Morgan Wallen's ‘The Way I Talk’ is the Tennessee Volunteers’ New Fourth-Quarter Song at Neyland Stadium

Morgan Wallen's ‘The Way I Talk’ has been officially chosen as the new fourth-quarter song for the Tennessee Volunteers’ football matches at their home of Neyland Stadium.

It replaces Garth Brooks’ ‘Friends in Low Places’ as the track to hype the crowd up ahead of the fourth and final portion of the game. The swap went down well during Saturday's win against Florida, as Neyland Stadium erupted into a full-scale sing-a-long.

Although some have speculated that the replacement is in response to the new sexual assault allegations levelled at Garth Brooks, it's likely the University of Tennessee's decision is merely a tribute to Morgan Wallen's longstanding affinity with the team.

In September, Morgan Wallen set a new attendance record across his two night-stint at Neyland Stadium, with the Sneedville megastar becoming only the fourth artist to perform at the iconic venue, which usually hosts the Vols’ college football games.

‘The Way I Talk’ has been heralded as the perfect choice to replace Garth Brooks’ ‘Friends in Low Places’, with the latter being a hugely popular hit, but one that doesn't hold any ties to Knoxville. Morgan Wallen's ‘The Way I Talk’, by contrast, finds the ‘Last Night’ crooner name-checking his favourite team in the opening verse (“It gets slower after three or four cold beers / And gets louder when I'm cheering on the Volunteers / Folks know I'm country, when they hear / The way I talk”).

Morgan Wallen is regularly spotted at games supporting his beloved Tennessee Volunteers, with the ‘Lies, Lies, Lies’ hitmaker also donning Vols merch at a number of recent shows. It's become tradition that a slew of Morgan's fans turn up to his performances wearing a No. 16 Volunteers kit, as a nod to Morgan's fan-favourite, ‘Had Me By Halftime’, during which he croons, “She had a 16 home-team jersey on”. Both ‘Had Me By Halftime’ and ‘The Way I Talk’ featured on Morgan Wallen's debut full-length album with Big Loud, If I Know Me, which arrived in 2018.

Morgan Wallen is currently gearing up for the release of his long-awaited track, ‘Love Somebody’, which he first teased back in May. The uptempo heartbreak anthem drops on October 18th.

‘Love Somebody’ is set to join ‘Lies, Lies, Lies’ and other previously shared unreleased tracks, such as ‘I Guess’, ‘Come Back as a Redneck’ and ‘Good to See You Smile’, on Morgan Wallen's highly anticipated One Thing At A Time follow-up album.

Given how Morgan has cited his Neyland Stadium double-header as one of the most meaningful shows of his career to date, we're hoping he might have penned another Volunteers-themed track for his new project, especially given the fact that One Thing At A Time featured the star-crossed, Knoxville-themed ‘Tennessee Fan’.

For more on Morgan Wallen, see below:

Featured photo courtesy of John Shearer/Getty Images for Morgan Wallen’s One Night At A Time 2024