BBR

Up until now, John Morgan‘s mainly been known for writing huge hits like “If I Didn’t Love You” for Jason Aldean and Carrie Underwood, as well as “Trouble with a Heartbreak” and “That’s What Tequila Does” for Jason.

Now the North Carolina native has a top-10 hit of his own with “Friends Like That,” again with a little help from his pal Jason.

“That’s always kinda been my end goal is to be an artist,” John tells ABC Audio, “and it’s cool to finally see that kinda come to fruition a little bit.”

“And I think the cool part about my story, too, is, like, I did start out of songwriting, I did start out in production,” he continues. “And regardless of how I felt back then with being like, ‘Oh, I gotta get music out, I gotta get stuff out,’ it allowed me to really develop my sound.”

“And not necessarily pinpoint it,” he clarifies, “but I knew what I wasn’t from writing for everybody else. I was like, ‘I like this. This is not necessarily me. I like it, but it’s not me.'”

Looking back, John sees that era as crucial to making his debut.

“It gave me a lot of time to really prep for this album, and it also gave me the ability to really sift through songs and make sure that every song on the album was super strong, and that it was a message that I wanted to say,” he reflects. “Everything’s 20/20 looking back, but I feel like I’m very fortunate to have had that time to be able to get ready for this debut album and have everything kinda teed up.”

Carolina Blue arrives April 25.