Morgan Wade Artistfacts

December 10, 1994
Morgan Wade grew up in the rural town of Floyd, Virgina, which embraced her when she started performing in 2016. The surrounding area has a vibrant music scene that includes the FloydFest music festival, which she played in 2019 and again in 2022 when she was an established act.
Wade went the college route, graduating from Roanoke's Jefferson College of Health Sciences in 2016 Roanoke with a degree in Exercise Science and a minor in Public Health. But instead of getting a sensible job in the health care field (the plan was to become a cardiothoracic surgeon), she formed a band called Morgan Wade & the Stepbrothers, and pursued music full time. The band released an album in 2018 but Wade soon went solo, first garnering attention with her 2019 single "The Night."
She started writing songs when she was a freshman in college, but because she was going to a health sciences school, there weren't a lot of musicians she could tap to form her band, so she went on Craigslist and answered an ad for a band looking for a singer. The bass player, Ed McGee, ended up in Wade's own band for a few years.
Her main collaborator is Sadler Vaden, best known as the guitarist in Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit. The met at a festival and Vaden agreed to work with her after watching some videos of her performing. He helped her write her first single, "The Night," and continued working with her as a songwriter and producer.
Wade is open about her struggles with depression and mental health; much of her 2023 album Psychopath deals with the topic. She's learned that alcohol exacerbates the problem, so she finds other ways to cope, including workouts and therapy.
Her motive for forming a band was to get back the guy who broke up with her, a musician named Joe Link. "It would either piss him off or get him back," she told Rolling Stone.

The ploy worked: They got back together and Link ended up joining her band The Stepbrothers. Wade hasn't talked about their split, but it appears they broke up for good soon after.
Wade had a double mastectomy in 2023 because she carries a gene that increases her chances of getting breast cancer.
She has lots of tattoos, including one on her arm that reads "June 17, 2017" - the day she got sober. She got her first ink when she was 19 at the suggestion of a friend.
She's a big Elvis Presley fan. When she was in first grade, she watched his movie Jailhouse Rock, and was devastated when she found out Elvis was dead. She became "obsessed" with Elvis, listening to lots of his music and watching more Elvis movies. She released her cover of "Suspicious Minds" in 2022.
Wade has a nervous system disorder called Tourette's syndrome. "I make weird faces and noises sometimes and my head shakes," she explained on Instragram in 2023. "So just think before you judge."

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