Morgan Wade Interview

Morgan Wade’s music hits one like a shot of something strong and real. It’s the kind of country that strips away the polish and leaves you with raw emotion, honest storytelling, and a voice that’s both vulnerable and fiercely powerful. From her breakthrough album ‘Reckless’ to her latest, 2024’s ‘Obsessed,’ Wade has carved out a space for herself that’s unapologetically authentic. She’s not afraid to lay bare her struggles, her triumphs, and everything in between, and that’s precisely why her music resonates so deeply.

Wade returns to Cleveland at The Agora Theatre on Wednesday, March 12 {Details and tix}. She’ll also be back in THE LAND as the opening act for Shinedown‘s show at Rocket Arena on August 19.

Wade is a native of Floyd, Virginia (population: 449). This interviewer had two of the craziest days of his life in Floyd, partying with the assistance of Grateful Steve’s moonshine. It’s a beautiful mountain town with no shortage of natural inspiration. It’s also home to Floyd Fest, one of the more unique gems in the overpopulated music festival landscape.

“Floyd Fest is always a great time. Floyd’s a great place. I had a great time,” Wade reminisced after this interviewer rambled his praises for her hometown. “I don’t get to go back there as much as I would like to see my folks, but Floyd is awesome.”

After her days in Floyd, Wade found success early on in her career when her 2021 debut album, ‘Reckless,’ was named the best country album of the year by Rolling Stone.

Fast forward to her 2024 release, ‘Obsessed‘: Wade may have made the record on happy-accident (more on that later), but she did have a goal in mind.

“I was like, I need to kind of fall back in love with this,” Wade said. “I think that you should put that first record out like ‘Reckless.’ I didn’t have any pressure on that. No one put pressure on me, and no one I’ve worked with has ever put pressure on me. Sadler Vaden, who I made reckless and ‘Psychopath’ with, he never put any kind of pressure on me. We always had a great time, but I put a lot of pressure on myself. And so I think I was working really, really hard and then I just started letting everything get in my brain and just kind of mess with me. And I was like, okay, this is not what I wanted to do. I just wanted to write songs and go play my songs. And so I was like, I’m just going to write. “

Wade wrote all 13 tracks on ‘Obsessed’ on her own. They were written organically, with no end game in mind.

“I didn’t realize I was making a record,” she admitted. “I was kind of going through a bunch of stuff, and I was not really enjoying myself anymore. Do I really want to continue playing music? Is that what I really want to do? And so I was just sitting down, just me and my guitar writing these songs, and my guitar player, Clint Wells, who’s always out on the road with me, we were just stopping at random little hole-in-the-wall studios, just random ones. And we’d have a day off, and he would find a studio, and I was just going in, just me and a guitar, laying these songs down. I still didn’t know what I wanted to do with them, but I was like, I just want to go in and cut these so I have them. I fell back in love with it, and I realized, okay, you don’t have to worry about what everybody else wants because, no one was asking for this, and you just made this record, and people love it, and things are going really well. I think that I would also learn to just do what I want and go with my gut and be as authentic as possible, and then that’s going to be what’s best for me. Because I would rather go make a record that 20,000 people listen to it and 20,000 people love it versus millions and millions, and millions of people hear it, and half of them hate it if that makes any sense. I’d rather have my core following and the people who care about me love my music, listen to it, and gain something from it. I think at that point, too, I was really struggling with what is my purpose. Why am I doing this? Because when I started writing music, I was writing it for me, and I was writing about real serious things like mental health and sobriety, and I was like, am I losing that? What am I really focusing on now? And so it was a time for me that I was able to self reflect and fall back in love with the actual process. It was just all these songs were written just how I’ve always written, how I was writing when I was a kid sitting in my room, just me and a guitar writing very unfiltered. Exactly. Just whatever I felt is what I wrote. And so that’s how all these were written. And I think not knowing that I was going to make a record out of them was the best thing possible. There wasn’t any pressure. It’s not like I was like, oh my gosh, I got to have this record, or I’ve got to edit this or censor this. I just wrote the songs I wanted to write, and then that’s what happened.”

In addition to doing her headlining tours and opening for country music royalty, Wade has spent time on tour with Joan Jett and Alanis Morissette.

“The people that are going to come, the people that came out to see Joan and Alanis, and there’s so many people. I was just recently in Denver and I had so many people at the VIP meet and greet that I did before the show that were like, Hey, I discovered you with Joan and Alanis here in Denver. And I’m so glad I did because they’re like, I like rock music. I wouldn’t have ever come out to a country concert, but then I came, and I heard you, and I’m like, ‘I love her. I love this artist.’ So they’re there. So the people that wouldn’t normally go to a country concert or click on my music, if it’s got a different genre label, that’s not something that they would usually listen to. They’re coming out and they’re hearing me, whether they’re just getting there and they’re grabbing a beer or whatever, they’re being exposed to my music and that opens me up to a whole other world that I wouldn’t normally be able to reach.And then they’re like, oh my gosh, I love this. So it has been super beneficial. It’s been really great. And too I get to learn from these other artists, not even thinking about genres, but getting to see Joan and Alanis with their sage presence and how they interact and their marketing and their business techniques. Getting to see all that, too, has been super beneficial for me to be a younger artist and even an artist that’s been put in a different genre, just getting to learn everything that they’ve done for their careers. It’s all been super beneficial.“

Wade was asked if she approaches a headlining show, opening for a country artist, or taking the stage first at a cross-genre show affects her approach to performing.

“It’s two different worlds because when I just did the Alanis and Joan tour, of course, I played 25, 30 minutes, something like that. You go out there and it’s my job to win these people over because the real reason they’re coming is to see Joan and Alanis. And so I’m coming out there to be like, Hey, this is why next time I’m in your town, you need to come back and see me. And so it’s my job to go out there and impress them and work really hard, and I’ve got five or six songs to do that versus the headline show. These are my fans, my core fans that I have had. And maybe even on this run, it’s been really cool because I’m going back and it’s a lot of fans that I made on the Alanis and Joan tour, which is really cool. But I can go out there and I’m playing their favorite songs in the deep cuts and throwing out new stuff and really getting to have that fan interaction. You’re getting to play hour and a half, two hours, it’s your own show. So that does go a lot differently. My world then, and my fans are in that we’re in together. So obviously, it’s two different things. And it’s my fans, they’re all coming to see me. So it obviously is a little different, but you still got to go out there and give them 110%. It doesn’t matter what show it is, headline or opening, you got to go out there and win ’em over every time. But, and it’s so cool, too, these headline runs to see a lot of familiar faces of people that are still coming out show after show. And some of the people, they’ll be at three or four or five shows in a row. And I think that’s just so awesome, especially it’s hard to afford to go out and do this. And so these people are spending their hard earned money on tickets and merch and hotel rooms and gas and flights. And so regardless, you got to go out there and give them their money’s worth and more and still leave them wanting more and wanting to come see you every time you roll through town.”

And, I’d be remiss if I didn’t check in with Morgan about her plethora of tattoos!

“Funny enough, I’m terrified of needles, but tattoos don’t bother me,” she said. “I don’t like it if I have to get blood drawn; I try to avoid it as much as possible. Any of that stuff I can’t stand, but the tattoos are different. I’ve got the Morton Salt Girl tattooed on my arm, and my grandma used to put the canister of salt down on the table when she’d make dinner. And I’d just sit there and trace the salt girl in my hand. And anytime I look at that tattoo, it’s like I can smell the food in her kitchen and hear the music playing in the background while she’s getting dinner ready. And it’s really good memories to look at that one. Everybody wants to come touch that one. If they see me out, they feel the need to come touch that tattoo because they’re like, ‘I recognize that from somewhere.’ I’m like, ‘Yes, it’s the salt girl.’ So that’s the one that’s most recognized. I get stopped by that one a lot, but it is my favorite.”

And, what’s next for Morgan Wade?

“I think we’re working on some other stuff, like the fall shows and stuff like that. But I’m also trying to take a little bit of time downtime off and be able to see my family and do some stuff. I’m taking the whole month of June off, which seems pretty crazy to me. But because I haven’t done that, I can’t remember the last time during the summer months that I’ve had time off,” she said. “So I’m going to try to take me a little vacation and relax. I’m working on new music. I’ve been in the studio. We’ve got stuff that’s going to be coming out and promoting some new stuff, but I’m mainly just excited to get to go through the Shinedown run. It’s going to be awesome!”