for about a year now, Um, I never
had a car they see ever, never had a carton,
(52:16):
none of that, and legit for the up until I
was doing pretty good, you know, making finally making money
and stuff with my friends. Really, why are you still
driving a two thousand seven Honda Odyssey? Why are you
driving this minivan? I was like, well, my mom was
gonna get rid of it and get a new van,
(52:36):
and so I gave them fifteen hundred dollars and I
took that minivan and I was like, the lumbar support
is great. And so finally I was like all right,
I mean I could not make my mind up on
one on one and I finally went and got me
a little Mercedes C three hundred and she never turns
the air condition off, even in the winter and maybe
thirty degrees. I knew I would beat my mom's Like,
(52:58):
you're gonna be the first person to go buy them
a brand new Mercedes. Drove it off the lot and
there'll be no A C in that, like you will
be that. I get my first bus, the heat and
the A C went out in the front of it.
I was like, this is this is kind of funny
to me. I was like, you know, I got to
find a little humor, but I can I get it
with Like the shoes, which I've been checking out your
(53:19):
Balensioga shoes. I love balenci Auga. There's stuff so weird
and I love it. These are the greatest because they're
We're also tennis shoe. I love a flip flopp or
a slide. Yeah, and these are my winter slides. There
you go. And I like that. I love shoes. And
I spent too much money on shoes because I didn't
have any money to buy shoes, right And and I've
(53:40):
heard you have nineteen Mercedes is now yeah, just got you.
I had nineteen and then and then um, now I
have twenty two. So you're a shoes person there too. Yeah, yeah,
what what what do you like the most? Probably I'm
I'm all about the Jordan's. Yeah, consistently. Yeah, man clean. Yeah,
(54:00):
I'm very weird about and that's probably a problem, um sue.
Right now, I just living, you know, I'm not home much,
so I have like a one bedroom cabin out by
the river. It's like real peaceful shoes just piled up
Jordan's because I was getting in these lotteries and you know,
you put in and then if you get them, you
get them. If you don't, you don't want for there.
(54:21):
For a long time I was not getting any I
was getting really stressed, and then I would just start
putting in for like four or five different pair and
then it was like, congratulations, You've got all days, and
just like oh gosh. But I went out to l
A and went in some of those stores where they're
just like up the wall you have stock use that.
I do use stock X them. Yeah, it takes a
(54:41):
little long to get in and I'm a little I
don't really have to pay, but I will buy occasionally
some stuff in stock X, especially if it's stuff I can't.
I bought some pink New Balance. The thing about New
Balance now is now they know they're cool. They now know,
and so now they're just jacking the prices. Like when
it was just a good dad shoe. Yeah, those were
the days. That's so yeah, all that's coming back. But now, hey, Mike,
(55:05):
you have a question about one of the tattoos. Yeah,
I've been thinking about getting a Simpsons tattoo, and I
know you have Maggie Simpson, like would inspire that? Uh,
I don't know. I just thought it was really funny
on all the Christmas and like Cold episodes where they
would dress her up and she looked like a little star. Literally,
there's no story behind that. I will say. Um, I
(55:27):
don't know why I'm saying this, but I so I
have a new newly diagnosed bladder condition. Very fun. But
it's weird because I was going to my doctor and
he was just kind of like a very stoic command
and have anything. And then all of a sudden he
was over there washing his hands and his hey, is
that a Maggie tattoo on your legs? And I was
like yeah, and he was like, Simpsons is still going.
(55:49):
They're still making episodes and that was it. And they
walked out in the room and I was like, well,
he knew, he knew Maggie Simpson was so I was like,
I guess I got it. For some reason, that tattoo
brought you guys together. It brought us together. But that's
a little awkward. Yeah, yeah, but the tattoo is what
brought us together. I'll share a little with you two.
(56:11):
I have an odd IBS issues, which I never knew
even was a thing. Yeah, And I had to go
in and get the old tube what's it called, the
colonosopy and an endoscopy and they put you under, Yeah,
and you come up and nothing was wrong with me.
And I went through all that work and nothing was
wrong with me. They can't find it, So maybe I
just have what you have. Yeah, yeah, it's uh. I've
(56:32):
been dealing with that since I was like seven, and
towards the end of well, I didn't know, and then
towards the end of the last tour, and then I
was doing radio stuff that really tired and really grumpy
and was like losing my mind, like hallucinating, couldn't figure
out what was going on. I went to the doctor
and that's what it is. Since they put me on
like a to get like a catheter once a week
(56:53):
because I was just going to doctors and they were
just like giving me an antibiotic and like writing it
off and I was never getting better and they didn't
like actually check. So now I'm like immune to a
lot of antibiotics because of all. Yeah, so it's it's
been fun now and nobody can't fix you because they
overprescribed your body. But that doctor liked my sinceons tatut
(57:14):
and this has been a medical minute with I do
want to mention that the deluxe edition of your record
is out and it the next six songs, the last
six songs came out, What's stay the first. It's been
like four days, so I haven't had time to listen
to these over and over and over again yet only
one time all the way through. Um so the six
(57:36):
songs that came out is that what the label said
they were going to do, is that what they said
that they could do for you is put out a longer.
So that was actually my idea, Like from the beginning,
I knew that I always like when artists do that,
you know, they go out and they put the dux
out and um, I mean like to me, especially if
it's a record that I really like and then they
(57:57):
go add a few more songs out with that. I
always find that be really cool and and they were
really cool with that. So here is through your eyes
the word Chilotte kind of watching think we're getting close
(58:22):
to wrapping this thing up. We've been here for an hour. Um,
I've got to wonder and I've got to imagine now
that when you're playing shows and are you still doing
shows with Ryan Herder? I am, yeah, like one of
my buds, like the greatest guy, super nice. I have
to wonder though, if people are starting to know your
songs a lot more and you're noticing it in the crowd. Yeah,
Wilder Days. We we always played that one last and
(58:46):
if they don't know any other word, they you know,
it's any other song they know Wilder Days and it's insane.
It's It's like, that's one of the best compliments you
can get as an artist, to have them singing, screaming
every word. Are you starting to feel that, hey, I
think I might actually make it, This might actually be
something better than just getting a record deal, Like, are
(59:09):
you starting to feel that a little bit. Yeah, yeah,
I mean, you know, I'm looking forward to you know,
we're working on getting me my own like headline run,
you know, with COVID and everything, it's been all these
shows are getting moved and uh, venues have been full,
and so we've been on a lot of opening shows.
But I'm like really excited to get out there and
do like my own own run. And I'm not nervous
(59:29):
about it anymore because i know, like what little shows
I have done, you know, in the past year, like
just me like I can sell those out and and
and that's like a good feeling to be able to
go and do that and have to add other dates
because you're selling stuff out when you move into town soon,
I need to the next three months months. Yeah, I
thought that you seem like you have enough room here
(59:49):
on just just just you know, stack up and you
probably could move in a part of the house. I'd
never even know, you know, just let the bag, you know.
Ye uh, you know, I think Morgan's thought me under
the bus more than than any other artists so far.
I enjoyed that. Okay, I'll never be back. You're like,
you're never coming. I do have to say, one of
(01:00:11):
my my best friend. She listens to you religiously every
day and yes, every single yeah, Hannah, Hannah, Hannah, she
got married Hannah love it. Oh. I still call her
by her maiden name, but yeah, she listens to you
all the time. And so I guess you you had
given me like a shout out, you talked about me.
(01:00:32):
She freaked out, called me screaming, like she she doesn't
get excited about like a lot of stuff, but like
she she loves you. And so anyway, I feel like
she's been talking about you and apparently tagging my name
on your stuff for the last someone has been doing
that because randomly you would just be tagged in pictures Hannah. Yeah,
(01:00:53):
I don't know, it's been like she's been doing that
for years. So I feel like I really owe her, Like, hey,
I'm here right now. Well it's been really good to me.
Twice we've had to delay this, yeh. And so I'm
I'm just a massive fan, you know, without ever meeting you.
And sometimes I'm a massive fan of and I meet
somebody and I'm like, man, I wish I wasn't, but
that's not the case. Here. You're awesome. Yeah, you had
(01:01:14):
sit right now, he's not. Here's the thing, I don't
have to say that, and I wouldn't say that, so
but I don't even need to wish you success. Like
you're you're really really good. You're authentic. Um, you know
you have, you have something to say, You have a perspective.
You know, that's so hard to have an original perspective.
And I think that the key to having an original
(01:01:35):
perspective is just sharing your own. And sometimes people are
afraid to do that. And I think you've done that,
and so I'm just I'm glad you're here. I can't
wait for you to move to town. And I'm a
big fan, So pencil me in a fan number ninety
four thousand and six. Okay, as long as I have
my spot, I feel pretty good. Let's go to read
reading our video. Guy read, you get one question. We
(01:01:56):
always make read ask a question at the very end.
All Right, you say you're a big Elvis fan. Have
you ever been to Graceland in Memphis? Twice? Twice? Twice?
I have? Yeah, It's it's funny. Um. I went once
when I was like, I don't know, by like ten,
it felt like the longest drive from Virginia ever. Um,
but then I went again a couple of years ago. Really, yeah,
(01:02:17):
I've never been, but I knew you would have a
good insight. Yeah it's it's um. And now they're fella
here with you see your bodyguard. We actually just met
who who who? He's my driver. He's not your driver.
We actually he did drive me here. Okay, I don't
have my car out here off because I didn't see
when you said Mercedes, I didn't se a Mercedes coming. Okay, yeah,
(01:02:40):
it's at home. Still, it's at home still. Yeah, I'm
literally I just got in from Key West yesterday and
I leave tomorrow to go to Boston. All right, Well,
I'm glad you're here. Everybody. Check out reckless the deluction
just udition just came out. If you were like me
and you gobbled up the entire record, six new songs, Um,
you're killing it. This this song is gonna be a massive,
(01:03:02):
massive hit. Uh. And that's all. I have nothing else
to say, because I've said everything good and I mean
all of it, and I'm not really going to say
much opposite of this when you leave. All right, there
she is you guys. Follow Morrigan at Morgan Wade Music,
Morgan Wade Music, Thanks Morgan, Yeah, thank you. H
Hey, welcome to episode three thirty two with Morgan Wade
and Mike. You know, she mentioned in this interview later
on that one of her friends used to tag her
and stuff all the time. To me, I remember that,
and I remembered it then, but I thought about it
even more after it was all the time. Really yeah,
I remember that and I remembered it. What she said
(00:21):
it sounded familiar and I was like, yeah, I do,
but then I was thinking about it afterward. But you'll
hear us talk about that. I'm a big Morgan Wade fan,
but I had never met her until she came over
to do this interview, and meaning fan of her music,
I didn't really know. I mean as seking pictures about it,
I wouldn't have known her, Like I wouldn't have seen
her been like that's Morgan Wade. Um. That being said,
I really liked her. I thought it was a great interview,
(00:42):
didn't you It was awesome. Yeah, she's really cool and
like she and cool, not like hey, I'm so cool,
but just talked about stuff in a way of she
didn't worry about if what people thought about her. Very real, authentic. Um,
so we're gonna play this it's Morgan Wade. I'm a
big fan of her music as in right now, it's
basically what I listened to. If I'm listening to music
(01:04):
or a nineties playlist that it's either nineties alternative, nineties country,
nineties road trips songs. But it's a pretty good mixed
like Duncan Cheek and um you know nine Days Weadi
or Morgan Wade if it's on the new stuff. But
she's from a small town in Appalachia, uh Floyd, Virginia.
She was drawn music as a kid. You're here to
talk about writing songs in secret, never attempting a public
(01:26):
performance till way later on. She suffered a breakup during
her freshman year and that kind of got her going
into wanting to share her music through singing what do
you agree? Yeah? Right about her break Reckless. Her album
was named best Country album of the Year by Rolling Stone. Yeah.
She's currently out opening for Ryan Hurd on select dates
(01:46):
of his tour de Pelago early two She'll open. Oh,
she's doing the stadium shows in Blue Cone. Yeah. I
saw Luke in an empty stadium playing in wilder days.
It was cool. That's pretty cool. I'm a big fan
and I hope you are too, and I really enjoyed this.
Here is Morgan Wade here on the Boby Cast. Morgan,
(02:06):
how are you. I'm good? How are you? I'm doing
pretty good. It's nice to finally meet you as well.
I think we've missed each other a couple of times.
You were coming last time, and then I didn't have
a voice yesterday, so I appreciate you. I don't know
if you stayed the extra day or not, but I
appreciate that. I'm going to tell you that I did
even though I was already here. Are you gonna be here?
You don't live here, though I don't. Do you have
a plan to move here? I do? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
(02:28):
I need to move out here. It's just kind of
like figuring out where I want to live because I
thought it was so punk rock that you didn't live
out here and you just like screw it. Yeah, And
I've been like that for the last two years. But
now I'm like, uh, everything's like based out of here
in my bands here, so I'm like the outlier. So yeah,
it's tough. Like I have a couple of friends justin
Moore because I'm from Arkansas. We grew up near the
same town. He lives in Arkansas still, and as much
(02:51):
as that's home, it's still a pain in the butt
to have to come out and work. But he also
moved here, established himself, you know, and then moved out. Okay, yeah, no,
I get that. There's no direct flights from where I am,
so I have to fly like down to Atlanta and
then from Atlanta to here. So where where do you live? Uh?
Like near Bristol, Virginia, So like Tri Cities area? Did
(03:12):
you grow up watching? Uh? Because I don't know anything
about racing, I will just say I hated it. Every
Sunday after church, my grandfather would watch the race and
I just never understood why it was such a big deal.
And he would like fall asleep in his chair and
I'd like want to change the channel, and he wouldn't
let me. So that's like my memories of the NASCAR.
(03:33):
I went out there once. I was like nineteen. They said, hey,
move out here and come work at the radio station
out here. And I went out there and I remember
seeing a massive racetrack and that was about it, and
not for a really small town. But I was like, dang,
and the culture was was a lot of of NASCAR
and a lot of racing. But as as you know,
growing up in the South, I still never got into racing.
(03:54):
You know. I was a lot of football and baseball,
but never racing. Yeah, yeah, I'm not. I don't Yeah,
it's it's not my thing. I can't sit still that long.
When when did you start tinkering around with music? Like
at five six seven? Yeah, I was like the early
seng I remember, like seven years old writing songs, writing songs,
not just listening. No, I remember like writing songs in
(04:15):
like a very early age. So how did you even
know that you could write a song? Because when I
was seven, I didn't know you could write a song.
Did you have musical people around you? No? No, not
at all. Um. You know, my my grandfather was really
in a bluegrass music that's like a really big thing
where I'm from, from Floyd. Um. And so I would
go with him on Friday nights up to the Floyd
Country Store and we would sit and listen to music.
(04:38):
I fall asleep on his lap, like you know, that
was like every Friday for me. Um. But yeah, and
and then he was really into the fiddle, so he like,
like I want you should play the fiddle. And so
it took me the lessons and it was in it
was classical violin. And I hated it. When you said
they took me to lessons, yeah, I hated it so bad.
(04:59):
I did that for like two years. I didn't want
to do it. I wanted to play the guitar. And
the teacher told my mom, She's like no, if she
won't stick with this, she won't play guitar. So my
mom listened to her. I was like no, And then
of course my grandma went and bought me a guitar.
So how old were you when you got a guitar,
maybe like ten or eleven something like that, but you
had already started writing songs at least sortit. Yeah, I mean,
(05:20):
and and that was that was my big things. I
wanted a guitar because I wanted to put you know,
instrumentation to that. You know, what kind of music did
you like? I know you said you were influenced by
blue grass because your grandfather, But what kind of music
were you listening to or when did you first find
your type of music? So I was in like first
grade and I discovered Elvis and that was like all
(05:42):
I wanted to listen to. I was obsessed with Elvis.
I drove my mom insane. Where did they have Elvis?
Like records are house? We lived with my grandparents and
I came home one day and there was like a
VHS of Joel house Rock sitting on the table and
I asked my mom, was like, can I watched it?
She's like, it's in black and white. You're not gonna
I get. I watched it like five times that afternoon,
(06:02):
and then you know, she broke the news to me,
Elvis is not alive. Like you know that that whole
time you went through it all, you discovered him and
he died the same day. It was. It was a
very uh it was. It was a very tough day
for me. But I was just obsessed with him after that.
I mean, you know, it is Elvis. He was very
electrifying and but he was so different. You know, I've
never heard anything like that, and so I just really
connected with that. You know, it's interesting to the think
(06:24):
about Elvis and again me growing up in the South.
You're you considered Virginia at the south, right, do? Yeah?
I guess it depends on who you talked to in
what part of Virginia because if when if we're if
I'm touring and we're in northern Virginia, they don't consider
that the South. That's like d C R R UM so,
but Elvis being from the South, being from Mississippi then
(06:46):
Memphis was both country, pop, rock, gospel. He kind of
was the first major crossover artist that existed because what
he did was so different than everyone else. Yeah, and
you were drawn to that because of a singing, because
of the total the dancing, the singing, Like what about
Elvis kind of struck you. I mean obviously first like
(07:08):
the singing, but I mean he was just an electrifying dude,
you know what. Everything he did was different. And then
of course, um, you know I should have known early on,
I get very obsessed and addicted to certain things, and
so I was very obsessed with Elvis, and and so
I engrossed myself and like everything, you know, reading books, whatever,
and so just hearing like the documentaries and stuff about
(07:29):
you know, everything he went through him just being different,
but he just like stayed true to that, Like he
didn't care what about like your teenageers, like when did
you find current music that spoke to you? Yeah? I mean,
I think when I really started to find music that
that stuck with me was when Casey Musgraves first right
like Follow Your Arrow came out and I heard that
(07:50):
and I was like, wow, that's that's really different. I
haven't really heard anything like that. And of course, like
with Miranda, you know, I remember the Kerosene music video
coming out and I ripped holes and all of my
jeans and I got a lot of trouble for that.
I want my grandma threw my pants away. She's like,
what did you do this for? But I was just
like so obsessed with her, because you know, just these
these women that just like speak their mind. And so
(08:11):
that's when I really started towards to gravitate towards that
kind of music. In the house that you grew up in,
you know, were you raised to speak up and speak
your mind or were you raised to, you know, just
bide your time and find your place? Yeah, you know it.
It's I was such a quiet kid. It was like
I say that I was quiet, but it was also
(08:32):
not quiet. It just depended on the moment um. I
don't really feel like I grew up in a house
where we you know, really spoke our minds very often.
My parents divorced when I was like five, UM, and
so I spent a lot of time at my grandparents house,
which you know, I felt like the the safest place
for me back then. But my grandma really let me
(08:53):
just be whoever I wanted to be, you know, saying
my grandmother adopted me for a while. But your grandmother
being such a strong influence on you, what what was
she like as a woman. Yeah, she you know, she
gave me some really good advice one time, and it
was just I was just so upset, you know, about
different things. And I remember she was just like, don't
(09:13):
try to be like anybody else. Don't put you know,
all your happiness in one person. I'll never forget that.
It was in her front yard is probably you know,
eleven or twelve, and she's like just stopped putting everything
into into other people, like, you know, you gotta have
that inside of yourself. And and so she she was
always very just supportive of me being me. Um, I
(09:35):
have like a really fond memory. Um. We couldn't figure
out she she got really sick, and uh, I remember
she she had double vision and we couldn't figure it out.
And I had guitar lessons, and she put a patch
over so she could drive me to guitar lessons that day.
You know. It was just stuff like that that was
like really important. Herrificed a lot, she did. Yeah. Was
(09:57):
she like a mom to you? Oh yeah, for sure. Yeah.
My my grandma was like my best friend there for
you know, like a really long time. And so was
she in on your decision to pursue music, um, because
it sounds like she was influencing it a bit. She was,
she was influencing it. She she passed away, not naturally,
not long after that. I think I was third team
when she she finally passed away. We found out she
(10:19):
actually had pancreatic cancer the whole time that you know,
she's been going through all that. But I I just uh,
we would always ride around and listen to music. It
was funny because she grew up in a different generation,
so it was it was funny sometimes the songs that
would be on the radio. She'd like, I really, I
really don't like that song. Not a fan of that song. Um,
But she would, you know, let me listen to to whatever.
(10:42):
And we would ride around in the car. And and
then but even my other, my other grandmother was was
big into music, um as far as like listening to
old records and and CDs and stuff like that was
her and she comes out to all my shows now
and so she's been very supportive. So it's been very fortunate.
But it was something that I kind of kept to myself.
Like I played instruments and stuff, but I didn't sing
(11:03):
for anybody. Where would you play though, like at the house. Yeah,
it was just it. I remember just being like such
a secret. And I'm still not entirely sure why it
was such a secret. But I would write and like
seeing and stuff until i'd see, you know, one of
my parents come home, and I put it away so
like I didn't want anybody to hear me. Umhewn. I
was told one there was a there was a singing
(11:25):
group at school and I was the only kid that
didn't make it. And I was told my voice was weird,
and that just stuck with me. It's like, all right,
no more, no more, I'm not doing that. And and
I was I was sensitive, very sensitive. I mean, you know,
you're young like that and you get told that, and
so I was like, all right, you know, it's just
for me. Which I think benefited me the most because
(11:46):
I enjoy doing it, so I kept doing it. But
you know, you can be really honest with yourself if
you're not, you know, out there trying to impress anybody.
It was just something I did to like cope and
um so that's how I right now, you know, the
only way I know are right. It's funny you talk
about someone telling you your voice was weird at least
what you said. Was it a teacher that told you
your voice was weird? No, it was a student it was.
(12:09):
It was like, it's funny because a lot of them
were so proud of me. Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, we
we want to we want to come out to your
shows and stuff like that. Yeah. They hit you up
on social media like missy, you haven't senior forever. How's
it been heard you on the radio? Yeah? But you know,
like I said, like, I don't think i'd be I
(12:29):
wasn't rite like I do if I didn't have that
stuff going on like early in my life. I think
that that kind of pushed me. Well, if you're hiding
the fact that you're singing what you were doing early on,
when did you and why did you decide to do
it publicly. Yeah. So, uh, I was dating a guy
and my freshman year of college and we broke up,
(12:52):
and you know, he played music in a band, and
I was like, you know, it would really tick me
off if I broke up with somebody and they wrote
a song about it. And so I, uh, I got
on craigslist because that's what you do. Where I grew up,
it was like, you want something, you get on Craigslist.
And here's what's funny is like I remember being like
(13:13):
thirteen years old and I had like selling stuff on Craigslist.
And I look back, and that was really not safe.
But I remember like selling a foot on on Craigslist.
But how would you sell that? Would you have people
come to your house like a dog? Yes, look, I'm
just out there putting my address out there. Like I
look back and I'm like, okay, So yeah, my immediate
(13:33):
my immediate responses. All right, I'm gonna get on Craigslist.
And I found a group of guys that that needed
a singer, and so I got two of my friends
that were like five ft two and we um, you know,
the little trio went down there to this random house
and down into the basement with a bunch of men. Yeah,
(13:53):
so you were how old old? M M. They were
all in there, like thirties forties and you walk in
and you are at nineteen year old woman. And were
they looking for that or were they looking for another
big dude? No? I think they were just kind of like, okay,
I don't think they really expected but it hey, you
(14:15):
know they were like they're super nice fortunately, like really
good group of guys. Um and but yeah, not my
brightest moment. What was that band or were they a band?
They have a name that No, we didn't have We
didn't have a name. But it was just like we
just started, um kind of playing. I think only played
like one or two shows with with with that group,
(14:38):
and then it kind of uh merged into something else.
And I kept the bass player. He stuck with me
for years. Um. I still talked to talk to him now.
And again, what did you guys play? Were you doing covers? No? No,
it was all my songs. So you took your music
in and they learned it. Yeah yeah, yeah, So I've
(14:58):
never been like big on playing covers. Um, It's just
it's always I've always I've written so many songs. I'm
like Why would I play everybody else's songs when I'm
uh yeah, I get it. But to go from not
singing at all to walking room going I'm now going
to sing and all you older men are gonna sing
all my songs. I was on a mission. I was
on a mission to to you know, uh yeah, to
(15:20):
get that song out there. When you decide that you
want to sing, what was your career plan at that point,
because you're in school. Yeah, so, uh, I wanted to
be I wanted to go into cardios thorastics. That was
what I was doing. Help O Heart Heart, Yeah, Heart
doctor and um so that was on like the pre
med track. And then it was just like I kind
(15:43):
of was like, oh, this music thing, I'm gonna not
like keep this a secret anymore. And so casually one
day I just told my mom was like, hey, I'm
going to play a show. What are you what are
you talking about? You're gonna get play a show. And
then it was just kind of like, yeah, I play music,
and she's just like what you know. It kind of
came out of nowhere, but then um, you know, they
(16:06):
started coming out. My parents kind of really okay, but
it to me, it wasn't like, all right, I'm gonna
just go quit school. You know. I continued with school,
but music kind of started to to overtake that. I
ended up. I still graduated, um with the bachelor's. Um.
Obviously I'm not a doctor right now. So UM shocking,
I know. But um yeah, it just like it all
(16:29):
worked out how it was supposed to. Obviously, you stayed
in school. Was it because you knew how how tough
it is to work in a create a field You
needed a backup plan? Or did you ever make a
promise to yourself or why? You know? I think about
that often. I'm not entirely sure why I stayed, But
you know, I felt like, okay, I just all of
(16:53):
a sudden started doing this. I just all of a
sudden started publicly playing music. So I continued to actually
worked a job at the gym. Um all throughout college,
I had to be up at three thirty am every
morning at the gym, opened the gym. Every every morning,
I go down there and open the gym. And I
did that for for um. Why did that? Even after
(17:16):
after I graduated? So I did it for like five years.
You woke up at three thirty every yeah. I mean
I say that as someone who also wakes up at
that time. But I hate it. I've been doing it
since I was twenty two. Now it sucks every day
for me. Yeah, I don't know if it sucked every
day for you? It did it? Did? I? I hate it?
And of course at the time, you know, um, I
started drinking. When I started playing music, I started drinking,
(17:39):
and so I I don't know how many times I
went in there with you know, in an hour of sleep.
You know, I lived, um part of the time, I
lived really close to the gym, and so I just
kind of like stumble in there. But uh, no idea
how I pulled that off for so long. I don't
miss getting up that early. I get up early. I'm
like a five am or yeah, I got I always
(18:00):
go to bed early, you know, get up early. I
don't know. I'm just I'm basically ninety seven years old.
I mean, I'm a forced would I would stay up
until four am and then and wake up at noon,
but I can't do that because of my job. Um,
so talk to me for a second. Because you're nineteen,
you start playing these shows, and you had kind of
(18:21):
suppressed that muscle that's singing that you know, public performance
muscle for a long time, but you're doing it. Was
it like an aha, like hoh man, I love this
or was it a gradual thing? No? I immediately I
that was one thing it was like in college, like
public speaking or anything like that. Hated it, was terrified,
(18:41):
But it was like immediately as soon as I got
on the stage, it was fine, you know, as far
as singing goes, because I just felt like it was
something that I was always supposed to do. Um And
I feel like I kind of just like jumped on
in because I would you know, at the beginning. I
mean I look back at some of these shows I
played and you can't even call it a show. I
don't even know what it was. But I took every
(19:01):
opportunity that I could take. You know, I wanted it
to work, and I enjoyed it. Any thought of quitting
school and pursuing that full time were you did you
know you were going to finish? No? I thought about it.
There were there were a few times that I was like,
you know, I don't want to do this. I don't
want to be here. Um. But you know, obviously to
(19:22):
like your parents, like I look back, and you know,
if I had a kid, I probably would have said
the same thing, like this came out of nowhere, like
why do you want to just quit school? Um? But
you know, even my friends and stuff like why why
would you quit? Like you need? You need to go
to college. Which now I have such a different perspective
on that than what I did, because I'm like when
(19:44):
I have kids, like, Okay, you don't want to go
to college, don't go to college. Don't waste your money
on something. I don't even know where my degree is at.
That's something you might not have the paper, but it's
always I'm really glad you know that I did go.
I look back now, I think that I'm much more mature.
I do a lot better in school. If I went
to school now, I wasn't prepared then. You know, you're
nineteen and you just, you know, go try to be
(20:05):
an adult. You're not. I'm still not an adult. But
where were you playing? You know, you're talking about the
first band, but were you playing with different groups? What
kind of bars or clubs were you playing? Yeah, we're
playing bars. I mean I was like breweries and bars
and restaurants and stuff and um, anything like literally anything
that I could get, you know, to play, I would
(20:28):
do it. And you know it's uh oh god, I
mean I just look back, I just think it. You know,
you were background music a lot of times, but it
was just I was so happy to be there. And
I'd like to remind myself that. Can you think of
shows where maybe there were more people on stage than
there were in the audience. Oh yeah, yeah. I remember
this one specific show and they they had us come play,
(20:54):
and you know, when you start booking that stuff, like
I look about you know, now I play a nice
solid you know, we're whatever hour and a half at Max,
And I remember booking this one shows like three and
a half hours, not a soul there. They made us
play that whole time. And of course the guys they
were all like older guys, so they were like used
(21:16):
to planing to like nobody, so to them, they're like, well,
three and a half hour practice here, you know, we're
just gonna drink our beer and just you know, play along.
And at those were the nights that you leave there
thinking why the hell am I doing this? You know,
like this this is stupid. And I think that's part
of the reason why I was like, all right, I'm
gonna stay in college because I don't know that this
(21:37):
is gonna work out. It almost feels like a movie
when no one's in the theater. But they runed it
anyway in case someone happens to come in, like they
wanted you to keep playing in case someone does happen
to stumble in. I'm like, man, there was no one
in there, nobody. I will never forget that night because
I remember at one point we just I just stopped
singing and I was just that they're playing my guitar,
(21:59):
and when kind of stood there, it's like the same song.
We just kept running it and running and nobody knows
the difference that there's nobody there. There was no one
there except the bartender, and she was you know what
was she She wasn't doing anything. Yeah, exactly, absolutely. Okay,
So at this point, you're still living in Virginia, You're
(22:22):
still have you ever moved out of Virginia or have
you lived there the whole time? No, I've lived there
the whole time. Like I moved you know, I grew
up in Floyd and then I moved to Roanoke, which
is where I went to college, and then you know,
I moved out towards the Tri Cities area. Um, I've
lived there for a couple of years. In your hometown,
are people now that already know you, are they starting
(22:43):
to look at you a little different because you know,
you are popping up on the radio, you are popping up.
Are they like maybe people being nicer to you, or
people you don't know it coming up and be like,
hey can get a picture? Is that happening? Yeah? I
went home and I told my grandma. I was like,
when I come to see you, we just like I
just want to come to your house and like hang
out because it's a small town. And last time I
(23:04):
was there, I went out to eat and yeah, they
if I'm stuff in my face with food, like the
last thing I want to do is you know so.
And I appreciate it because it is really great, but
it was a little it was a little bizarre. It's
a little weird, you know, to go back there and
and and have that. But you know, I think my
dad gets it a lot too, you know, meet meeting
(23:24):
people you know that that know who I am, and
to him, it's funny. You're also kind of hard to
miss because just because the tattoos, Like even if you're
fully covered, your hands are still I would have to
wear like medical gloves, like you have to show up
in mitten's and like a big furry hat, and then
I'm gonna stick out. Yeah. Yeah, it's just it's just
not it is cool. I mean it's interesting. I mean,
(23:46):
I've been in the airport all over and and I've
started to have a lot of people recognize me there.
So I want to talk about your voice as a songwriter,
because I think you said it. You started writing songs,
and you started writing them from a different perspective, your
perspective started writing. I'm so young too, I mean, when
did you first start to feel that voice, not singing voice,
(24:08):
but that voice have an opinion or a perspective. Man.
I mean I remember I was like, you know, I
had to be like nine or ten, and my dad
was going through a separation and I was writing about
that just from his perspective, in which I look and
(24:28):
I look balent, man, you were a sad, sad kid.
I look back, and it was very like, you know,
I've always written just from whatever's going around, you know,
whatever whatever I'm around, you know, whatever I'm experiencing like
that's just that it was just my outlet. Did you
keep any of that stuff do you have from you know,
from a kid? So that was another thing. I didn't
(24:48):
write stuff down because I didn't want anybody to read it.
So if I would write stuff down sometimes, but I
would hide it. And my grandmother claims she finds stuff
in like cookbooks and stuff stash around or house. I
don't believe it. I think she's making it up so
she can sell something one day on eBay. I think
she's planning that story now so she'll have something. But
I just didn't write stuff down because I didn't want
(25:09):
anybody to to find it. So I will memorize stuff.
And until I came out here to Nashville and we
were in the studio, you know, satnur Baid and my producer,
he was just like, you need to write this stuff that,
like type it out because we have to be able
to like see it. But I would just memorize that.
If it was something that was gonna stick, you'll just
stick in my head. So you go to these guys,
(25:30):
that's all these songs you've written. Now we're gonna go
back to the basement or wherever you went to these
this room with these forty year old guys. What were
those songs about as a as a nineteen year old,
Like when you look back at you know, if you
were to paint brush to that with a broad stroke,
what was that collection of music about? Yeah, I think,
and most of it was just, especially the early days,
(25:50):
was definitely heartbreak, which I don't think I've steered too
far from that, but you know, heartbreak and and and
starting to drink and like experience experience different stuff, but
mainly heartbreak. And then that's that's all I've seemed to
really know how to write about. Did you ever because
sometimes I'll do this with comedy where I feel like
(26:12):
I'm so I'm extremely vulnerable and I'm exposing myself and
I'm right up on the edge. Are going, Man, this
is too much like I'm on the edge. I never
actually feel like I get towards too much, oddly, but
I feel like I'm on the edge a lot. Do
you ever feel like you're that way with lyrics or
when you're writing a song, Yeah, for sure, Because people
ask all the time, they're like, you know, do you
ever start to say something You're like, I shouldn't. And
(26:32):
I'm like, yeah, I think I think so. But then
it's like, after it's out there, you look back and
you're like, it wasn't really anything to me. I think that,
And I think that's good too, because you never, like
you said, you never reached that spot. But I think
it's good to push the envelope. When did someone come
to you, someone that had any sort of prominence in
I won't say Nashville, but any music, who came to
you and said, Wow, you're different, not that you sound
(26:55):
different and you look different, but you're different, that you're
actually pretty good and you have a perspective a voice.
It kind of gave you confidence that you can make this. Yeah,
you know I would. I would have to say. Like, So,
I played a festival and when I got done with
my set, um Jason Isabel in the four unit we're
playing later that night, and Jason's sound engineer came up
(27:17):
and he was like, hey, I had no idea who
he was. He introduced himself and he's like, I think
the guys would really like to hear your music. And
he's like it's really good, you know, like I really
enjoyed your set, and I didn't expect to hear anything.
You know. I was like, okay, yeah, I appreciate that.
And then like a day later, Um, Saddler hit me
up on Instagram. He's like, hey, love your voice, Like
(27:38):
I've looked up your music. You know what do you
have going on? Like we should chat, Like I would
love to write with you and just talk. And so
like two days later we hopped on a on a
FaceTime and uh, he was like, you know, play me
some of your stuff, you know. He his he was like,
you know, I want to get into producing. Do you
do you have a producer? He's like, I would love
(27:58):
to like aberate with you. And so I pitched him
the idea of Wilder Days. I sat down. That's the
first song I ever played him, and it just went
from there. It was so like organic. Um, you know,
he didn't want any anything from me, and so I
came out to Nashville and we just clicked. And his
thing was just I don't want any money. I know
(28:21):
you don't have any money. Like, let's just work together.
We'll work here at my house, let's write some songs.
And we started recording demos and you know, before I
met him, I didn't have a booking agent or manager
or or anything. And so that all just started to
fall into place because the demos kind of started circulating around.
When you say you came to Nashville, what does that mean?
(28:43):
Obviously you get in a car or I got in
a car and I drove here here? Do you like,
get a hotel room? Do you find that? Like? What
how long do you stay? Yeah? I came out there.
I think the first time I met with Sadly, I
came out here and I was out here for a
couple of days something like that. You just got a
hotel and cram rights in, Like you you're here, morning starts,
you're writing until you go to bed. Yeah, yeah, I
(29:05):
like And I've enjoyed that because it's like, I mean,
I've been doing stuff all day. It's like, okay, she's
out here right now. We have to get all this
stuff done so versus you know, me living out here
and they've been like, hey, we need you to come
here Tuesday at tune, Thursday at four, you know, stuff
like that. They have to get it done in the
x amount of time and then leave me alone. You know,
(29:26):
there's so many stories about new artists they're coming to
town or being in town and having someone take advantage
of them money. Um, hey, I'm promising you this and
they don't get it. But you come and you spend
the first couple of days here. Did you feel like
it was legit? Like wow, like this may not turn
into anything massive, but what was coming from him was sincere?
(29:48):
Oh yeah, I mean Saddlers like the nicest person ever
and and and he just um I could tell he
just he just believed in it. He was just like
really excited. And I didn't feel any pressure to do
anything other than just you know, throw ideas around with
him and make some music that he believed in. You
(30:10):
go back home, and how long until you start to
get these things back emailed you or texted to you like, hey,
check it out, listen to this Saddler. That's the thing
about him. He will work on something all night until
it's it's done, and and typically I'll have a rough
of something within a few hours. Did you hear a
slightly different version of you? Because now you had somebody
(30:32):
pretty good working on your stuff? Like, did you hear
you in a way you hadn't heard yet? Yeah? Oh
for sure, because it was you know, even though it
was just you know, a rough demo at his house,
it was still more professional than anything I'd ever had done,
you know, and I didn't know how to do that,
didn't grow up around those resources or anything. So hearing
(30:52):
something you've worked on, like actually recorded, actually sent to
you like that, and it yeah, it was. It was
incredible when to those dreams start to happen. Well, I
could actually be in music star. So at the time,
I was actually working a job in tax reassessment. But
what kind of taxes? So basically I worked for this
(31:16):
company and they would bid on towns that like and
and you would go around and assess the properties. If
they you know, built anything, you had to make note
of that basically to be taxed on it, you know,
for real estate purposes. No one likes that, and no
one likes the little tattooed girl showing up on their
(31:38):
porch either. I had the cops called multiple times, it was.
But I only had to work Monday through like Thursday,
and it was full time and so I had like
Thursday night, Friday, Saturday, Sunday I could go play shows
and I could take a hit, you know, not making
any money and try to like get my foot in
the door in all these different places, but yet not
(32:00):
be broke. Um. But Saddler finally set me down and
he's like, listen, you know you gotta go all in.
You gotta choose one or the other because you're kind
of starting to get at this this point where you
got to dedicate more to the music if that's what
you really want to do. And he was right, and
so I think. Um, driving back home, I called my
(32:20):
boss and was like, hey, I'm gonna give you my
my I'll finish out this job and then then that's
I'm done. They weren't upset because I was horrible at
that job. It was. It was. It was pretty bad. Also,
of all the jobs that maybe you look like you
would do, tax assessor, I think would be I don't know,
five on the list. Yeah, yeah, it was. I liked
(32:41):
it because like it's just the tattoos is all it is.
Yeah now, And it was. It was. But it was
funny because you see a lot of stuff, you know,
a lot of interesting people just and people would assume too.
I don't know how many times that had people be
like thinking I was like selling like cookies or something.
I was like, I am not a girl scout. Not
(33:03):
a girl scout. When did and what was the label
process for you? Like did multiple label say hey or
did one just dial in and go, we want you
to be on our label. Let's go yeah, uh like
(33:23):
Southern and I set out to just make an EP
and so we recorded like five songs and then that's
when a couple of different labels started kind of you know,
sniffing around, and we took some meetings. The first meeting
I took was with thirty Tigers and David mcs was
was great and he was like, I love it, you know,
(33:44):
but you should go around take the other meetings see
if you like them better. You know. He was like,
but regardless, you you'll have a home here if you
want it, Like, we believe in what you're doing. But
he was like, you need to make an LP, not
an EP, like you've got the songs. Like. So I
met with a couple full other places and they just
wanted to change everything. They didn't want They were like, oh,
(34:04):
we love what you're doing, but we want change all
of it. And I'm like, well this works. Uh. They
just wanted to like re record everything. I don't know
how many places. They were like, we should just do
an acoustic album, and I was like, that's really boring.
That's gonna get really boring really quickly. And so I
went with thirty Tigers and then you know, Reckless came
(34:26):
out last March. It wasn't even a month later. Every
label in Nashville was emailing my manager like, hey, we
want to talk. A lot of which wanted to talk beforehand,
and it was like, really, okay, you you wanted to
change everything and now you're like, I love it. But
Sony Sony Music stuck out the most. Um. You know,
(34:49):
I took a meeting with them, and I really made
them work for it. Poor Randy Goodman over there at Sonny.
I really made that poor guy like he was like,
I didn't know for at the first four meetings if
you liked me. He was like, we met and you
kept your sunglasses on the whole time. I was like,
it was bright outside, dude, That's that's what he claims.
I did it to like freak him out. But um,
(35:11):
the thing that stuck out with them is I finally
I was just like, what do you want to change? Ham,
what do you what do you want to do? I
was like, if I stay at thirty Tigers, I was like,
what can you give me? They can't. I was like,
because I own all my stuff, I'm making really good,
I'm I'm doing good. I'm doing the best I've ever done.
I was like, what can you guys do? Like why
would I come to you? And you know, essentially, Randy's like,
(35:33):
we don't. We don't want to change anything. We love
this record, like we just want to rerelease it. We
won't change a single thing. And He's like, we'll just
give you that platform and that push that a major
label can give you and more opportunities and and um
it just it ended up being the right move and
and I've I've been really happy. But they didn't. They
didn't want to change the darn thing. Yeah, I love
(35:55):
the music. I mean, and I'm so jaded, I'm just
around everything all the time. But you know, the record
is so good. And I like to think that I
like albums, but I'm becoming more a d D the
longer I have the option to become a d D. Honestly,
it's I'm like, I'm a big album guy. But then
it's like, if I don't love love the artist, I'll
(36:17):
just check out a few songs, skip over a couple
and so I find myself being a huge hypocrite and going, uh,
that being said, like your entire project is a plus,
and I haven't said that about anything and probably maybe
old dominion, but other than that, and like a couple
of Casey records ago like it's as good as anything
(36:37):
I've heard in years than you like, just just love it,
and um, I mean from from the Beginning and Wilder
Days is the first song on the record, right, it's
the first it's track one, and it's the first one
you wrote. Why why I put that one up front?
Was it because you wrote it first? I think we
just really I think it's important especially to like anybody
goes a record comes out and you click on that
(36:59):
first song right there, you want to hook on, man, Like,
don't just put some kind of weird something on there,
Like I wanted to put the best foot forward, and
and uh, Sadler Saler did too, and I think it
made sense. It was it was the song that we
based the whole album around. It was the first one,
and and to me, I think that's really important you
get that real core piece of that record and then
(37:20):
you you're like, Okay, this is the direction I want
to take it, and so it made it made sense
to put it first. Let me play a clip of
Wilder Days. Here you go, Hey Smith, So let's talk
about this song specifically. Where did you write it, who
did you write it with? So I actually wrote kind
(37:44):
of a version of Wilder Days myself and I and
that's what I had pitched the Saddler and he was like,
all right, this is this is great. Obviously needed to
change some things up, and um so we we kind
of sat down and and and like said, I had
to draft it out, but we made a lot of
changes and and I'm so glad we did. I found
(38:05):
the old version of it that I had written one
day and I listened to it. I was like, dear God,
I would never want anybody to hear this version of it.
But we we sat down and really he helped me too,
as a writer. You know, I've never co written with anybody,
and so he really helped kind of push me to
to dig a little deeper and and and be more
honest and authentic with it. And um, so we God,
(38:29):
we worked on that song. I'll never forget. There's just
like parts of it, like the Wilder Days, just singing
Wilder Days. I stood in front of that microphone for
a solid forty five minutes, singing that one line over
and over and over, and I was like, I never
want to hear the song again, which Wilder Days like that,
(38:52):
that part of it he made me. And he was
in his kitchen fretting chicken for tacos and he would
be like, yeah, you can keep going. I think you
and I I could see that part of my sleep now.
I hated it, but he I remember we finally finished
that song up. It was like eleven PM, and I
was like, all right, I'm gonna go back. He's like,
no, no no, no, We're gonna go to Jenny's ice Cream
(39:12):
and we're gonna listen to this. And we go and
we're getting his Honda element and he is blasting Wilder
Days as long as he are, as loud as he
possibly can on our way to get Jenny's ice cream
at like eleven PM. But he was so excited. And
that's how I knows, like, man, this man believes in
me more than you know anybody else. Your version wasn't
melodically the same, or did you did you change lyrics. Yeah,
(39:34):
we change lyrics, and it made more sense and flows better.
You know, I there for a long time, didn't like
I didn't have the bridge or any of that in there.
But then, of course Sadler is a guitar god, so
you know, he really came in with the riffs and
kind of helping me mix things up to where it
wasn't just so repetitive. The whole song is all of
(39:55):
the the information in the song. True, it's Chicago. Is
that a real reference? Yeah? You just rhyme words? No,
there they were, They were all real references. Yeah. And
does the person that the song is about This is
the question you'll get asked in thousand times. Do they
know it's about them? Yeah? For sure? And have they
reached out? No? No, no, And if if if that
(40:17):
person hears this, um um, you know it's all good.
It's all good now, you know, young and dumb and
times were different than then. But was this the person
at nineteen the same person? No? Different person? Matches of metaphors.
Track number two And I'm not going in order for
any reason other than like when I listened to these songs.
When I was listening, because I've listened to the record
(40:38):
a hundred times at this point. Um, I think it's
the only album I have saved right now my entire Spotify,
to be honest with you. And so this is maybe
my second favorite song by kid right now. That was
(41:02):
the song that you a new new song you wrote
for this or did you have a version of it
already as well? Now this one, this one UM just
wrote straight through. Um, I had, uh, basically the verses
in the chorus down and and then Southern kind of
helped me add the bridge in there. That was one
thing before I met Southern, I wasn't putting any bridges
(41:23):
or anything in my songs, so they were pretty pretty
straightforward and repetitive. And uh, he kinda he kind of
helped me there get into ah adding some more dynamic
to these songs. But we we wrote that. I had
that one. Actually stayed up all night one night. I
drink way too much coffee that day and when when
I set up and it was pouring rain at my house,
(41:46):
and uh, I didn't have internet or anything where I
was staying at the time, it wasn't working, And I
just set up and I wrote that song. Do you
write lyrics first? Do you write a melody first or
do you have do you have an idea? Like what
is it for you? Weirdly and off, I hear the
words in my head. I hear them in a melody,
So like when I when I write a phrase out,
(42:09):
that's how I hear it in my head. And so
I try to just figure out that. On guitar, Okay,
you did your hands like you're playing keys. I don't
know why I don't. That's a weird guitar. That's a
very weird guitar. Yeah, I don't know why I did that,
but yeah, I meant like that. I promised you know
how to play guitar. Confusing a bit, at least at
first when I heard had heard of you, um the
(42:31):
Morgan w Morgan wall and Morgan Wade. Yeah, I think
I was typing in your name and Morgan. I don't know.
It was just do people often not confuse you too?
But do they ever call you Morgan Wallen on accident
because it's just in their head like I've been tagged
and stuff and and and then they're like oops, yeah
(42:52):
you know, yeah that kind of thing. It's both Oh yeah,
a second letter was he already on the scene when
you were here and starting yeah oh yeah yeah yeah
yeah yeah. No no talk of changing Morgan Wade like
Morgan bad or something. No, no, no one, No one
came up with that. No. No. There's also a bye
(43:17):
pro bi m x R. Yes, And it is funny
because his friends and fans and stuff will tag him
and stuff and they'll be like, dude, what the hell
you know we we thought you were right, you know,
making jokes. And I've actually messaged him about it before.
So I was watching on maybe it was last night
or the night before. You were doing a live TikTok
(43:38):
last night, that was last night, and you're playing Are
you reading the comments as you're on there? Or are
you just I can't because I read a couple of
comments and they maybe want to laugh, and so it
kind of like messes me up, and I'm like, but
it's I've never I've never done the TikTok. I've never
really been on TikTok. And so my team was like,
(43:59):
we need you need to like do a TikTok live,
you know, and so they kind of helped me set
that up, and you know, try not to read the
comments too much. I don't read the comments to anything.
I think people like you, though. That's a difference in
you and me. People have a lot of opinions about me,
and they go all different directions, not all good. I
think people like you. I think you're gonna be pretty positive. Um.
I do want to play reckless here is I'm a
(44:20):
reckless dech lovely. So you wrote every song on this,
(44:47):
which I would have expected, especially since you said you
just write songs all the time. What's the oldest song
on this new project? Um, the oldest song would be
meant and Um. That's the first song that Saddler had
like looked up of mine and heard and he was like,
(45:07):
you really need to put mint on there. It was
it was one of his favorite songs, and it almost
didn't make it because I was just so tired of it. Um.
I was like, I don't want to, you know, you
always want to put your news songs out right exactly,
and and he just really loved that song so much.
And I'm glad we put it on there. Um, But
that that's the oldest song. Have you done any sort
(45:29):
of radio tour yet where you go to radio stations?
Have you done that at all? Um? Yeah? Yeah, yeah.
I mean it's been kind of kind of weird with COVID,
you know, so there's a lot of different protocols and
a lot of people are you know, still work it
from home and stuff like that. But does everyone go
straight to the tattoos first? Um? Most of the time. Yeah,
they're like a lot of the ti who kissing Kate
(45:51):
kates all the yep. And so what is your stock
answer when someone goes what's up with the tattoos? Yeah?
A lot of times I'm just like, oh, I forgot
I had tattoos, you know, I just say something like
and then they're just like, okay, this girl, when did
because you mentioned earlier? And I've held onto it because
I'm the same way. I get addicted to things quickly
(46:11):
and hard. When did the tattoo things start? And was
it all at once or did you just kind of
just mess around with a little bit? No? No. Um.
Also my freshman year of college, UM, I remember I
was sitting in my like apartment and one of my
friends was there and she was just like, I think
you would like tattoos. I don't know why she said that,
(46:34):
and I was like, I should do that. I think
I had ninety dollars in my bank account, and I
went and I got a tattoo, and then I was
just like, Okay, I really like this, and I think
a few weeks later I went and got like three
more at one time. A few weeks later I got
paid between with the goal of covering. Is the goal
(46:57):
now to cover your whole body? No, I don't really
know what my goal is anymore than I'm gonna be
honest with you. The you know, getting tattoos at nineteen
and then getting tattoos now at the pain is a
lot different. I swear it hurts more now. And maybe
it's just because I've ran out of all the easy spots.
(47:17):
Um And I used to say, oh, I'm just gonna
get like one. I have one on the inside of
my arm. Was like that's it. And you know, it
was like, I won't go past here, and I promised
my mom wouldn't go past here. And then here we
are and I have my throat tattooed, and literally there,
I'll tell you, I'm gonna be honest with you. It
really was not. It wasn't It wasn't bad. My chest
is not filled in because that hurts so bad. I
(47:39):
felt that in my throat. I didn't feel my throat
at all. Your chest you felt, yeah, in my throat,
but the throat throat, I didn't feel it. The throat
really wasn't that bad. I mean, I would like to relate.
I've got like four or five but the only thing
that hurt me was up near this crease of the arm.
(48:00):
But that's like I'm like a second grader being like,
lookam boo boo, and you're like a college graduate like
that's nothing, kid, no, no it. I complain like the
whole time. But yeah, my mom used to be kind
of like, please don't. But I mean the other day
she's like, when did you get that clover on your hand?
I was like, oh co She's like that's really cute.
I'm just like, what is happening. It does in a way,
(48:22):
not that you need it, but especially whenever you're being introduced,
it does legitimize you as like I'm an artist, Like,
regardless of of how you feel about me or if
you like my music, like, I'm an artist. I'm not
a prepared little pr singer. Like you are a legitimate
(48:45):
artist before you even hear you sing, because visually you
go well, this girl isn't have round yeah, and you
know that right, like you know it. You know that,
like people believe you because it's almost like you have
the story written on you up. Like people know I'm
a nerd because my glasses. I wear glasses because I
need them, but they're part of the story, right, I
(49:05):
have big, dark, grim glasses, and they're like that guy
is a nerd, and he's probably pretty smart, and he
probably got pounded as a kid, and that's why it's
kind of funny, like you can tell just boop glasses here.
I am the same thing with you, Like I look
at you. I haven't met you before now. I've been
a big fan, but I haven't met you until now.
And I go one. She's hardcore about it whatever she's
involved in, because she's committed these tattoos, so she she
(49:27):
feels and then two like I wouldn't I wouldn't mess
with you, like I feel like you would shank me.
That's what I feel like it what happened to Like
that's I wouldn't cross you because you can take the
punishment of a needle in a tattoo over and nowhere.
I mean, am I wrong? I pass out when I
get my blood drawn. Okay, I don't need to you
don't need to kill would I have to feel? Well,
(49:47):
I'm just I'm just being honest here. We've we've talked
about honesty. I'm honest. Um yeah, yeah, I mean, I'm
glad you see it that way. A lot of people
are just like she's just got so many different ones.
She can't make her mind up. Okay, you know I
never thought about it like that. You thought about it
in a positive way. I thought about it in a
way of you have committed to who you are. Yeah,
(50:08):
I like that way better. But is it that now
she's running a second one? Is it because you're good?
Like I really? I really did. And I had this
conversation with somebody, UM, just about how you know, I
am tired of just like listening to what everybody else
wants me to do. And I'm like, you know it,
(50:29):
it doesn't it doesn't matter because at the end of
the day, those people they just have they have to
live with their choices. I have to live with mine.
And I'm not gonna go not do something because I'm
afraid of what. You know. I remember when I got
my hands tattooed, I had somebody look at me and
they're like, well, I hope the music thing pans out
because you're not gonna be able to do anything else.
And I'm like, okay, I don't I'm not gonna worry
(50:50):
about that. But well, I'm not gonna get my hands
tattooed because I might not be able to do this
music thing and the hands are hardcore there. I'm glad
I got that. I'm glad I got those done a
long time ago because they hurt. What do we see?
Hold them up? Rock rock roll? Rock and roll? What's
on the underside of that? They're like old sailor tattoos.
I ever had a you know, we ever wanted to
(51:13):
sail I ever thought about getting on the old ship.
You could do that if musically didn't work out with you.
That's true, I could be a sailor. What else? What else?
Are you passionate about? Shoes? Sneakers? I do like sneakers.
I saw you got some new ones. Yeah, I mean again,
(51:35):
I'll give you a quick I have I come from addicts.
I'm an addict. Just I've never had a drink because
I know I'll drink everything, and I'll never do drugs
because I know I'll do. I'll win at drugs. There's
not even a game, but I'll win. But what happens
is I put that in other places because I know me.
I was always jealous of kids who had nice shoes.
(51:55):
And in the first like check I ever got where,
I was like, wow, I'm not living paycheck to check.
I bought a pair Jordan's like they mean so much
to me because I never had. That's that's how I
feel about my so up until I guess I've had
my car for about a year now, Um, I never
had a car they see ever, never had a carton,
(52:16):
none of that, and legit for the up until I
was doing pretty good, you know, making finally making money
and stuff with my friends. Really, why are you still
driving a two thousand seven Honda Odyssey? Why are you
driving this minivan? I was like, well, my mom was
gonna get rid of it and get a new van,
(52:36):
and so I gave them fifteen hundred dollars and I
took that minivan and I was like, the lumbar support
is great. And so finally I was like all right,
I mean I could not make my mind up on
one on one and I finally went and got me
a little Mercedes C three hundred and she never turns
the air condition off, even in the winter and maybe
thirty degrees. I knew I would beat my mom's Like,
(52:58):
you're gonna be the first person to go buy them
a brand new Mercedes. Drove it off the lot and
there'll be no A C in that, like you will
be that. I get my first bus, the heat and
the A C went out in the front of it.
I was like, this is this is kind of funny
to me. I was like, you know, I got to
find a little humor, but I can I get it
with Like the shoes, which I've been checking out your
(53:19):
Balensioga shoes. I love balenci Auga. There's stuff so weird
and I love it. These are the greatest because they're
We're also tennis shoe. I love a flip flopp or
a slide. Yeah, and these are my winter slides. There
you go. And I like that. I love shoes. And
I spent too much money on shoes because I didn't
have any money to buy shoes, right And and I've
(53:40):
heard you have nineteen Mercedes is now yeah, just got you.
I had nineteen and then and then um, now I
have twenty two. So you're a shoes person there too. Yeah, yeah,
what what what do you like the most? Probably I'm
I'm all about the Jordan's. Yeah, consistently. Yeah, man clean. Yeah,
(54:00):
I'm very weird about and that's probably a problem, um sue.
Right now, I just living, you know, I'm not home much,
so I have like a one bedroom cabin out by
the river. It's like real peaceful shoes just piled up
Jordan's because I was getting in these lotteries and you know,
you put in and then if you get them, you
get them. If you don't, you don't want for there.
(54:21):
For a long time I was not getting any I
was getting really stressed, and then I would just start
putting in for like four or five different pair and
then it was like, congratulations, You've got all days, and
just like oh gosh. But I went out to l
A and went in some of those stores where they're
just like up the wall you have stock use that.
I do use stock X them. Yeah, it takes a
(54:41):
little long to get in and I'm a little I
don't really have to pay, but I will buy occasionally
some stuff in stock X, especially if it's stuff I can't.
I bought some pink New Balance. The thing about New
Balance now is now they know they're cool. They now know,
and so now they're just jacking the prices. Like when
it was just a good dad shoe. Yeah, those were
the days. That's so yeah, all that's coming back. But now, hey, Mike,
(55:05):
you have a question about one of the tattoos. Yeah,
I've been thinking about getting a Simpsons tattoo, and I
know you have Maggie Simpson, like would inspire that? Uh,
I don't know. I just thought it was really funny
on all the Christmas and like Cold episodes where they
would dress her up and she looked like a little star. Literally,
there's no story behind that. I will say. Um, I
(55:27):
don't know why I'm saying this, but I so I
have a new newly diagnosed bladder condition. Very fun. But
it's weird because I was going to my doctor and
he was just kind of like a very stoic command
and have anything. And then all of a sudden he
was over there washing his hands and his hey, is
that a Maggie tattoo on your legs? And I was
like yeah, and he was like, Simpsons is still going.
(55:49):
They're still making episodes and that was it. And they
walked out in the room and I was like, well,
he knew, he knew Maggie Simpson was so I was like,
I guess I got it. For some reason, that tattoo
brought you guys together. It brought us together. But that's
a little awkward. Yeah, yeah, but the tattoo is what
brought us together. I'll share a little with you two.
(56:11):
I have an odd IBS issues, which I never knew
even was a thing. Yeah, And I had to go
in and get the old tube what's it called, the
colonosopy and an endoscopy and they put you under, Yeah,
and you come up and nothing was wrong with me.
And I went through all that work and nothing was
wrong with me. They can't find it, So maybe I
just have what you have. Yeah, yeah, it's uh. I've
(56:32):
been dealing with that since I was like seven, and
towards the end of well, I didn't know, and then
towards the end of the last tour, and then I
was doing radio stuff that really tired and really grumpy
and was like losing my mind, like hallucinating, couldn't figure
out what was going on. I went to the doctor
and that's what it is. Since they put me on
like a to get like a catheter once a week
(56:53):
because I was just going to doctors and they were
just like giving me an antibiotic and like writing it
off and I was never getting better and they didn't
like actually check. So now I'm like immune to a
lot of antibiotics because of all. Yeah, so it's it's
been fun now and nobody can't fix you because they
overprescribed your body. But that doctor liked my sinceons tatut
(57:14):
and this has been a medical minute with I do
want to mention that the deluxe edition of your record
is out and it the next six songs, the last
six songs came out, What's stay the first. It's been
like four days, so I haven't had time to listen
to these over and over and over again yet only
one time all the way through. Um so the six
(57:36):
songs that came out is that what the label said
they were going to do, is that what they said
that they could do for you is put out a longer.
So that was actually my idea, Like from the beginning,
I knew that I always like when artists do that,
you know, they go out and they put the dux
out and um, I mean like to me, especially if
it's a record that I really like and then they
(57:57):
go add a few more songs out with that. I
always find that be really cool and and they were
really cool with that. So here is through your eyes
the word Chilotte kind of watching think we're getting close
(58:22):
to wrapping this thing up. We've been here for an hour. Um,
I've got to wonder and I've got to imagine now
that when you're playing shows and are you still doing
shows with Ryan Herder? I am, yeah, like one of
my buds, like the greatest guy, super nice. I have
to wonder though, if people are starting to know your
songs a lot more and you're noticing it in the crowd. Yeah,
Wilder Days. We we always played that one last and
(58:46):
if they don't know any other word, they you know,
it's any other song they know Wilder Days and it's insane.
It's It's like, that's one of the best compliments you
can get as an artist, to have them singing, screaming
every word. Are you starting to feel that, hey, I
think I might actually make it, This might actually be
something better than just getting a record deal, Like, are
(59:09):
you starting to feel that a little bit. Yeah, yeah,
I mean, you know, I'm looking forward to you know,
we're working on getting me my own like headline run,
you know, with COVID and everything, it's been all these
shows are getting moved and uh, venues have been full,
and so we've been on a lot of opening shows.
But I'm like really excited to get out there and
do like my own own run. And I'm not nervous
(59:29):
about it anymore because i know, like what little shows
I have done, you know, in the past year, like
just me like I can sell those out and and
and that's like a good feeling to be able to
go and do that and have to add other dates
because you're selling stuff out when you move into town soon,
I need to the next three months months. Yeah, I
thought that you seem like you have enough room here
(59:49):
on just just just you know, stack up and you
probably could move in a part of the house. I'd
never even know, you know, just let the bag, you know.
Ye uh, you know, I think Morgan's thought me under
the bus more than than any other artists so far.
I enjoyed that. Okay, I'll never be back. You're like,
you're never coming. I do have to say, one of
(01:00:11):
my my best friend. She listens to you religiously every
day and yes, every single yeah, Hannah, Hannah, Hannah, she
got married Hannah love it. Oh. I still call her
by her maiden name, but yeah, she listens to you
all the time. And so I guess you you had
given me like a shout out, you talked about me.
(01:00:32):
She freaked out, called me screaming, like she she doesn't
get excited about like a lot of stuff, but like
she she loves you. And so anyway, I feel like
she's been talking about you and apparently tagging my name
on your stuff for the last someone has been doing
that because randomly you would just be tagged in pictures Hannah. Yeah,
(01:00:53):
I don't know, it's been like she's been doing that
for years. So I feel like I really owe her, Like, hey,
I'm here right now. Well it's been really good to me.
Twice we've had to delay this, yeh. And so I'm
I'm just a massive fan, you know, without ever meeting you.
And sometimes I'm a massive fan of and I meet
somebody and I'm like, man, I wish I wasn't, but
that's not the case. Here. You're awesome. Yeah, you had
(01:01:14):
sit right now, he's not. Here's the thing, I don't
have to say that, and I wouldn't say that, so
but I don't even need to wish you success. Like
you're you're really really good. You're authentic. Um, you know
you have, you have something to say, You have a perspective.
You know, that's so hard to have an original perspective.
And I think that the key to having an original
(01:01:35):
perspective is just sharing your own. And sometimes people are
afraid to do that. And I think you've done that,
and so I'm just I'm glad you're here. I can't
wait for you to move to town. And I'm a
big fan, So pencil me in a fan number ninety
four thousand and six. Okay, as long as I have
my spot, I feel pretty good. Let's go to read
reading our video. Guy read, you get one question. We
(01:01:56):
always make read ask a question at the very end.
All Right, you say you're a big Elvis fan. Have
you ever been to Graceland in Memphis? Twice? Twice? Twice?
I have? Yeah, It's it's funny. Um. I went once
when I was like, I don't know, by like ten,
it felt like the longest drive from Virginia ever. Um,
but then I went again a couple of years ago. Really, yeah,
(01:02:17):
I've never been, but I knew you would have a
good insight. Yeah it's it's um. And now they're fella
here with you see your bodyguard. We actually just met
who who who? He's my driver. He's not your driver.
We actually he did drive me here. Okay, I don't
have my car out here off because I didn't see
when you said Mercedes, I didn't se a Mercedes coming. Okay, yeah,
(01:02:40):
it's at home. Still, it's at home still. Yeah, I'm
literally I just got in from Key West yesterday and
I leave tomorrow to go to Boston. All right, Well,
I'm glad you're here. Everybody. Check out reckless the deluction
just udition just came out. If you were like me
and you gobbled up the entire record, six new songs, Um,
you're killing it. This this song is gonna be a massive,
(01:03:02):
massive hit. Uh. And that's all. I have nothing else
to say, because I've said everything good and I mean
all of it, and I'm not really going to say
much opposite of this when you leave. All right, there
she is you guys. Follow Morrigan at Morgan Wade Music,
Morgan Wade Music, Thanks Morgan, Yeah, thank you. H
Host
Bobby Bones
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