A duet is coming from Megan Moroney and Kenny Chesney! Moroney announces on social media that “You Had To Be There,” with Chesney will be out on May 9.
“7 years later got a different point of view…” Moroney captions the photos, with one of them showing Moroney’s ticket purchase to Chesney’s 2018 Trip Around the Sun Tour.
Chesney also commented on the upcoming collaboration, writing, “As far as I know this is the first song anyone has written for me. Thank you Megan. I love ya.”
Moroney opened for Chesney last year, on his Sun Goes Down Tour, where she took plenty of notes from the superstar.
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“I literally watch his whole show every night— side stage — trying to learn from him,’ Moroney told People while on the road with Chesney. “From everything he does on the stage to interacting with his fans, I’m trying to take note of every move he makes.”
“Even off stage, the routine that [Kenny] sticks to? He hasn’t drank this entire tour and he does ice baths and he has a very strict diet,” she continued. “I’ve just been trying to absorb all of his knowledge because he obviously has so much of it.”
Moroney also had the chance to sing with Chesney on tour, which far exceeded any dreams Moroney once had for herself.
“When I go on stage with Kenny Chesney in a stadium and I sing with him? I grew up listening to him,” Moroney recalled. “And we sing ‘You and Tequila’ and ‘All the Pretty Girls’ together every night and those moments still surprise me every week. Or I’ll be side stage and I literally turn around and I’m like, ‘Holy crap, that’s Kenny Chesney.’ And I’m literally friends with him.”
Moroney is the reigning CMA New Artist of the Year, an accomplishment that earned high praise from her former tour boss.
“Congratulations to Meg Moroney on your big win last night,” Chesney posted after Moroney’s win. “We are all so happy for you and proud to watch you stand up there last night like a star that you are. This is just the beginning!! We love you Megan!!!”
Moroney’s career continues its meteoric rise, but she says she will be forever grateful for the chance to open for Chesney on his Sun Goes Down Tour.
“That tour was my favorite tour of all time,” Moroney shared backstage at the CMA Awards. “I’ve been asked recently in interviews like, ‘Okay, well what’s your dream tour?’ And I was like, ‘I think it would be to go back on the road with Kenny, just learning so much from him as an artist, a performer, and then also becoming such good friends with him. He’s just a great person. It’s cool to surround yourself with people like him.”
“Just watching him, and realizing that he plays for over 90 minutes every night, probably like 120 minutes or something, and he doesn’t even play all of his hits,” she remarked. “A big note that I took was, ‘Okay, you’ve got to write a lot of good songs,’ because it’s just incredible that he can play for that long, and then doesn’t even play some of his most known hits because he doesn’t have time.”
Chesney will kick off his Live at Sphere Las Vegas residency on May 22. He will become an official member of the Country Music Hall of Fame this fall.
Moroney is nominated for both Female Artist of the Year and Album of the Year (for Am I Okay? I’ll Be Fine) at the upcoming ACM Awards. She currently has a Top 5 single with “Am I Okay?”
Photo Credit: Courtesy of EB Media