Morgan Evans Reveals Personal Loss That Inspired 'Things That We Drink To' Album

When Morgan Evans announced his freshman Things That We Drink To album, he said the record was inspired by many things, including "losing someone and finding the strength to keep your head up and make them proud."

Now, Evans is revealing who he lost, and how that loss became the title track for his debut project.

"It was my manager of ten years," Evans tells PopCulture.com. "He was an Aussie guy named Rob Potts and he discovered me, and he was the first person to believe me. He brought me to America and introduced me to Nashville and all those kinds of things. And he died really suddenly in a motorcycle accident last year. So it was really tough. Really tough. And especially tough that he put so much work into my career and he doesn't get to see this album come out.

"I wrote this song, 'Things That We Drink To,' which is the title track, on the day of his memorial in Nashville," he adds. "I was with Josh Osborne and Chris DeStefano, who I wrote 'Kiss Somebody' with and a few other songs on the record."

"Things That We Drink To" became one of the most personal songs Evans has ever written, a fitting tribute to the man who helped launch Evans' career.

"It was all we could think about that day and it was just a really special song," Evans says. "Sometimes you write songs and you have to really work hard for them to work out. Or sometimes they just come out of your soul honestly and I love that about that song."

Not that Things That We Drink To is just about loss. The album also covers other topics, including falling in love with and marrying Kelsea Ballerini, who appears on the "Dance With Me" track with her husband.

"I feel like I'm way too biased to even say it, but I feel like she's one of the most underrated musically and songwriting-wise artists that there is in country music," Evans boasts. "She's amazing. That song wasn't meant to be a duet. It was done. And we hadn't turned it in, but it was in our pile of finished songs. She was making Unapologetically and she's like, 'Will you come sing backing vocals on a song?' And I was like, 'I'll sing on one of yours if you sing on one of mine.' And so we did that and she came in.

"I was like, 'Let's just see how it sounds," he recalls. "And she started singing and my producer Chris [DeStefano] and I were there at the time. It was just the three of us in the studio. She sang the first chorus. We just turned around, looked at each other and we were like, 'Whoa.' It was like a goosebumps on the back of your neck moment. And it was just so perfect. So definitely excited to share that one."

Things That We Drink To will be released on October 12, and is currently available for pre-order at MorganEvansMusic.com.

Photo Credit: Getty images/Burak Cingi