“A New Age, Real Deal Popstar”: Morgan Wallen Pays Homage to Tate McRae in New Zane Lowe Interview

During a new conversation with Zane Lowe for Apple Music, Morgan Wallen has delved into how his Billboard Hot 100-topping collaboration with Tate McRae, ’What I Want’, came about.

The infectious, pop-infused earworm is quickly establishing itself as one of the most popular offerings from Morgan Wallen's lauded new album, I'm the Problem, which arrived last month. We were treated to the live debut of ‘What I Want’ during Wallen's stellar one-night-only show at London's Roundhouse, and we're hoping Tate McRae will join him to perform the much-loved hit during stadium tour this summer.

The week after its release, ‘What I Want’ surged straight to No. 1 on the all-genre Hot 100, with the uptempo track becoming Wallen's fourth to reach the peak, and McRae's first.

Marking Morgan Wallen's first female duet, ‘What I Want’, follows two on-and-off lovers warning one another that they're not looking for anything long-term, and that they have a tendency to leave, before realising that's exactly what they're both after.

When the Sneedville megastar first teased the collaboration in the lead-up to I'm the Problem's arrival on May 16th, fans were speculating that the featured artist might be Megan Moroney, Ella Langley or Miranda Lambert, with the news that Wallen had joined forces with pop phenom Tate McRae arriving out of left-field for many.

When asked by Zane Lowe why he chose Tate McRae for ‘What I Want’, Morgan Wallen admitted he had to give credit to his sister, “My sister showed me Tate's music a few years back, so I'll give my sister the connection...Man, I just think she's awesome. I think nobody's really doing what she's doing. She seems like a new age real deal popstar with the dancing, the singing, with the types of songs she makes”.

He went on, “I also think she's underrated vocally. I mean, on this song in particular, the one that we did together, we had the song, it was not written with the female in mind, any of that. And we got through and I'm thinking about what song could I get Tate to sing? And this is the one that we ended up sending to her. This is the only song that we ended up sending to her. And she was awesome, man”.

Morgan Wallen then toasted the way in which Tate McRae completed her parts of the song with minimal back-and-forth, “She didn't ask me a lot of questions, "Hey, can I change this?" "Hey, can I do that?" "Hey, can I do this?" I mean, her range is phenomenal. The range that she has is something that's truly remarkable, and you can tell it...I mean, she sang this song that's written for a dude, and she absolutely crushed it out. Just, I can't say enough great things about her man”.

During his I'm the Problem album preview event at Wallen's This Bar in Nashville, the ‘Last Night’ hitmaker added some more context to the momentous duet, “We had been talking about doing a song for a while. We've expressed to each other, for a couple years now, that we were fans of what each other was doing and just talked about doing a song. It just hadn't worked out up until now”.

The ‘Thought You Should Know’ crooner expanded, “It seems just like one of those songs that's a no-brainer. She was an absolute pleasure to work with on the feature. She did everything very timely. We didn't get to work on it in the studio together, but the song wasn't originally written for her in mind. It was written in a [male] key, technically, and she just absolutely crushed every single part of the song”.

In a separate statement, the ‘TN’ singer-songwriter gushed, “I just think she’s cool. Her range is so good. She’s able to get emotions across in such a wide range of keys and vocals. I really love her low tones. That song wasn’t written with her specifically in mind, but we sent it to her, and she didn’t ask us to change the key or anything. She was a really great person to work with, as far as features go. I can’t say enough great things about Tate, and there’s nobody really like her tone. I know she takes pride in writing as well. I’d expect her to be around for a while. I think she’s got something unique, and I’m proud to have her on here”.

As for another titanic, genre-blending link-up on I'm the Problem, ‘I Ain't Comin’ Back’ with Post Malone, Morgan Wallen mused to Zane Lowe, “I've always been a fan of Post, and I think if you were to go back and look at interviews from six, seven years ago, I probably said I wanted to collaborate with him”.

Wallen endearingly paid homage to the honesty that underpins their friendship, “So I've always been a fan of what he does. I think he's a special person and a special artist, but he also, he let me come in the writer's room a couple times. They were working on something completely different, and I was like, "Hey, I don't want to do that. I want to do this." And he said, "Okay." And that's what we did for ‘I Had Some Help’. And it's just me and him have been able to be really honest with each other. And I think that that's really the key to any relationship. I mean, if you can start off with some honesty and collaboration, it has to be that in order to maintain a real friendship. And that's something that we've had not only as artists, but as people. So I got nothing but great things to say about Post”.

Elsewhere during his in-depth discussion with Zane Lowe for Apple Music, Morgan Wallen candidly reflected on the way in which he has grown - both as a person and artist - and how this newfound clarity has coloured the creation of I'm the Problem.

Listen to Zane Lowe's full interview with Morgan Wallen on Apple Music's New Music Daily Show.

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