“We've Already Blazed That Trail”: Morgan Wallen on How ‘Dangerous’ Paved the Way for His New Album, ‘I'm the Problem’

Ahead of the arrival of his blockbuster new album, I'm the Problem, today (Friday, May 16th 2025), Morgan Wallen chats to Holler about choosing to embrace experimentation.

While the Sneedville megastar's debut project, If I Know Me, stuck closely to the rowdy, rough-around-the-edges country sound of his contemporaries, 2021's Dangerous saw Wallen showcasing his refreshingly eclectic palette of musical influences.

We got the first hints of R&B-inspired instrumentation on the likes of ‘Wasted On You’ and ‘Warning’, with Wallen broadening his sonic horizons once again on 2023's One Thing At A Time, exploring indie-rock on ‘Last Drive Down Main‘, dance-pop on the title-track and Atlanta trap on the Young Thug-interpolating ‘180 (Lifestyle)’.

He pushes the boundaries of what people expect from him once again on I'm the Problem, which not only surpasses One Thing At A Time in terms of length, but in terms of vulnerability. Wallen gets as candid as he's even been on ‘I'm a Little Crazy’ and ‘Superman’, and strips away the cushioning production to mirror this rawness; the result is a visceral thesis on heartbreak, temptation, faith and maturity.

There's no question that I'm the Problem goes further than Morgan Wallen has ever ventured before, thematically and sonically, but you can't help but wonder whether Wallen himself views the experimentation on this stellar record as risky and bold, or whether, this far into his discography, it's merely a natural extension of his tastes.

Speaking to Holler, Wallen reflects on how it all started with Dangerous, where he stayed true to his vision, despite outside forces attempting to persuade him to play it safe, “My project that felt the most risky was Dangerous because I had never done any of that stuff before, and I kind of took a leap and said, ‘Yeah, throw beats on it’”.

Wallen expands on Dangerous helped him to completely shift the paradigm, “The label was asking me to make a country version of it, and I said, ‘Nah, this is what I want it to be’. So I think Dangerous was the album that allowed me to explore more because a lot of people at that time were worried about all those experimental sounds”.

The ‘Everything I Love’ singer-songwriter concludes by underlining that, while I'm the Problem crosses genre-boundaries once again, at this point, it feels like second-nature, “So, no, I don't think this is the most experimental. It may sound that way, but it didn't feel that way to me because I feel like we've already blazed that trail”.

This is reflected by the fact that an intimate, philosophical country ode such as ‘The Dealer’ with ERNEST can sit on I'm the Problem alongside a simmering, electric trap anthem, ‘Miami’. Back in 2020, such a move would have seemed preposterous - but on a Morgan Wallen album in 2025, this kind of shape-shifting is expected.

Epitomising this is his carefully curated Sand in My Boots Festival 2025 line-up, which features artists that range from Post Malone and HARDY to The War on Drugs and 2 Chainz.

Wallen takes the stage this Sunday (May 18th), and there's no doubt his new, revamped setlist will double-down on the genre-blurring he has become synonymous with.

In the meantime, we'll be diving into Wallen's latest 37-song opus, I'm the Problem, which solidifies the ‘Last Night’ chart-topper's status as the King of Modern Country, and leaves us wondering how he'll possibly top this in another two years’ time.

For more on Morgan Wallen, see below: