“I Was So Hurt and Angry”: Megan Moroney Chats to Kenny Chesney About Writing ‘Who Hurt You?’

Hot on the heels of releasing her celebrated new album, Cloud 9, Megan Moroney has appeared on Kenny Chesney's No Shoes Radio on SiriusXM to discuss the songwriting process behind a handful of songs on the record, including ‘Who Hurt You?’

While feel-good anthems like ‘Medicine’ and ‘Stupid’ have established themselves as early fan-favourites in terms of streaming figures, ‘Who Hurt You?’ has undoubtedly stirred up the biggest buzz online, with listeners speculating that the song was written about Moroney's rumoured break-up with Riley Green.

Ahead of the album's arrival, the ’Tennessee Orange’ singer-songwriter cited that track in particular as one where she wanted to be brutally honest with fans, so that Moroney didn't “have to answer interview questions about the situation”. Over the past year or so, Moroney has been bombarded with conjecture about her alleged relationship with Green, following an array of social media clues.

The lyrics in ‘Who Hurt You?’ certainly feel pointed, with fans scouring them to find a few lines in particular that have been interpreted as subtle digs at Green (as we explain in this piece).

In her new conversation with Chesney, who has become a close friend of Moroney's following their 2024 tour, Moroney reflects on how ’Who Hurt You?’ came about, revealing she sent a photo of her crying to Chesney after everything went down.

The Georgia native candidly muses, “Songwriting has always been therapeutic for me. So, it's like when I go through something, it's almost like I've got to bottle up these feelings. Especially with, like, I'll use ‘Who Hurt You?’ as an example. Like, I was so hurt and angry by the situation that, like, I didn't want to keep it in my soul anymore. I needed to create it into art and then give it away. You know what I mean? So, now that all of that pain wasn't for nothing. You know what I mean?”

Chesney then chimes in, “I have the picture you sent me of it...of when all that happened. You sent me a picture”, with Moroney laughing, “Oh, of me crying. My face, my eyes”.

She recalls, “My eyes were swollen shut [from crying]”. Moroney and Chesney are joking around, but it sadly highlights how deeply the former was hurt by the split at the time.

Chesney adds, “Megan gave me a scrapbook after the Sun Goes Down tour. And when I got that picture, I'm going to go, "You know what? I'm going to start my own scrapbook”, with Moroney sharing, “Right after this whole thing had happened, my eyes were swollen shut from crying”. Chesney then light-heartedly quips that the heartbreak wasn't all for nothing, “Well, you got a great song out of it”.

Moroney admits, “Yeah, "Emo Cowgirl.” I don't know. I like obviously, I feel like I feel things very deeply, and I can get over things once I write about it and turn it into something”.

Chesney playfully observes that Moroney still seems tense about how it the reported break-up happened, joking that Moroney is grinding her teeth as she speaks about it.

Moroney stresses, “I'm just angry. I just want to scream the bridge, “You said you needed...””, and it's this level of vulnerability and authenticity that the ‘Am I Okay?’ hitmaker laces into her music that makes Cloud 9 such a rich, evocative body of work.

We confess that we are a little disappointed Moroney and Chesney's CMA-nominated collaboration, ‘You Had To Be There’, didn't make it onto the project's tracklist.

Regardless of this, Cloud 9 is an early candidate for Album of the Year, and with ‘Who Hurt You?’ epitomising Moroney's songwriting depth and intricacy, the success of the song and the wider project will hopefully outshine the pain that went into its creation.

For more on Megan Moroney, see below: