\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div> \n\tThey\u2019re also fans of each other. Warren even reached out to Moroney back in 2024, after his wife played him \u201cTennessee Orange.\u201d He DM\u2019d Moroney to rave about her music \u2014 and got no reply. \u201cYou never saw it,\u201d he says, laughing. \u201cWhat! My apologies!\u201d Moroney exclaims. (For the record, she did eventually follow him back.) After their afternoon in Tennessee, they\u2019ll meet back in Los Angeles for Rolling Stone<\/em>\u2019s Musicians on Musicians live event<\/a> on Oct. 23. And messages will never go unread again. \u201cWe\u2019re so besties,\u201d Moroney says.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n \n\tWarren<\/strong>: Honestly, I\u2019m getting a lot of brownie points here because my sisters are huge fans of you. They went to your show in Nashville, and when I called to let them know I was doing this, they were wearing your shirt, so thank you very much for making me look cool for them.<\/p>\n \n\tMoroney<\/strong>: Iconic. We\u2019ll have to send them a video.<\/p>\n \n\tWarren<\/strong>: There\u2019s so many things I can say, for starters. I remember you and I both played a Billboard<\/em> show together, and you went right after I did. Everyone had a pianist with them or a band. I remember watching you get on that stage, and it was just you and a guitar. I was sitting there watching you absolutely body it. There were so many people who performed that night, but you stuck out because it was like you just kind of \u2026 I don\u2019t want to say laid your dick on the floor, but you really went out there and you\u2019re like, \u201cI did this thing.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tMoroney<\/strong>: Y\u2019all have to leave that. Is that allowed?<\/p>\n \n\tWarren<\/strong>: You have this uplifting persona that you embrace who you are. You\u2019re confident in yourself. What I envy is you have this contagiousness of \u2014 I\u2019m unapologetically myself \u2014 but also there\u2019s this cohesiveness. You have the pink, you have the outfits, you have your personality that\u2019s almost everywhere to the point where I know exactly who you are. When I see this background with clouds, I know it\u2019s your project. I know it\u2019s you. I think that it\u2019s just such a cool world that you\u2019ve created. Is it something you actively think about, or does it come naturally to you?<\/p>\n \t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n \n\tMoroney<\/strong>: I would say that it mostly just comes natural. I think too, it\u2019s almost like honoring my little-girl dreams. I\u2019ve been given this opportunity to have an arena tour: What do I want to do? And it\u2019s like, \u201cI want to freaking fly in a window, and I want all my guitars to be bedazzled, and I want a new outfit every single night because it\u2019s an arena tour and I can do it.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tI\u2019m sure a lot of people look to you as a role model. How does that make you feel?<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \n\tWarren<\/strong>: I love it. I think that oftentimes I teeter with the idea that I share too much because I share everything, and a lot of times I\u2019m like, \u201cDo I want to share that?\u201d At the end of the day, I always lean towards yes. I talk about losing my parents. I talk about my wife and everything real in my life that people don\u2019t typically talk about. For me, specifically, when I was homeless or when I met my wife or when I lost my parents, there were these feelings of aloneness. I felt like I was alone in that feeling and I was the only one who could experience that. As I\u2019ve made these songs and I played these shows, people will bring their dead parents to my show. They\u2019ll put the ashes in the urn or in a bag, and they\u2019ll bring them to my show and have me sign them. I think a lot of people would be like, \u201cThat makes me uncomfortable.\u201d I love it.<\/p>\n \n\tMoroney<\/strong>:\u00a0 Wow.<\/p>\n \n\tWarren<\/strong>: I love it. But there\u2019s a reason. You get to keep that person alive with every conversation and you have this beautiful memory. You can\u2019t control loss, you can\u2019t control grief, but you can control how you react to it.<\/p>\n \n\tMoroney<\/strong>: I think that\u2019s so special, to be able to write music where people are having the same struggles and they see themselves in you and your music. They look up to you because you\u2019re living out your dreams and you\u2019ve gone through these things that are so hard. But you\u2019re still persevering, and you\u2019re making it work. I think that\u2019s inspiring to people, and it\u2019s definitely a special thing: Here are my deepest, darkest secrets.<\/p>\n \n\tWarren<\/strong>: Right. I\u2019m fully always being transparent.<\/p>\n \n\tMoroney<\/strong>: Can you be brave enough to be the one who just lays it out how it is?<\/p>\n \n\t<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of times I\u2019m like, \u2018Do I want to share that?\u2019 At the end of the day, I always lean towards yes.\u201d<\/p>\n Alex Warren<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n \n\tWarren<\/strong>: If someone hates on me or my music, sadly that is me. That\u2019s me, motherfucker. Someone\u2019s like, \u201cI hate this song. It\u2019s bland, and it says nothing.\u201d I was like, \u201cFuck, I wrote that song about my dead dad, asshole.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tMoroney<\/strong>: I feel the exact same way. I\u2019ve read everything I could read about myself. I\u2019m a little numb to it, but, yeah, it\u2019s difficult to be like, \u201cI hate this song.\u201d That\u2019s me. I didn\u2019t make that up. That came straight up from me. This is not imagination. It was right here.<\/p>\n \n\tWarren<\/strong>: I struggled a lot with checking online after a performance, or Twitter right before I\u2019d go onstage. Oftentimes, I would be looking for the stuff that wasn\u2019t so kind to me. Obviously, it would make me feel pretty bad before getting onstage. It kind of created this environment for me to walk into a room every time and be like, \u201cOh, everybody hates me in here, and I get to try and win them over.\u201d It was like this unhealthy obsession with just trying to be likable. I feel like I deal with that because I give everyone everything. I kind of share every personal detail in my life. It\u2019s, for me, a testament of \u201cThis is what I went through, and now because of that, look at where I am today.\u201d I almost view that as an inspirational story that I can help other people with. But I also envy the ability to have some sorts of privacy for yourself. What do you do? Have you found that balance yet?<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \n\tMoroney<\/strong>: As far as the online stuff goes, I\u2019ve never really felt the need to defend myself because that\u2019s not something you can win with. I think I\u2019ve had to learn to be less hard on myself when it comes to performances and stuff. I mean, there have been times where I\u2019ve cried myself to sleep after performances because things didn\u2019t go how you wanted them to go.<\/p>\n \n\tI don\u2019t know if you heard, but recently for the Cloud 9<\/em> tour, I had to go onstage and cancel three songs in<\/a> [on a Denver stop] because I couldn\u2019t talk. I was so, so sick.\u2026 Twenty minutes before I got onstage, my voice was just shot. And so I was like, \u201cOh, this has happened to me before, but I\u2019ll be fine.\u201d Then nothing came out. And everyone was already there. It was horrible. I cried onstage. So I was wondering, what would you pick? Would you pick a Grammys in-ear malfunction<\/a> [Warren\u2019s in-ears weren\u2019t working correctly during his performance at the 2026 awards<\/em>], or would you rather cancel a show onstage, three songs in and cry onstage?<\/p>\n \n\tWarren<\/strong>: I\u2019m so sorry. I would pick the Grammys. Funny enough, the Grammys and what happened that night was the best night of my life.<\/p>\n \n\tMoroney<\/strong>: Really?<\/p>\n \n\tWarren<\/strong>: It instilled confidence in me, because I always thought that people hated me. And some people do hate me. When that happened, I get back in my seat and I remember my wife is just like, \u201cWe can go.\u201d I was like, \u201cEveryone in this room hates me. Everyone\u2019s making fun of me. Everyone\u2019s talking about me. I don\u2019t want to even see what the internet\u2019s talking about.\u201d And all my friends are like, \u201cDude, check online.\u201d I said, \u201cWhat?\u201d And they\u2019re like, \u201cCheck online.\u201d I was like, \u201cI don\u2019t want to see that.\u201d They go, \u201cTrust me, check.\u201d And I look and everyone\u2019s like, \u201cI know what happened. I figured out what happened, all these things.\u201d It was the best night of my life, and it was a freak accident.<\/p>\n \n\tMoroney<\/strong>: Unfortunately, shit doesn\u2019t go the way you want it to go every single time. I\u2019m like, \u201cI wish I was a fucking robot.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tWarren<\/strong>: It just makes you human.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t<\/p>\n \u201c[My tour] is honoring my little girl dreams. What do I want to do? \u2018I want to freaking fly in a window and all my guitars to be bedazzled.’\u201d<\/p>\n Megan Moroney<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n \n\tMoroney<\/strong>: I wish this didn\u2019t happen so bad, but it\u2019s just out of your control.<\/p>\n \n\tWarren<\/strong>: I will never lip-sync. I will never do any of that. I will always play live music. I had canceled a show in New Zealand, and it was the worst day of my life. I was crying.<\/p>\n \n\tMoroney<\/strong>: I think we\u2019re the same in that way. Nothing hurts me worse than feeling like I let people down who care about me. What\u2019s cool, though, is hearing you say that the Grammys thing ended up being a positive for you. Similarly, when the Denver show happened, of course people were initially upset, but the main response was my fans giving me grace. Do you feel sometimes when you watch a video back, you\u2019re like, \u201cWhoa, that\u2019s me.\u201d Does that ever happen for you?<\/p>\n \n\tWarren<\/strong>: Yes. I\u2019m my own worst critic. I critique everything I do, sadly, but recently, the last four or five months, I\u2019ve gotten really confident.<\/p>\n \n\tMoroney<\/strong>: For me, it\u2019s like an out-of-body experience.\u2026 I feel like some artists are nonstop who they are onstage, and they keep up the same vibe. Of course, it\u2019s me and authentic, but it is an exaggerated version of myself.<\/p>\n \n\tWarren<\/strong>: The dichotomy of onstage and offstage, right?\u00a0 I don\u2019t like dressing like this. I\u2019m always in board shorts and a T-shirt. So when I hop offstage, I immediately get out of the clothes I\u2019m wearing and I put on a bathing suit.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tMoroney<\/strong>: A bathing suit. OK. I don\u2019t do that.<\/p>\n \n\tWarren<\/strong>: It almost feels like a Hannah Montana moment. I was curious because you have three studio albums, right? It\u2019s a lot of songs. What is the song that you think best describes you as a musician and your sound and your songwriting?<\/p>\n \n\tMoroney<\/strong>: One that I always go back to, which is a very basic answer, but I do think \u201cTennessee Orange.\u201d It encapsulates the kind of music my fans like. It goes back to: It\u2019s creative, and it\u2019s honest, and there\u2019s the hook, and it\u2019s storytelling. I feel like at the root of all of my songs, that\u2019s what it is. And obviously I\u2019m a Georgia Bulldog, so it\u2019s just very me.<\/p>\n \n\tWarren<\/strong>: I envy that song so much. The songwriting\u2019s very creative.<\/p>\n \n\tMoroney<\/strong>: It\u2019s hard to say things that haven\u2019t been said already.<\/p>\n \n\tWarren<\/strong>: Or it can go into cheese world so quickly when you\u2019re writing a love song.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \n\tMoroney<\/strong>: Rhyming \u201cgirl\u201d with \u201cworld.\u201d I\u2019m probably guilty of that.<\/p>\n \n\tWarren<\/strong>: It was always a struggle for me to write love songs because it was just something where I wanted one so badly. I wanted to send a song to my wife and be like, \u201cThis is how I feel about you.\u201d Whenever I hear that song, I get so jealous of the way your brain worked for that because it\u2019s such a creative way of saying, \u201cI chose him, and I chose this life, and I chose this person, and I love this person.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tMoroney<\/strong>: OK. I have a random question. If you had to get rid of one of your albums, and they\u2019re gone forever, what would it be and why?<\/p>\n \n\tWarren<\/strong>: I have two. So you\u2019re making me pick one or the other. I\u2019d have to get rid of You\u2019ll Be Alright, Kid,<\/em> which has \u201cOrdinary\u201d and everything.<\/p>\n \n\tMoroney<\/strong>: Wow. Wow.<\/p>\n \n\tWarren<\/strong>: This new album has a song called \u201cWildchild.\u201d The only reason why I would keep this album is because of that song. My only memory of music growing up was getting in the car and listening to my dad\u2019s CDs. We would listen to John Mayer. He was obsessed with John Mayer, Train, and Coldplay, and Rascal Flatts, but John Mayer was his guy. And when my dad passed away, I got back in his car and I went to put it in drive and John Mayer\u2019s album came on. And so when I wrote this song for my dad called \u201cWildchild,\u201d I put his voice in it, and then I asked John to do a guitar solo on it.<\/p>\n \n\t<\/p>\n \u201cI critique everything I do, sadly. But recently, the last four or five months, I\u2019ve gotten really confident.\u201d<\/p>\n Alex Warren<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n \n\tMoroney<\/strong>: Iconic. So if John Mayer was your dad\u2019s hero, who\u2019s yours? Who\u2019s your John Mayer? Is it John Mayer?<\/p>\n \n\tWarren<\/strong>: That\u2019s a great question. I\u2019m going to give you a hot take. Is it weird to say Shawn Mendes?<\/p>\n \n\tMoroney<\/strong>: That\u2019s a perfectly great answer.<\/p>\n \n\tWarren<\/strong>: I would pick Shawn Mendes because growing up, when I would want to do music, I felt like it was unattainable. The path to get there was so impossible. You had to be plucked, and it had to be this perfect thing. Shawn made videos on the internet to post his music. And he kind of proved that it was possible, no matter who you were.<\/p>\n \n\tMoroney<\/strong>: Bangers, too, by the way.<\/p>\n \n\tWarren<\/strong>: Right, right, right. I think it was really cool to be able to be like, \u201cOh, I can make a video, post myself singing, and I can now become a musician.\u201d And it\u2019s possible.<\/p>\n \n\tMoroney:<\/strong> It seemed way harder before.<\/p>\n \n\tWarren<\/strong>: It\u2019s crazy how many musicians now who you look at and you\u2019re like, \u201cWow, that person\u2019s great,\u201d and they came from social media and things like that. No matter who you are and where you are, you can be a musician. I think that\u2019s really cool.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \n\tMoroney<\/strong>: I see a lot of negativity that\u2019s like, \u201cOh, well now you\u2019ve got to do content as an artist.\u201d Sometimes it\u2019s a lot when you have a lot on your plate, but it also is quite an advantage to be able to market yourself in that way. My first song, \u201cWonder,\u201d blew up on TikTok, and I released it independently. I wrote it by myself. I didn\u2019t have a team at all. And it had a million streams.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tWarren<\/strong>: You and I had the same story.<\/p>\n \n\tMoroney<\/strong>: I do get that it can be grueling when you\u2019re exhausted from all the other jobs that being an artist entails. But to me, it\u2019s kind of like, well, the option back in the day was to go and do a million radio tours.<\/p>\n \n\tWarren<\/strong>: Yes! The radio shows. I don\u2019t know if you\u2019ve ever done those, but you have to in country [music], right?<\/p>\n \n\tMoroney<\/strong>: I\u2019ve done several radio shows. I didn\u2019t do a proper radio tour, but, yeah, going around to the radio stations, playing your music. And from what I\u2019ve heard, that sucked for artists. A lot.<\/p>\n \n\t<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t have to be one thing. You don\u2019t have to be pop all the time. You don\u2019t have to be super country all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n Megan Moroney<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n \n\tWarren<\/strong>: Every artist should have opened up for someone that you should not have opened for. I remember I opened for one artist and I got booed off that stage so quickly.<\/p>\n \n\tMoroney<\/strong>: I would cry.<\/p>\n \n\tWarren<\/strong>: I did. Trust me, I did. But it was a college show, and everyone was drunk. And here\u2019s this kid who\u2019s just crying singing about his dead dad. At a certain point I was like, \u201cDamn, I kind of fucking had it coming.\u201d I think every musician has to play for a crowd that does not want them to be there to appreciate the crowd that has shown up for you.<\/p>\n \n\tI wanted to ask: You\u2019re technically country, but I would define you as a singer-songwriter. Do you feel like you have to be country? Do you feel like you have to be something else?<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \n\tMoroney<\/strong>: I think fortunately I\u2019ve tried to build my fanbase in a way where they\u2019re super loyal, and I listen to what they want. So my thing is more, what are they liking? Of course, it\u2019s what I like because it\u2019s coming from my brain and I have to play it every night. I feel like my fans will go on whatever ride I take them on. I feel like too, as just human beings, we have a lot of different moods. You don\u2019t have to be one thing. You don\u2019t have to be sad all the time. You don\u2019t have to be pop all the time. You don\u2019t have to be super country all the time. Whatever it is, it\u2019s just however I was inspired is usually how it ends up working in the studio.<\/p>\n \n\tWarren<\/strong>: I love \u201cemo cowgirl.\u201d That\u2019s the one thing I\u2019ve seen so much, that you\u2019ve coined that.<\/p>\n \n\tMoroney<\/strong>: Emotional cowgirl.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tWarren<\/strong>: Is there someone you\u2019re looking up to, or could be that hero for you that you\u2019ve kind of become for your younger self?<\/p>\n\n
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