Fans Notice That Morgan Wallen’s Unreleased Song “Miami” Appears To Be An Interpretation Of The Keith Whitley Classic “Miami, My Amy”

Aaron Ryan·
COUNTRY MUSIC
·
Keith Whitley Morgan Wallen
Keith Whitley Estate/Spidey Smith

Morgan with a nod to Keith Whitley?

Over the weekend, Morgan Wallen was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live. And while most of the attention has been on his awkward exit at the end of the show, the country music superstar also used his performance to tease some of the tracklist from his upcoming album I’m The Problem.

The 37-track album is set to be released on May 16, and so far he’s released six songs from the project already, including the title track as well as “Smile,” “Lies, Lies, Lies,” “I’m A Little Crazy,” “Love Somebody,” and “Just In Case.” And while he hasn’t dropped the full tracklist yet, while Morgan was performing on SNL, some of the previously-unannounced songs from the album flashed on a TV screen behind him:

2: I Got Better
4: What I Want (feat. _)
8: Skoal, Chevy, and Browning
14: Where’d That Girl Go
15: Genesis
21: Come Back as a Redneck (feat. _)
34: LA Night
35: Miami

Morgan teased “Come Back As A Redneck” on his social media last night, which is rumored to be a collab with friend and frequent creative partner HARDY. But as fans dug more into the other tracks that he teased, they noticed that one might be familiar to country music fans.

Over on Facebook, members of a Morgan Wallen fan group noticed that track 35, “Miami,” registered with ASCAP (which controls the publishing rights of songs) as having eight songwriters: Hank Cochran, Dean Dillon, Richard McGill, Blake Pendergrass, Royce Porter, Ernest, Ryan Vojtesak, and Morgan.

And three of those songwriters, Hank Cochran, Dean Dillon, and Royce Porter, also happen to be the writers from the Keith Whitley classic “Miami, My Amy,” released in January 1986 as the second single from his album L.A. To Miami.

Of course Morgan has expressed his admiration for Keith Whitley in the passed, even naming a song after him on his last album One Thing At A Time. And when I spoke with Keith Whitley’s widow, Lorrie Morgan, and son Jesse Keith Whitley, a while back, they had high praise for Morgan and revealed that the superstar even has “nothing but Keith Whitley banners and flags” backstage at his shows.

It seems Morgan is quite the Keith Whitley fan, but what does that mean for his upcoming song? Is it going to be an interpolation of “Miami, My Amy,” or will it sample Keith Whitley’s classic? My guess is that it won’t feature Keith’s original vocals in any way since he’s not listed as a performer on the song, but I’m guessing it incorporates some of the lyrics from the Keith Whitley classic in his own tribute to the country music legend.

I guess we’ll just have to wait and see when it comes out, but until then, fans are busy digging for whatever clues they can find about what to expect from the long-awaited album.

“Get Me To God’s Country” Memes Take Over The Internet

Who would have guessed that Morgan Wallen would be all over the news after hosting SNL?

Okay, it was probably a given that something would happen during the show that would get people talking but I’m sure not many people thought the conversation would be about what Wallen did right after the show was over.

Instead of sticking around to shmooze the other cast members, he made a beeline for the exit, prompting some viral reactions from Kenan Thompson and Ego Nwodim.

He then followed up the abrupt exit with an Instagram story captioned “Get me to God’s country,” which some people took as a slight to the Saturday Night Live production:

Someone close to Wallen allegedly spoke with TMZ and explained that the entire thing was a misunderstanding and he just exited the stage as he had practiced all week.

“We’re told he entered and exited the studio the same way he did Saturday night during rehearsal and camera blocking all week leading up to the live show… so he routinely headed that way when he thought it was time to go.”

Lack of communication? Maybe a quick flight to catch? You can read into this whatever you want to honestly and both sides (because of course everything has sides these day) certainly are.

An audience member also said that Lorne Michaels, the iconic brain behind the show, “snubbed” Wallen in an “obvious and purposeful move” so maybe that had something to do with it? Wallen gets the blame for not fitting in when the main guy made him feel unwelcomed? Again, all allegedly but should show that there’s often more to a story than the first clip that hits the internet.

Regardless Wallen’s Instagram story caption had something to it (can absolutely imagine it being a song title) and people have taken it and ran.

Admittedly, the trend seems to have started when an SNL writer posted a photo of a Krispy Kreme truck using the same caption to mock Wallen’s exit and his perceived cold-shoulder to the cast:

Since then people have been posting their own versions of “God’s country,” pretty unsurprising given Wallen’s ability to make everything he touches a cultural trend:

Say what you want about Morgan Wallen but the man sure can get his fan’s excited about just about anything.

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