Megan Moroney Is in Her 'Lucky Era' with the Release of Debut Album: 'I'm Just a Normal Person' (Exclusive)

Megan Moroney is feeling lucky.

In the last year alone, the 25-year-old has skyrocketed to fame after releasing her hit single "Tennessee Orange," (for which she won her first CMT Award in April), kicked off her own headlining tour, and now, she's got a brand new debut album, titled (you guessed it) Lucky, out Friday.

"I've been so busy, I don't have time to process [what's been happening]. But, every time I walk off stage, I'm like, 'What is going on?'" Moroney asks herself with a laugh. "We were in Alabama the other day, and we have this little bandwagon thing. It's not quite a bus, but it's almost a bus. And there were girls [outside] yelling my name. It's crazy to me that I thought I was going to be an accountant, and now there's people banging on my door."

Moroney graduated from the University of Georgia with a degree in the music business — but that wasn't the area she started studying in. Her original major was accounting. Things changed quickly after she played her first-ever show at the Georgia Theater during the spring of her freshman year.

"I was in a sorority — I was a Kappa Delta — and we had a philanthropy event where we hired Jon Langston to come play, but we used all of our budget on him, so we didn't have money for an opener," Moroney recalls. "But because I posted so many country covers with my dad, they were like, 'Well, Megan can just open.'"

And open she did — she played three cover songs ("I wasn't even writing at the time!" she says) — and fellow country singer Chase Rice, who was out on tour, happened to be in the audience.

"I guess he saw that if he added me to the bill, I would sell tickets because all these sorority girls would come," says Moroney. "I had a month to write my first song and perform it that night [on tour with Chase]. It was a song called 'Stay Memory.' It's not out or anything. I don't know if I'll ever put it out, but honestly it's not that bad. It's pretty clever!"

She continues: "After I played that show, I fell in love with [performing] and I was like, 'Well, I want to drop out of school.' That's why I told my parents, and my parents were like, 'Yeah, that's not happening.' So I finished up my four years, and then moved to Nashville in May of 2020."

Fast forward three years later, and it's a new May in Nashville, and Moroney is now the proud artist of a debut album (and one produced by none other than Kristian Bush, one half of the famed country duo Sugarland).

"I grew up a Sugarland fan," Moroney says, "and I started as Kristian and his brother Brandon's publishing intern at the University of Georgia for the music business program. I didn't tell them that I was pursuing music because I literally walked in and saw a Grammy on the wall, and I was like, 'OK, I'm shutting up. I'm not going to tell them I'm an "aspiring songwriter" because I've written three mediocre songs,'" she recalls with a laugh.

As for how Moroney landed in her Lucky era, she says the origin is just as Taylor Swift-inspired as it sounds.

"I thought about self-titling it because the songs just feel very me, but I said the same thing about Pistol Made of Roses, my EP. All those songs are very me, too. [But] I'm in my Taylor Swift era, but eras of, OK, that was Pistol Made of Roses, this is going to be Lucky," she explains why she chose to differentiate her projects, with "Lucky" also serving as the name of one of the songs on the album.

"'Lucky' is the fun, honky-tonk, boot-scootin' song. I had not ever written anything like it, and I immediately just thought of people line dancing in a casino. I thought if I could create a whole world around that, and just marketing-wise and creatively, it was just really exciting and memorable to me. No one's going to get confused and go 'Oh, who has the other Lucky record with the green and the gold obnoxious metallic thing where she's leaning up against a slot machine in the middle of a driveway?' Moroney explains, describing the album cover art.

But, before she heads out on her second headlining tour in the fall (The Lucky Tour kicks off in New York City on September 20), Moroney is set to spend the summer on the road with Brooks & Dunn.

"I can't wait to hear 'Neon Moon' every night!" Moroney says of the duo's legendary hit.

Lucky promises 13 tracks all with the potential to be hits in their own right, too, and Moroney says she hopes the diversity among the songs simply speaks to people.

"There's a lot of emotions in [Lucky]. There's the breakup songs and a love song and all the feelings. So, I hope that my fans or anyone who listens can feel that it's genuine. I just want everyone to realize that I'm a very normal person, and I hope that this music makes them feel less alone, because writing this music helped me a lot," she says.

"Music brings us all together and makes us feel less alone. I hope that Lucky does that for whoever listens."