This Week’s Backstage Country Host: Megan Moroney

Country radio’s getting a little extra sparkle the week of June 2-6. Megan Moroney is sliding into the co-host seat beside Elaina Smith for Backstage Country, and we couldn’t be more excited to hear all the behind-the-scenes deets from 2024’s CMA New Artist of the Year. 

Smith asked Moroney about her friendship with Kenny Chesney. The duo just released the song, “You Had To Be There,” earlier this month. She also posted artwork of the two of them on her Instagram. “It’s an illustration of us," she said. "We’ve got our jerseys on. [It’s] when we played at the Cowboys Stadium, but we kind of made it slightly different. We gave Kenny his classic tank. And yeah, that was a memorable one. He let me come out and sign autographs with him at the end. He's the best.” 

Moroney also shared her experience writing a song for Chesney: “We were in Panama City. We had some crappy lawn chairs sitting out there. It was me, Mackenzie Carpenter, Micah Carpenter, and Ben Williams. We write a lot of songs together. We wrote ‘I'm Not Pretty Together’ and ‘Hair Salon.’ I had, ‘You Had To Be There’ in my phone as a title, and then Micah, when we knew we wanted to write a candy song, he started to play something that would sound good on a boat or something.” 

She added, “We wrote it in maybe like 45 minutes. Maybe, it was really quick, and I had to keep it a secret from him.” She chuckled, “I almost sent it to him right away, but then I was like, wait, I've been trying to figure out what I'm gonna get him for Christmas. This is perfect, I'm going to write the lyrics out, show up with it, and then I'll just be scared because I have to show him in person where otherwise I would have been able to like text it to them and then if he hates it, he can just like act like he never got it.” 

Smith asked if she felt her heart was going to burst out of her chest. The singer-songwriter recalled, “I was gonna wait till the night to show him, wait till before dinner or something, but we were like three hours in and he's like, ‘You're being so weird.’ I was like, ‘Sorry, I wrote you a song.’” She added, “I'm like, ‘Oh, just because I wrote you a song and I know you have a million number ones, and maybe you'll hate it. I don't know, but I got it for you.’” 

Smith predicted the song has the potential to be Chesney’s million and one to number one song, to which Moroney quipped, “Fingers crossed.” 

If you have not yet heard it, check it out below.