Singer/songwriter John Morgan just nabbed his first No. 1 song as an artist, “Friends Like That,” with a heavy assist from Jason Aldean. Aldean was just returning the friendly favor. Morgan has co-written 16 songs for Aldean over the years, including several of Aldean’s 29 No. 1 songs like “Trouble with Heartbreak” and Aldean’s Carrie Underwood collaboration, “If I Didn’t Love You.”
“Friends Like That” is from Morgan’s debut album, Carolina Blue, which will be available Friday. Morgan co-produced the album alongside Brent Anderson.
Aldean signed Morgan to his Night Train Records in 2022, Aldean’s imprint at BBR Music Group/BMG. Although Morgan wrote a large chunk of Aldean’s last two albums and is signed to his imprint, he says country music fans shouldn’t expect his album to reflect Aldean’s music. Their projects might have similarities, but the men come from very different backgrounds. Morgan has performed bluegrass for a decade and plays mandolin, dobro, bass, and a little bit of banjo.
“I love a lot of different music, and that was my approach for this album,” Morgan said. “This is my first full project, and it is going to set the tone, essentially.”
With that in mind, Morgan was determined not to cut any song that didn’t have a good hook or sound like it could be a country radio single. Like Keith Whitley and Ronnie Milsap, he wanted to give each song its own sonic lane.
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John Morgan: “I Love a Lot of Different Music”
“If you listen to some of those old records, you never know what’s coming next,” he said. “A steel guitar could kick off the first song, and the next one could come in with a horn section. You never know what’s coming, but you know who it is as soon as they start singing. I tried to pay respects in that regard. I’ve got to sell every song.”
Morgan wanted his debut album to intertwine his tastes in a fluid and cohesive way. He played all the guitars on the album and believes his rootsy influences shine most of the album’s last two songs. Morgan wrote “Without ‘Em” alongside Austin Goodloe and Ben Hayslip and “How To Get Her” with Brent Anderson, Will Bundy, and Hunter Phelps. The title track, “Carolina Blue,” walks the line of that category. Given that Anderson is, as the singer describes him, “a monster guitar player,” he delegated some of the electric guitar solos to him.
“It was fun to get back to being a player,” he said. “I got back into that zone of just being a player and focusing on being very intricate and being clean. The studio’s a whole different world than playing live. It was just good for my soul.”
Morgan believes Carolina Blue also spotlights his ’80s rock influence, which is where he and Aldean sonically meet.
They met in person because of an Uber driver.
Morgan started coming to Nashville in 2019, then moved to Music City from his native North Carolina in 2020. He managed to land a publishing deal within about one year – amid the pandemic. His first writes with his songwriting heroes were over Zoom, a challenging situation because he considers himself an “in-person guy.” The confines of writing during Covid forced him to grow as a writer—and for that, he’s thankful. But he’s also happy it’s over.
John Morgan Moved to Nashville in 2020
On one of those early trips, Morgan and his friend took an Uber to dinner. The driver was friendly. They started chatting, and he told them he’d lived in Nashville for 20 years and had been writing songs for a long time. The driver told them he just worked for Uber on the side.
The men went to dinner and didn’t talk to the driver again. One year later, Morgan was working at a clothing retail store and recognized a familiar face—the driver from the year before. Morgan had been writing songs and recording demos in his bedroom, and the driver asked if they could get together and write.
The driver was good friends with one of Aldean’s band members, and the three men started writing songs together. A couple of weeks later, Morgan was mowing his lawn when his phone rang.
“I’m like, ‘Hello?’” Morgan said. “He’s like, ‘Hey man, this is Jason Aldean. I got your number from Tulley. I just want to give you a call.’ It was just funny. He was like, ‘Man, I heard some of your stuff. What are you doing now?’”
The conversation led to the men working together. Aldean signed Morgan to his publishing company and his record label.
“What I loved about him is he saw me as an artist, too,” Morgan explained, “not just a writer, a track guy. It was a great growing time for me to learn where my lane was.”
John Morgan Met Jason Aldean Through an Uber Driver
Morgan said “How to Get Her” and “Kid Myself,” which he wrote with Tyler Hubbard and Jordan Schmidt, might be his favorite songs on the album. But when people listen to the album top-to-bottom, he hopes listeners see it for it is—a nod to his North Carolina Smoky Mountain roots.
“My goal was to tip my hat back to the community that created me as a person,” he said. “A lot of people, unfortunately, don’t get to grow up in that environment where you can walk down the mountain and go to a gas station by yourself as a kid and not worry about anything.”
Morgan grew up on the same mountain where his mother’s family grew up – and was raised in the same house in which she was raised, which his great-grandfather built. That lifestyle, he explained, isn’t about playing shows or going on vacation every week. He grew up in the lower middle class, and his parents are the hardest-working people he knows.
“That is why I wanted to tip my hat back to that community as a thank you for allowing me to not only, music stuff aside, but to have a perspective and a worldview of treating people with respect. That’s what matters. I’ve got two kids that I get to instill that in, and they get to see me have this cool job. But it doesn’t change who I am.”
Photo by Matthew Berinato
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