Two things are sacred in many a Southern family’s household—college football and country music. Both can divide as quickly as they can unite, and when it comes to the rivalry between the Tennessee Volunteers and the Georgia Bulldogs, there is no gray area—only red or orange. Country singer Megan Moroney knows this well, having grown up in Douglasville, Georgia, and then earning her marketing degree in Athens. In 2022, the then-unsigned artist broke into the national spotlight with “Tennessee Orange,” her song about crossing enemy lines in the name of love. Yeah, he’s got me doing things I’ve never done / In Georgia, they’d call it a “sin,” Moroney sings. I’m wearing Tennessee orange for him.
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The track was an instant and organic success, entering the Billboard Hot 100 based on downloads and streaming alone. Moroney parlayed that success into a record deal, and three years later, she’s headlining arenas. However, the “Am I Okay?” singer, 27, revealed Tuesday (Oct. 8) that not everyone was exactly crazy about the song at first.
“Yeah, I got death threats over that song,” Megan Moroney said matter-of-factly during an appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers.
The Southeastern Conference (SEC) foes have met on the gridiron every year since 1991, with Georgia leading the all-time series 30–23–2. With the conference recently eliminating divisions, 2026 will mark the first time in 35 years that the teams have not played one another. They will next face off in 2027 at Sanford Stadium in Athens.
Megan Moroney Talks Inspiration Behind Viral Hit
Although many still theorize that Megan Moroney wrote “Tennessee Orange” about noted Vols fan Morgan Wallen, the CMA-winning artist says its lyrics are purely hypothetical.
“Yeah, so, when I moved to Nashville, one day, I found myself wearing a Volunteers shirt. And I remember looking in the mirror, going, ‘My mom would absolutely kill me right now if she saw me in this gaudy orange,’” Moroney recalled to Meyers. “And so, then, I thought that would make a really good love song. Like, ‘I like this dude enough to not wear Georgia Red.’”
“Tennessee Orange” made it onto the airwaves when Spotify approached the “6 Months Later” songstress about appearing on their Fresh Finds program. They just needed an unfinished song.
“I was like, well, I’ve got this football song. It’s like the second week of football season, so maybe they’ll like this one. And then my marketing brain, I’m like, that’s easy to market this time of year anyways, it’s a song about Georgia and Tennessee football, kind of,” she said in an interview last month with songwriter Diane Warren.
She continued, “I released it just because Spotify asked me for a song, and I was like, this football one will probably work. And then it changed everything,”
Featured image by Lloyd Bishop/NBC via Getty Images
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