“A Perfect Toxic Relationship Song”: Blake Pendergrass on How Morgan Wallen’s ‘Last Thing You Need’ Came About for GTA 6

During a new interview with Holler, one of Morgan Wallen's go-to songwriters, Blake Pendergrass, sheds light on how his new GTA 6 song, ‘Last Thing You Need’, came about.

When the synth-backed offering dropped out of the blue this week, fans wondered whether it was leftover from Wallen's I'm the Problem writing sessions, with ‘Last Thing You Need’ maybe a song that hadn't made the cut for the album.

But as Pendergrass explains, ‘Last Thing You Need’ was written earlier this year, with Wallen and his co-writing team working on music for the Sneedville native's next chapter.

Pendergrass reflects, “That one was not any sort of leftover or anything. We wrote that one not too long ago. I think we wrote that one kind of at the top of this year, if I'm remembering correctly. And so, kind of after I'm the Problem and everything, we started diving back in, and ever since we've been working hard to to write a lot more songs and stuff, and get songs ready to go and everything”.

He goes on, “Just have a lot to pick from for the next round of stuff...And that one was one that we had a little bit of like a semblance that the GTA thing was an opportunity, maybe”.

Pendergrass, who helped write 15 songs on I'm the Problem, clarifies, “But it wasn't something that we were like [this is] the only thing. We always try to write just songs for Morgan that work for him. And then I think they kind of decided that, out of the stuff that we had, [‘Last Thing You Need’] was the best one for that”.

He touches on how the will-they-won't-they spirit of ‘Last Thing You Need’ seems to mirror one of the key storylines in Grand Theft Auto 6, which pivots around the romance between Jason Duval and Lucia Caminos, “I guess there's a little bit of like a love story in the game. It seems like there's going to be...a little bit of like a back and forth between them. So it felt like it was a perfect toxic relationship song”.

You can undoubtedly hear how ‘Last Thing You Need’ feels cut from a similar creative and thematic cloth to Wallen's previous single, ‘Been By Now’. Wallen has already confirmed that he intends to build the overall sound of his next era around the latter.

Pendergrass remains a core part of Wallen's camp, with the North Carolina native continuing to cement himself as one of the most prolific songwriters in modern country music.

With cuts on I'm the Problem like ‘Miami’, ‘Just in Case’, ‘I Got Better’ and ‘The Dealer’ - the latter of which is the only solo write on the album - as well as songs recorded by the likes of Post Malone, Tucker Wetmore and Warren Zeiders, we can't wait to hear what other storytelling gems Pendergrass has up his sleeve.

Blake Pendegrass’ full interview with Holler will be available to read from Tuesday, September 22nd