Morgan Wade sits down for an interview with Kelleigh Bannen on Today’s Country Radio about the release of ‘Reckless (Deluxe Edition).’ Morgan describes the virtues of not “fitting in” and the importance of having the right people in her corner. Tune in and listen to the interview with Morgan Wade in-full here.
Morgan Wade on Thinking Her Voice Was Weird
MORGAN: I was so, like I didn’t want anybody to hear my singing, that if my parents pulled in, I put the guitar away. Because I didn’t want anyone to hear me. I was just like, “Your voice sounds weird.” And I just remember being like, “All right, you’re probably never-“
KELLEIGH: Who told you that? You told yourself that?
MORGAN: No. Growing up, I remember there was like a singing club at school. And I remember everybody except for me got in. And I was like, “Oh, your voice is weird.” And there were like these girls that were my friends; they all want tickets to come to shows now.
KELLEIGH: Yeah. I’m going to hunt all those girls down.
MORGAN: No, I’m dead serious. I was playing a show and I saw one of them, and I’m like… You know it was elementary school. We were friends in high school, but you know it wasn’t anything like that. But I think it was the best thing to happen to me because it forced me to, “All right, well, I’m just going to do this for me.” And I don’t think I would write the way I write now, if I wasn’t like, “All right. You know, I can be as authentic as possible because I was the only one that was going to hear it.”
Morgan Wade on Being Weary of Meeting with Record Labels
I don’t know that mainstream radio or anything like that ever really… It was a thought that I had, but I didn’t know what goes into that. And I was just happy we put this record out and it’s doing good. And then a bunch of other labels started coming around. And at first, it was just like, “Okay. I’m happy where I’m at. I love Thirty Tigers. I love what I’m doing.” And my manager was like, “Well, let’s take some meetings. Let’s start talking to these people and see what they’re up to.” And in my head, I just have that where I’ve done everything myself for so long like, “They’re just going to want to change it.” Which is kind of… There was a couple labels before I had recorded ‘Reckless’ that I had met with, and they were just like, “Well…” We had five songs done and they were like, “Well, let’s do this, let’s do this.” And I’m like, “If you like it, you like it. If you don’t, you don’t. And so why would you change it if this is what caught your attention?”
Morgan Wade on Initially Meeting with Sony Before Signing with Them
MORGAN: But then, I just started to realize, finally, I was just very blunt [to Randy Goodman of Sony Music Nashville.] I was like, “What are you going to change?” And [Randy] was like,” What do you mean change? I don’t want to change anything.” He was like, “You guys are doing great.” I was like, “Well, are you going to want to get rid of [my producer Sadler Vaden?] Are you going to want to… ” And he was like, “No, we love what you’ve done.” And that spoke to me. And I was like, “Well, what can you do that I can’t do by myself?” They really just wanted-
KELLEIGH: What did he say?
MORGAN: He was like, “We want to push everything. We want to get you out there in front of the people that you can’t be in front of without the push and the help.” Everything was just so genuine from him. And, it wasn’t, “We want to change you.” It was, “We love what you’re doing. We want to help you.” And, it felt like the right decision. And, I’m super happy with the choice.
Morgan Wade on Having the Right Team Around Her
Everybody that I have on my team, they just want to know, “What do you want to do?” It’s not a, “You should do this. We should try to sound like this.” I mean, [my producer Sadler Vaden,] we’re always on the same page creatively, and that’s such a big deal. I’ve not once felt, and from the label, from anybody, that they’re pushing me to do something I don’t want to do. If I don’t want to do something, I’ll be like, “I don’t…” And they’re like, “Okay. All right. Well, let’s talk about that.” And I think that’s so great because I grew up hearing, when I first started playing music, about, “Well, if you go to Nashville and you get with these labels, they’re just going to try to change you and screw you over.” And I have not had that experience.
