Megan Moroney saw her entire life change when she released her viral 2022 hit “Tennessee Orange.” Peaking in the top 10 of Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, the college football-inspired track landed the University of Georgia grad a record deal with Arista Nashville. Releasing two full-length albums since then, Moroney continued to win fans over with her catchy melodies, clever lyrics, and confessional-style storytelling. Listening to songs like “6 Months Later” and “Am I Okay?” it isn’t hard to hear echoes of the country music firebrands who came before her. Recently, the “I’m Not Pretty” singer revealed which fellow singer-songwriter has most influenced her own musical path.
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Megan Moroney Names Her Biggest Influence
A full decade before the country music world learned Megan Moroney’s name, a 24-year-old singer-songwriter from Texas was just arriving. With her September 2012 single “Merry Go ‘Round,” Kacey Musgraves shined an uncompromising light on small-town rural life—and revealed a knack for devasting wordplay.
Inspired by Musgraves’ debut album, Same Trailer Different Park, Megan Moroney decided to try her hand at songwriting. “Kacey was the first artist that made me want to, like, write my own music,” said the ACM’s New Female Vocalist of the Year during a recent appearance on Jake Shane’s podcast Therapuss.
She continued, “I was like, ‘She is so clever. Like, how does she put those feelings into words and then it rhymes, and it’s so clever and funny?’ And that’s when I was like, I’m going to try to write a song.”
So great was her love for the “High Horse” singer that Moroney once waited outside Musgraves’ tour bus after a show in Alabama. Years later, the two would share a dressing room at the CMA Awards.
“She has so many songs where I’m like, ‘Oh, I wish I wrote that,’” said the “No Caller ID” singer.
More On Her New Album—Or Not
For months now, Megan Moroney has been dropping hints that the follow-up to her gold-certified sophomore album, Am I Okay?, is right round the corner. During her conversation with Jake Shane, the 28-year-old confirmed that she has finished writing her third album and is currently listening to mixes. However, Moroney is keeping the most important details close to her chest for now.
“These next songs — like, usually I’m one to, like, tease the crap out of them… and I’m just like, ‘I can’t give away too much yet, because I’m like the most proud of this next album of all my stuff,” she said.
“It’s my best work,” Moroney continued proudly. “Like, I hate to toot my own horn, but… toot motherf—ing toot.”
Featured image by Tibrina Hobson/Getty Images for Hallmark Media
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