Natalie Stovall Feels Like She Was ‘Meant’ to Join Runaway June (Exclusive)

Earlier this year, original Runaway June member Hannah Mulholland left the group and was replaced by Natalie Stovall, who joined original members Naomi Cooke and Jennifer Wayne to keep the country band a trio. Stovall, who began performing professionally at age 10, was previously a member of her own band, Natalie Stovall and the Drive, before attempting a career as a solo artist, appearing on The Voice in Season 13. Speaking to PopCulture.com, she opened up about joining Runaway June, sharing that she had long been a fan of the group and knew that joining them was the right decision.

“I have been a fan of both of these girls individually, but as Runaway June for a long time,” she said. “We’ve played shows together on the road. We’ve hung out a little bit. Jen and I go way back because she was my radio rep when I had a single to country radio in 2017. And we all were speaking the same language. I mean, we’re all dreamers and have been working really, really hard to make music that matters to people. And for me, I had been doing that for so long and it’s just not quite hit ever. And then when the girls came to me and asked me if I would consider being a part of this, just everything felt very strongly. In my gut, my intuition, everything said, ‘This is your next step. This is what you’re meant to do.’”

“It’s just all fallen into place in a much more seamless way than I could have ever imagined,” she continued. “It’s been a really beautiful transition in the midst of the very crazy time.” Stovall’s first project as an official member of the band was to add fiddle to the group’s current single, “We Were Rich,” which is currently at No. 46 on Billboard‘s Country Airplay chart.

“It was really beautiful because that was my favorite Runaway June song,” Stovall shared. “So I lucked out that the very first thing that we decided to put out together with the three of us was a song that already meant a lot to me.” She added that “It was really cool because it wasn’t like I needed to take anything off of the track. It’s not like there were instruments that, ‘Oh, well, if I put fiddle on it’s too much or it’s too…’ It just worked. I was able to put a little bit on there and I might be a little biased, but I thought that the fiddle would be a good instrument to add. But that was another one of those just divine things. It had room for it.”