- 2 days ago
Megan Moroney was recently in our Nashville studios with Katie Neal, as she took us inside the tint, title, and topics of her third album, 'Cloud 9,' during the 'Superstar Power Hour.'
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00:00Megan Maroney is here and we're talking about dogs because I brought my puppy to the studio for the first
00:04time.
00:05But you're thinking about it.
00:06You've just got a lot going on.
00:07Yeah.
00:07I'm like, can I be a touring country artist and a great dog mom without having a significant other to
00:15split custody?
00:17I know.
00:18I will never forget when I brought the dog home.
00:19I was like, oh, wow.
00:20Like this is it's just us.
00:24Right.
00:24Or like the first time he got sick in the middle of the night.
00:26I was like, and there's no one here.
00:29I know.
00:30And I even I travel so much and I think it would be OK.
00:32But even like when I have to go to New York, like the poor dog is going to have to
00:36learn how to like pee on the street.
00:37You know what?
00:38They figure that out really quickly.
00:39I moved a dog to New York once and it figured I was like, oh, wow, you just knew what
00:42to do.
00:42So it will work out.
00:44OK.
00:44And I do think that you would.
00:45Well, this is encouraging.
00:46You would love having a bus dog.
00:48Oh, I know.
00:48I really want the companionship, I think.
00:51And I do.
00:52My bus will be less crowded next or I guess this year.
00:56So, yeah.
00:56Well, I'm excited for you.
00:58I can't wait to see pictures of this little baby.
01:00OK.
01:00So I was just thinking last time I saw you, was it Window City Smokeout, which was like the most
01:05insane crowd I've ever seen.
01:07It was so hot and the sun was so bright.
01:09I remember I went out like to introduce you.
01:11Everybody's like screaming Megan and it was so bright.
01:13I couldn't see the end of the crowd.
01:14And then somebody posted a picture over top and I was like, oh, my God.
01:18There's a lot of people there.
01:19There was a lot of people there.
01:20I love Chicago, though.
01:21Yeah.
01:22That was such a fun crowd.
01:23They love country music there.
01:24Yeah.
01:24It was great.
01:25Yeah.
01:25Also, that show and all your shows, the merch line was so long.
01:28Like I wanted a shirt so bad.
01:29And I was like, this is insane.
01:31They're real like troopers, too.
01:32Because, you know, it was like hot that day.
01:34And they're like, I need the blue hoodie.
01:35Right.
01:35And I'm like, I understand.
01:37Right.
01:37But I finally got my camo with the blue.
01:39But then I saw you just launched the camo with the pink.
01:42Oh, it's so good.
01:43I love it.
01:44It's like updating the uniform, you know?
01:46We have to have a new one.
01:48I feel like you're still like booked and busy right now.
01:50The album's coming in February.
01:52You've got this trip with your family.
01:53Do you have any other fun trips coming up?
01:54Because I feel like you and the girls are always like on the boat or doing something so
01:57fabulous.
01:57Me and the girls are always somewhere.
01:59I think we're going to go down to Kenny's place in St. John at some point.
02:07And then I am the maid of honor of my best friend's wedding.
02:12Which is exciting and terrifying.
02:14Terrifying.
02:14I'm like trying to, you know, figure out the production for this arena tour.
02:19And also I'm like, I need the monogram bags to be delivered on time.
02:23And the goodies have to be really good.
02:26So I'm kind of doing a lot right now.
02:28But yeah, I'm excited.
02:29I'm, you know, throwing the bachelorette party and I'll be, she's getting married in
02:35an island too.
02:36So I get to, it's a lot of beach time.
02:38A lot of beach time.
02:39I'm going to be looking nice and tan with or without my spray tan.
02:42It's going to be amazing.
02:43All right.
02:44Let's talk about six months later, making its way up the chart.
02:46Just tell me about like the day that you guys wrote this song.
02:49On a boat.
02:50This seems to be a theme.
02:51Yeah.
02:51We were in the middle of the ocean on a boat.
02:53We take a writer's trip every year down on a friend's yacht.
02:58And, um, we wrote it the first day that we were on the trip.
03:02So we were supposed to write songs like the whole time.
03:04And usually you leave those trips with like eight songs or, you know, 10 or something like
03:09that.
03:10Um, we only wrote six months later that trip because it was so good.
03:13Anything else we tried to start, I was like, it's not as good as six months later.
03:16Um, and another, like when we wrote that, we went on a run and the tempo was too slow
03:22because I wanted to be able to run to six months later.
03:24So now the tempo that you hear on the radio is running approved.
03:28Oh my God.
03:29Yeah.
03:30Sometimes you have to figure out like, I was like, something's not right with this.
03:33Like it's making me like, I feel like I'm lagging right now and I need to be hyped
03:37up.
03:37So wait, that's so funny that that's how that ended up.
03:40Yeah.
03:41Cause that might've been like a totally different song.
03:43Oh my gosh.
03:45I love this.
03:45Well, let's talk about cloud nine coming out February 20th.
03:47I want to know about the title track.
03:50The title track, um, obviously it's cloud nine.
03:53I had the title for a while and I got to a place like, um, the first quarter of last
03:59year
03:59where I was just like really happy.
04:02I was happy with how my career was going.
04:04Um, I just felt lighter.
04:05And so I had met up with earnest and I was like, I have this title cloud nine and he
04:11always
04:11has like the really cool chords and he starts playing something.
04:14And, um, the whole concept of the song is that you're above cloud nine.
04:18I think like it's a, it's a true love song.
04:20I feel like it's probably my first because my other songs like, am I okay?
04:25It's like crying and dying.
04:26And then like third time's a charm.
04:28I consider a love song, but it talks about dying alone.
04:30But cloud nine is straight up.
04:31Like we are, it's a long way down to cloud nine.
04:34So we are, um, cloud 10, 11, 12.
04:38Um, so I didn't realize you wrote it with earnest that like, I'm even more excited to
04:42hear him and I like started the chorus and then I finished it with Jesse Joe and Luke
04:46Laird cause Ernest and I was like touring schedule.
04:48It was like, we have, we have like 10 minutes to hang out today and then, um, see you next
04:53year.
04:53Yeah.
04:54So, um, when did you decide you were like, I want this to be the album title?
04:57Like, was there anything else that you thought about after we wrote it?
05:00Um, I was born on the ninth too, October 9th.
05:02So I'm just, you know, like, am I okay?
05:05It was really about that royal blue and of course cloud nine is pink, but I'm also fixated
05:09on nines.
05:10So, um, yeah.
05:13When did pink like reveal itself as the color?
05:15I wrote a song called medicine.
05:17And when I wrote that song, I, it was so pink.
05:21I thought medicine was going to be the title of my third album.
05:23Cause I thought Megan Maroney, medicine, MM3.
05:25I thought it was like, okay, big brain.
05:28Um, but then once I wrote cloud nine, I was like, Oh no, this is like, I could immediately
05:34see the cover.
05:35I saw music videos.
05:37I saw the tour design and I was just like obsessed with it.
05:40But, and you were like, and I get to pay to wear pink for a year, year and a half.
05:43Like there were some songs where I'm like, this could be like a orange or yellow, but
05:48I'm going to go and leave it in the pink realm.
05:50So I know I have thought about you several times.
05:52Cause I'm like, she's picked such great colors, but at some point, like you kind of get to the
05:55color, it's like picking out Skittles, you're like, I don't want a green or I don't want
05:59a yellow or I don't know what it has to.
06:00Fortunately, um, these songs have all made sense that way.
06:04I don't know if that'll always be a thing.
06:07I mean, eventually I'm going to run out of color, you know, do something else.
06:10But, um, yeah, it's, it's interesting how the first three albums, it was definitely green,
06:17a lot of blue, a lot of pink.
06:18Well, I even feel like, was it hair salon that was red?
06:21Like that album cover is red.
06:22Yeah.
06:22It was red.
06:23Yes.
06:24That's what it was.
06:24And cause that like, he made me do it.
06:26And I love me, um, those songs were so red to me that I was like, I'm just going to
06:31hair
06:32salon was light blue, but I was like, it's going in the red.
06:35Yes.
06:35So I love that.
06:36That song I think about all the time.
06:38I'm like, it is such a, it's such a good one.
06:40I feel like everyone's been in that situation.
06:41Um, I also want to talk about beautiful things also charting right now, which is really exciting
06:45into me.
06:46I feel like this is such a beautiful song.
06:47Cause I feel like every woman, like the beginning, like that first verse talking about being left out
06:52of something like is such a painful ache as a woman specifically.
06:56And I just think that like this song, whether you are a little girl or an older woman, like
07:01this is, it just hits you square in the chest.
07:03Yeah.
07:04I'm really proud to have written that song.
07:06I think, you know, I wrote it for my niece who she's two.
07:10And when we came up with the concept and we're talking about like what the song is really going
07:14to be about, I was just like, one day she's going to grow up and like, she's not going
07:18to get invited to something maybe, or when she goes through her first heartbreak, like
07:22each of these things, like when you've zoomed out, it's not the end of the world, but at
07:27the time it truly like feels like the world is crumbling down.
07:30And so I wanted to write her a song if, and when she ever needs it, that she could listen
07:35to and, um, just know that it's going to be okay.
07:38But it's been really interesting to see how this song is like transcended beyond that.
07:42Cause obviously, um, me and each of the songwriters had someone in mind when we're writing it in
07:47the writer's room, but, um, I just went to St. Jude and I performed it for them and they
07:51wrote down like they're beautiful things, you know?
07:53And, um, it's just like, really, I love writing songs.
07:57I love music.
07:58It's so healing and I just feel so grateful to be in a position where I can make songs
08:03like this and like, make people feel like, you know, they're not alone and it's going
08:07to be okay.
08:08Obviously not getting invited to a party is nowhere near what the people at St. Jude have
08:13to experience, but they relate to it in the same way.
08:16And it kind of makes you feel less alone.
08:18And, um, yeah, that was a, it was a really like, it was the hardest, um, it was the hardest
08:24like time I've had to sing that song because I'm like looking out and, um, it was just like,
08:29oh my gosh.
08:31And that's obviously not why I wrote it, but it transcends beyond just that one story.
08:35And I'm just grateful to have that song and it's going to be really exciting to play on
08:40the next tour.
08:41I think that that's going to be, that was going to be my next, one of my next questions
08:44to you is like, what song do you think that like we haven't heard yet is going to be like
08:48another song that people are just screaming back.
08:50I think who hurt you has the best bridge I've ever written.
08:54Oh, um, and honestly the change of heart is going to be really great.
09:02Um, there's obviously two collabs on there that I know my fans are going to lose it over.
09:06Can we talk about Casey?
09:07Yeah, Casey Musgraves and Ed Sheeran.
09:09Very casual.
09:10Tell me which songs these are.
09:10So Casey is on.
09:11Casey's on bells and whistles.
09:13Bells and whistles.
09:13Okay.
09:14And Ed Sheeran's on I only miss you.
09:16Um, the Casey thing happened because we're wrapping up the album, you know,
09:20and my team had reached out and they're like, is there like anyone that could like
09:24that anything we can do for you that would make this album even better?
09:27Um, and I was like, well, we could ask Casey to sing backgrounds.
09:31Cause I even thought like, obviously that would be like my super bowl to just hear our voices
09:35together in a studio version.
09:37Cause I've been listening to us sing together in the car for about 10 years.
09:40Um, or way longer than that actually.
09:42Um, but, um, I just wanted her to sing background vocals.
09:46Cause I was like, and I thought I was a Hail Mary.
09:48I was like, just ask her.
09:49I don't want to ask too much of her.
09:50So like just backgrounds, I will be grateful.
09:53You can, I literally said you can do whatever you want.
09:56I don't care what part you find.
09:58I know if you, anything you want to do, the world is your oyster.
10:02And when I found out she, um, was going to sing on it, I was just so excited.
10:06Cause it's like, Oh my God, I'm going to get to like tell people that I sang with Casey
10:09Musgraves.
10:10And when she sang on it, she sent a message.
10:12It was like, please don't feel like you have to use this, which I was like, first of all,
10:15it's getting used.
10:16But she was like, don't feel like you have to use this.
10:18But I went ahead and sang the second verse.
10:19Cause I love this song.
10:21Um, please don't like, yeah.
10:22She was like, I don't want this uptempo, midtempo.
10:26Um, I think it's mid.
10:27Okay.
10:27I don't think it's like necessarily a slow song.
10:29It's very sassy.
10:30Um, and it's just like, I was blown away.
10:34Just that's a bucket list thing as a songwriter.
10:36Like, what do you mean?
10:37She liked it so much that she didn't change a word.
10:39She didn't change how I sang anything.
10:41She literally just like lended her voice to my song that obviously my, I started writing
10:47songs because, um, I listened to the same trailer, different park.
10:50And I was just like, so intrigued that someone could be so clever and it's like so country.
10:55And I just, I just loved everything about her personality and just how clever she is.
11:00And of course her voice, I'm like a super fan right now, but, um, yeah, the fact that
11:04she sang that I happy cried and not really happy cry ever.
11:09I don't think I've ever happy cried.
11:10Well, you're happy and sad.
11:11Like, I know I'm like, Oh my God, it was crazy.
11:13And then the Ed thing, um, him and I met for the bluebird cafe thing.
11:18And I think like he just knew could tell I'm such a big fan of his.
11:22And he was telling me that he, his wife and his kids listen to me all the time.
11:26So there's just like that genuine, like fangirl moment from each of us.
11:31And I started sending him songs.
11:33He would send me some songs.
11:34And then, um, there were songs that we were, I was like, Hey, I don't know about that.
11:38And then I would send him one.
11:39He's like, Hey, I don't know about that.
11:40And then I was like a last, another hail Mary thing.
11:44I'm like, I'm just going to send him this like super traditional country song, um, and see
11:48what he thinks.
11:48And he ended up loving it.
11:49So what was that one called?
11:50I only miss you.
11:51I only miss you.
11:52Yep.
11:53So that I'm really excited about that because, you know, I think when you see a pop feature,
11:58you're probably like, Oh, it's going to be this like tempo song that you could play in
12:02the club.
12:02Um, but I guess you can still play this in the club if it was a sad girl club, but,
12:06um,
12:07it's definitely like it's straight up traditional country.
12:10There's like two guitars, um, some quiet drums and a pedal steel on it.
12:15So it's like very stripped down and to hear his voice sing a country song, like a true
12:19country song.
12:20It's really cool.
12:21Oh, I'm so excited.
12:22Okay.
12:22What other tracks are you most excited for people to hear?
12:26I love medicine.
12:27Okay.
12:28Obviously the title track.
12:29Is there any you're scared for people or like nervous for people to hear?
12:33Um, no, no.
12:35Okay.
12:35No, because I said this whole album with my chest.
12:39Yeah.
12:39I'm like, yeah, I'm just like, it is what it is.
12:42I feel like I've got, I know I've got the best fans in the world and they, they make
12:47me confident enough to where like, they're going to get behind my songs and like, they
12:53know that it's coming from an honest, authentic place.
12:56And that just has given me more confidence as a songwriter to like, not give a crap what
13:00people are going to say about it.
13:02Um, so yeah.
13:04You have one of the most incredible fan bases I think I've ever seen.
13:07Like they are the best.
13:08No, well, like every video you post where they're like screaming back at you.
13:11I'm just like, Oh, and it's like that every single show, like to the point where when it's
13:16not like that, I'm like, do you guys hate me?
13:18Well, it's gotta be crazy for you.
13:20Like playing a CMAs or something.
13:21You're not hurting your fans and you're used to that energy.
13:23And I'm like, um, what's happening?
13:25So I can hear, I don't hear anything.
13:28Yeah.
13:29What's wrong?
13:29Yeah.
13:30Um, you announced cloud nine tour.
13:31You said you, from the beginning, you saw the production for the show and I feel like
13:34this first big arena tour, that's your headlining show.
13:37This is your chance to like do all the fun production things you've always wanted to do.
13:39So like, what do you, what are some of the things you have planned that you can or want
13:42to talk about?
13:43I can say that the thrust is in the shape of a nine.
13:46So that's really fun.
13:47And like, it's so fun to, I'm like, what do you mean that I get to just like ask for
13:53stuff and it gets like done?
13:56Yeah.
13:56Like, I'm like, how crazy would like a nine thrust be?
13:58Yeah.
13:58Like, oh, we can do that.
13:59Easy.
13:59Easy.
14:00I'm like, okay, period.
14:01Um, so it's just going to be very dreamy and whimsical and I'm excited.
14:06I'm already planning the outfits.
14:07We're working on the set list.
14:08Um, so it's going to be the biggest and best tour yet.
14:12And like you said, like my fans are just the best.
14:15So getting to like sing these songs every single night with them, even when I write the
14:20songs, like one of my first thoughts is my fans are going to love this.
14:22And it's, it's, I think an amazing connection that we have.
14:27Like, I feel like my fans, my target audience reached, you know what I mean?
14:30Like I have found my people truly.
14:33Um, and it's just like, I'm so excited.
14:36I love touring and they make it really amazing.
14:40I've, if they weren't like they are, I don't know if I could, um, enjoy it as much as I
14:44do just cause touring is exhausting mentally and it's draining and you're never home and
14:48you miss things, but they make it worth it.
14:50A hundred percent.
14:51All right.
14:52Well that feels like the right note.
14:54I am so excited for you.
14:55I'm so excited to hear this album.
14:57Is there anything that I haven't asked you about this album just because we haven't heard
14:59it yet that like I need to know or that we need to hear about or.
15:02I will say that I've worked really hard to create, um, additional versions of the vinyls
15:09and it's not just a changed cover.
15:12Like the front and back are different and maybe even the track order on one of them.
15:18So, and it's all intentional and I try to put myself in my fans shoes.
15:22Like I'm obviously a fan of so many artists and I'm like, what do I want from them?
15:25And then I try to give my fans that.
15:27So, um, I had a lot of fun with the creative and they're all so different, which I think,
15:33you know, my fans that really want it are going to love it.
15:35And I can't say too much else.
15:38Okay.
15:39I feel like we're going to have a great 2026 wearing pink every day and every day.
15:42Any shade of pink.
15:43Yes.
15:44We love.
15:44Thank you for coming to see us.
15:45Thanks.
15:46Good to see you.
15:47Good to see you.
15:48Good to see you.
15:51Good to see you.
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