Megan Moroney Describes Nights She “Would Cry Myself to Sleep” While Navigating Fame
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE - JUNE 07: EDITORIAL USE ONLY. Megan Moroney performs on the main stage during CMA Fest 2025 at Nissan Stadium on June 07, 2025 in Nashville, Tennessee.Photo Credit: Jason Kempin
by Chris Tremblay Sep 9
3 MIN READ
Megan Moroney said she once had nights when she “would cry myself to sleep” because she felt misunderstood and wanted to explain everything about her personal life. The comment came during a recent interview with Willie Geist for Sunday Sitdown, broadcast as Moroney’s Cloud 9 Tour continued.
Moroney was discussing the challenge of writing songs that draw on her life while managing public interest in the relationships and experiences behind them. Brazilian Vogue also reported that Moroney described intense frustration connected to feeling that audiences did not fully understand what she was experiencing.
“There were definitely nights where I would cry myself to sleep ’cause I felt so misunderstood and I wanted to tell people everything,” Moroney said, according to TODAY. The remark was presented in the context of the early stages of her career rather than as a report of a current mental-health crisis.
Moroney said the difficulty was finding a balance between protecting her personal life and communicating the emotions that inform her songs. “It was challenging trying to find the balance of not telling everyone my entire personal life, but also letting people know, like, ‘This is how I feel,’” she said.
She cited “Who Hurt You?” from her album Cloud 9 as an example of a song intentionally written to avoid inviting further questions about its subject. Moroney said she deliberately wrote the track so that listeners would not be able to use it to extract additional information from her.
“If you listen to the song, and you still have questions, I got no answers for you,” Moroney said. Her comments indicate that she distinguishes between emotional honesty in songwriting and complete disclosure of the events that inspired a song.
Moroney also described the personal history that led her toward music. She said she grew up in Douglasville, Georgia, and learned guitar after injuring her knee while participating in cheerleading at about 16 years old.
With the injury limiting her activities, Moroney said she began learning to play Deana Carter’s “Strawberry Wine.” She then experienced her first heartbreak and recalled crying so much that her father took her to Guitar Center, where she selected a Taylor guitar.
Moroney said the guitar purchase followed a conversation in which she told her father that, after having her heart broken once that week, she could handle the disappointment of learning that the guitar was not on sale. She described that episode as the beginning of a path that eventually became her professional music career.
During the interview, Moroney discussed the way she uses songwriting to process difficult emotions. She described herself as an overthinker and said transforming emotions into art has helped her move forward from painful experiences.
“That’s the best way that I’ve found to move on from things is when I take those emotions and I turn it into art,” Moroney said. She added that the resulting songs allow audiences to connect with experiences that may have begun as intensely personal.
Moroney has described her concerts as a form of “group therapy,” a characterization Geist raised during the interview. She said the shows create a collective setting in which she and audience members can release emotions together.
“It’s very empowering to be in a room where everyone feels the same way,” Moroney said. She gave the example of concertgoers recognizing that other people have also been mistreated or hurt, creating a shared response to those experiences.
Moroney said that growing older and gaining more experience have changed her relationship with both public attention and her own writing. She told Geist that, at 28, she trusts herself more and feels more confident that she will be able to handle whatever life brings.
She connected that confidence to the writing on Cloud 9, saying her current outlook had naturally influenced the album. The album is part of the period in which Moroney is touring internationally and performing songs built around heartbreak, vulnerability, and emotional release.
Reports from TODAY, NBC News, Vogue Brasil, and Holler all identify the remarks as part of Moroney’s recent conversation with Geist, while TODAY provides the fullest account of the specific comments about crying, privacy, songwriting, and her early musical development.
“There were definitely nights where I would cry myself to sleep ’cause I felt so misunderstood and I wanted to tell people everything,” Moroney said, according to TODAY. The remark was presented in the context of the early stages of her career rather than as a report of a current mental-health crisis.
Balancing Disclosure and Privacy
Moroney said the difficulty was finding a balance between protecting her personal life and communicating the emotions that inform her songs. “It was challenging trying to find the balance of not telling everyone my entire personal life, but also letting people know, like, ‘This is how I feel,’” she said.
She cited “Who Hurt You?” from her album Cloud 9 as an example of a song intentionally written to avoid inviting further questions about its subject. Moroney said she deliberately wrote the track so that listeners would not be able to use it to extract additional information from her.
“If you listen to the song, and you still have questions, I got no answers for you,” Moroney said. Her comments indicate that she distinguishes between emotional honesty in songwriting and complete disclosure of the events that inspired a song.
From Heartbreak to Songwriting
Moroney also described the personal history that led her toward music. She said she grew up in Douglasville, Georgia, and learned guitar after injuring her knee while participating in cheerleading at about 16 years old.
With the injury limiting her activities, Moroney said she began learning to play Deana Carter’s “Strawberry Wine.” She then experienced her first heartbreak and recalled crying so much that her father took her to Guitar Center, where she selected a Taylor guitar.
Moroney said the guitar purchase followed a conversation in which she told her father that, after having her heart broken once that week, she could handle the disappointment of learning that the guitar was not on sale. She described that episode as the beginning of a path that eventually became her professional music career.
Music as Emotional Release
During the interview, Moroney discussed the way she uses songwriting to process difficult emotions. She described herself as an overthinker and said transforming emotions into art has helped her move forward from painful experiences.
“That’s the best way that I’ve found to move on from things is when I take those emotions and I turn it into art,” Moroney said. She added that the resulting songs allow audiences to connect with experiences that may have begun as intensely personal.
Moroney has described her concerts as a form of “group therapy,” a characterization Geist raised during the interview. She said the shows create a collective setting in which she and audience members can release emotions together.
“It’s very empowering to be in a room where everyone feels the same way,” Moroney said. She gave the example of concertgoers recognizing that other people have also been mistreated or hurt, creating a shared response to those experiences.
Confidence and the Current Era
Moroney said that growing older and gaining more experience have changed her relationship with both public attention and her own writing. She told Geist that, at 28, she trusts herself more and feels more confident that she will be able to handle whatever life brings.
She connected that confidence to the writing on Cloud 9, saying her current outlook had naturally influenced the album. The album is part of the period in which Moroney is touring internationally and performing songs built around heartbreak, vulnerability, and emotional release.
Reports from TODAY, NBC News, Vogue Brasil, and Holler all identify the remarks as part of Moroney’s recent conversation with Geist, while TODAY provides the fullest account of the specific comments about crying, privacy, songwriting, and her early musical development.
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