Morgan Wade on the Meaning Behind Her Raw and Reflective Song “27 Club”

With her 2023 album Psychopath, celebrated singer/songwriter Morgan Wade offers listeners an unfiltered glimpse through her perspective. The eclectic and captivating record expands upon the edgy, raw sound at the heart of her breakout 2021 album Reckless. 

One of the most sharply honest tracks of the project comes at its very end. “27 Club,” the final track on Psychopath, takes listeners into a room inside the Chateau Marmont. That famous hotel in downtown Hollywood serves as the backdrop for reflections on moments of darkness entangled with a tumultuous relationship.

Below, in an excerpt from her August 2023 interview with American Songwriter, Wade shares the origin story of her song “27 Club” in her own words:

“[’27 Club’ is] a song I’ve written in different times in my life, and adding the last verse is what finished that song. I wrote that the day before I went in the studio. I turned 28 in December. As far as the other verses, I had written that a long time ago, the very first time I think I had went overseas. 

I don’t know what made me write that last verse the night before I went to the studio, but I was just sitting there, playing with my guitar. I remember I had come up with this idea for this song, and I had put a verse about being out in Los Angeles and stuff like that.

I’ve actually never even stayed at the Chateau. I have a lot of friends that go out there, but it’s like I’m being looked at differently now, making friends and being around [different] people than before I had Reckless out. Because you know, I was a different person then…People look at me in a new light and in a different way. 

But I can also tell you that the person who wrote ‘Wilder Days’ isn’t really here anymore. That was a different time for me, just going through the motions of navigating this new life and with my mental health, too—thinking for a long time about how long I was going to make it, with my suicidal tendencies and the things that I’ve struggled with. I thought it was a really good way to close out the record and that chapter of my life.”

Listen to Morgan Wade’s “27 Club” below:

Photo by David McClister, Courtesy of Sony Music Nashville