“He’s Coming into His Own”: Morgan Wallen’s Dad Reveals Morgan’s Biggest Musical Influences Growing Up

Morgan Wallen's father, Tommy Wallen, is sharing some of Morgan's biggest musical influences growing up, and explaining how you can hear them across each of his albums.

Via a new episode of Morgan Wallen Radio on SiriusXM, Tommy begins by stressing that, when Morgan was growing up, the family was primarily listening to Christian music, rather than country, something Morgan has spoken about in the past, too.

Tommy explains, “I gave this some thought, and in his early years, we as a family only listened to Christian music. As he got older, probably in his early teens, 70’s and 80’s rock, that was my favourite so some of the influence you can hear in Morgan's music”.

He then highlights how, on Morgan's first project, Stand Alone, you can hear a Lynyrd Skynyrd-influenced aesthetic on ‘Man of the South’. It's interesting that Tommy includes Stand Alone in this analysis, given how Morgan condemned the 10th anniversary reissue of the project by Panacea Records a couple of years ago as “gross” and “greedy”. It was still, nonetheless, a formative record in Morgan's evolution.

Tommy muses, “From Stand Alone, definitely ‘Man of the South‘ has a Lynyrd Skynyrd feel, and then off the If I Know Me album, definitely the Eagles, ‘If I Ever Get You Back’”.

He goes on to outline that he hears a lot of Eagles-inspired textures on Morgan's follow-up, too, name-checking ‘7 Summers’ in particular, “Definitely off the Dangerous album, the same thing with the Eagles, ‘7 Summers’ takes me back to the Eagles”.

Tommy then cites Quarterflash's pop-rock sound as having influenced a number of Morgan's more alt-leaning offerings on One Thing At A Time, “One Thing At A Time album, there are several songs on there that remind me of the band Quarterflash”.

He pays homage to how Morgan has gained confidence in his artistry with each new release, with 2025's I'm the Problem feeling like the project where he really zeroed in on his unique sound. As a result, as Tommy underlines, Morgan is now influencing other artists in the way that the Eagles, Quarterflash and more impacted him.

It's true that, with each project, Morgan has felt as though he's settled into the sound that he wants to pursue, with the Sneedville native increasingly embracing experimentation and blurring the lines between country and pop, trap, indie-rock and more.

Tommy concludes, “Then I'm the Problem, more of his own influences I think, it just seems like he's coming into his own, and sort of influencing others now, which is pretty cool”.

It echoes the sentiments Morgan himself touched on earlier in the week via Morgan Wallen Radio, where he expressed how now, looking back at his debut major label album, If I Know Me, he would like to change some of his creative choices on that project.

The ‘Love Somebody’ singer-songwriter shared, “I was super young, I was 23 when it came out. That was one of those ones, you know, where I didn't have a complete grasp on who I wanted to be, what I wanted to sound like, what I wanted to say. So that one kind of feels like it's a little bit all over the place. There are songs on that album that I love, and there are songs on that album that I would never record again - I'm sure those aren't hard to figure out if you go listen to it!”

Tommy's discussion of his son's catalogue is the latest fascinating episode on Morgan Wallen Radio, with Tommy - a pastor - also hosting his own show on the SiriusXM channel, Tommy's Sunday Seven, in which he reads and explains different Bible verses.

It's been both heartwarming and insightful getting a snapshot into Tommy's relationship with Morgan, with the former regularly paying tribute to his son's growth both as an artist and in his personal life. For instance, earlier in the year, he stressed how proud he was of the ‘Last Night’ chart-topper's sobriety as he focusses on being a father for his son, Indigo Wilder, as well as his disciplined exercise routine.