Morgan Wade released her sophomore album Psychopath this past Friday, and I can honestly say it’s gotten better with every listen.
Her brilliantly honest songwriting is certainly the focal point, and the strength, of the record, and she’s never one to shy away from tough topics and things that most people don’t want to say out loud, which is what I love about her.
And in a recent interview with People, she opened up and got very candid about her journey to sobriety and recalled the moment she decided she needed to get sober.
She was visiting New York City, and after a night of heavy drinking, couldn’t shake the hangover and added she “didn’t think she was going to make it out” of her battle with depression.
Morgan says she “drank more than” she ever had in her life during that time:
“I drank more than I’ve ever drank in my life. I remember a hangover that lasted for a couple weeks. I was so depressed, I didn’t think I was going to make it out of that.
I’ve had tough moments even in the last few months where it’s been really hard. It’s been so long that I have to remind myself the reasons why I’m sober.
As time goes on you’re like, ‘Well, maybe I’m different now. Maybe I could drink and not be the same person.’ And then it’s like, ‘No, you’ve got to stay away.’’
She explained that no one in her immediate family struggled with alcohol addiction, and she started drinking a lot around age 19 in college because it helped her get out of her shell:
“I was like, ‘OK, I like how out of my shell I’m getting. Soon drinking was all I wanted to do.”
And of course, like so many in the music industry know all too well, the habit got much worse as she started playing more gigs, getting free bar tabs and traveling around with the guys in her band:
“I couldn’t stop. I’m kind of like that with everything — it’s all or nothing for me with everything I do.”
Morgan says the aforementioned trip to New York was a “big defining moment” of her life that’s changed everything for her, though it certainly hasn’t been easy.
It’s great having someone like her be so honest, though, about her struggles because it’s not something we talk about enough in the industry, and it’s admirable that she’s so open about it.
In the conversation, she also told them a little bit about her stunning song “27 Club,” which in my opinion was the easy standout and the perfect album closer.
A solo write by Morgan, she addresses her mental health struggles in reference to the “27 Club,” a commonly-used list of legendary musicians that have passed away at the age of 27, including Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Amy Winehouse and more.
She delivers a pretty seething line about how even though she’s found fame and success, it doesn’t magically make every struggle go away, though “at least now I’m getting paid.”
Morgan told People she wrote that song in three chunks, with the last verse coming after she turned 28 in December as a way to remind herself how far she’s come and everything she has to look forward to still:
“I wrote that song in three different chunks in different times of my life. I wrote the first verse a long time ago, and then the second verse a good while ago as well. Then the last verse, I turned 28 in December and wrote that in January.
To me it was just kind of like, ‘Hey, look, you’ve made it. There’s been a lot of times in these past few years that you didn’t think you were going to continue to make it,’ especially with my mental health and my depression and everything.
And so to be able to sit there and be like, ‘Alright, I’ve got another day, I’ve had another year….’ That felt like a good way to end the record.”
I highly recommend diving into Psychopath and all the good stuff on the 13-song tracklist, and I promise this one will stop you in your tracks.
This is Morgan at her finest, and I love everything about it:
“27 Club”
“Want”
“Losers Look Like Me”
