Country Singer Morgan Wade - NOT STAYING IN HER LANE

WITH A SOBER MIND-AND AN UNLIKELY HOUSEWIVES CONNECTION-THE NASHVILLE STAR IS MAKING A NAME FOR HERSELF ON HER OWN TERMS

- RACHEL DESANTIS

The last time country singer Morgan Wade tried to count her tattoos, she lost track at 135. Among the ink sketched permanently on her body: the Morton Salt girl, “6/17/17” (the date she got sober) and the words “rock” and “roll,” which sit on her fingers. “They call them job stoppers,” she says of her hand tattoos. “Once I did that, everyone was like, ‘Well, you’re never going to be able to get an office job.’ And I’m like, ‘Good. I don’t want to work an office job.’ It’s not what I’m meant to do.”

Wade never let the naysayers keep her from finding success. Her 2021 debut album, Reckless, featured the breakthrough ACM and CMT-nominated hit “Wilder Days,” and her sophomore record, Psychopath, (out Aug. 25) leans in to the Americana rock that won her fans. Even so, Wade’s well aware she exists outside the cookie-cutter country mold. “[Country] has absolutely no idea what to do with me,” says Wade, 28. “But that’s a good thing, because you stick out.” With her platform, Wade hopes to make a difference by sharing her ups and downs, including her struggles with alcohol and plans for a preventative double mastectomy. “Stuff has to be talked about,” she says.