Morgan Wallen‘s taking cues from the biggest pop star in the world — he’s releasing a new version of an old song a la Taylor Swift, simply to thwart the plans of some former colleagues.
The singer-songwriter took to IG Thursday to give fans the rundown … basically, he said he signed a music deal more than a decade ago without legal representation — something he now deeply regrets — and recorded 13 songs on the deal.
Of those 13 songs, Wallen only used 5 for his smash debut EP “Stand Alone,” including one of his big hits “Spin You Around,” but his former team still seems to have control over the other 8 tracks he didn’t use.
Morgan said these ex-friends are dropping a 10th anniversary of “Stand Alone,” but he’s not involved with it, and he’s not happy the unreleased songs — which he says are not up to his high standards — are coming out as well.
But, he’s fighting back, in a way, by re-recording “Spin You Around” in Nashville earlier this week — and he’s dropping the song at the same time as the unauthorized project.
Kind of an “anything you can do, I can do better” situation — and ripped right from the Tay Tay playbook. Remember, Taylor set out to record her ‘Taylor’s Version’ of each of her albums since Scooter Braunbought and sold her master recordings from her OG label, Big Machine Records, back in 2020.
Morgan’s situation seems a little less thought out … and it’s easy to tell that from the album cover. MW says he was on a duck hunting trip when he got the news, so he basically had to slap the art together himself out in the woods.
We’ll just say it has rustic charm.
Morgan said he cringes when he hears the old songs, and he’s worried fans will confuse them for some new direction he’s taking.
He’s not planning to work on any truly new music ’til the end of February.
The 30-year-old country superstar says this is “how the dark side of the music business can suck the soul out of artists” … and he’s trying to stop this sorta thing from happening to others. He’s pledging $100,000 from his foundation to the Volunteer Lawyers and Professionals for the Arts (VLPA) program.
