Kenny Chesney is opening up about how his new duet "It Just Got Weird," featuring Megan Moroney, came together, telling fans on TalkShopLive that Moroney did not just volunteer for the song, she "damn near insisted." The track appears on Chesney's 21st studio album, Silver Sands Marina, due September 25 via his independent label, Hey Now Records.
Moroney heard about the song from songwriter Jessie Jo Dillon and called Chesney directly. "I hear you cut a song called 'It Just Got Weird.' And she goes, 'I want to sing on it,'" Chesney recalled her saying. He said he did not put up much resistance, knowing she would attack the song the way it needed. "There's something about her voice... sometimes when Megan sings, she sounds like she's been up all night, in a great way," he said.
Chesney and Moroney's friendship goes back to 2024, when she joined his Sun Goes Down Tour and the two first met over breakfast to get acquainted before the run began; that meeting led to their first collaboration, "You Had to Be There," which Moroney wrote afterward. She has said she called her mom on the way to that breakfast, "whisper bragging" that she got to eat with Kenny Chesney.
Silver Sands Marina will run 11 songs, including "Burn My Boat," "Carry On," "Talkin' Dirt," "Goldfish" featuring Lily Meola, the title track, "It Just Got Weird" with Moroney, "Sad Casino," "Shot a Car Into Space," "Remember Me That Way," "What We Got Going On" with Colbie Caillat, and closer "Shot Glass." It marks the start of Chesney's first chapter on his own independent label.
Lead single "Carry On" already became a record-setter: it marked Chesney's 100th charting single, making him the artist with the most Top 10s in country chart history, and made him only the third artist ever to secure the entire country radio panel in its first week.
Chesney described the album as going to places he has not gone before. "Some of them go deep, some of them will make people turn it up, a few will make them laugh," he said, adding that together the songs should remind listeners "how great it is to be alive."
The facts
- It Just Got Weird is a duet between Kenny Chesney and Megan Moroney
- The song appears on Silver Sands Marina, Chesney's 21st studio album
- Silver Sands Marina is due September 25 with 11 tracks
- Moroney called Chesney to ask to sing on the song
- The two previously recorded You Had to Be There after Moroney joined his 2024 tour
- Lead single Carry On was Chesney's 100th charting single, the most Top 10s of any country act
- Carry On was only the third song to secure the entire country radio panel in its first week
- The album also features Lily Meola and Colbie Caillat
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