It hasn’t been very long since Morgan Myles appeared on Season 22 of NBC’s The Voice. But that doesn’t mean she has taken time to slow down. In fact, after placing third following a strong run on the show, which ended up crowning fellow country singer Bryce Leatherwood, Myles received the phone call of a lifetime. She was invited to make her Grand Ole Opry debut at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium.
According to a video featured on Myles’ Instagram page, the Pennsylvania native’s cell phone rang while she was seated in the passenger seat of a vehicle. Her good friend Opry’s Jenn Tressler was on the other line to share the good news that a slot had opened up at the Ryman. And it belonged to her.
“I seriously CAN NOT believe this…it’s been a lifelong dream of mine to 1.) play the @opry 2.) play the @theryman, and I get to do both Jan 6th,” a caption reads alongside the teary-eyed post. “I’m, seriously, just overwhelmed for this moment… grab tix now at opry.com 🤍 love you @jenntressler, #OpryDebut here we come, baby!”
Myles has since made her Grand Ole Opry debut, which was a huge success. After performing her songs, “Sanctuary” and “Woman Of My Word,” while dressed in a beautiful light-pink dress, the vocal powerhouse received a well-deserved standing ovation. Now that she’s come off a high from stepping inside the famous circle, Myles is reflecting on that special milestone moment.
Speaking with Music Mayhem, she said, “It was a dream come true. I mean, I was pretty emotional… I even feel a lump in my throat right now just saying it, it took me 17 years to get here, and everybody was there to support me. They flew in from everywhere in such a short period. I found out about doing the debut a little over a day after the finale. I’m driving 2000 miles home with my parents from the show. And so we had to cancel Christmas plans, and people were flying in for January 6. From all facets of my life, people just still had come up.”
“We had a meet and greet at the Omni before it got sold out and packed, and I was blown away. They were shooting an Opry episode for me. It was the first time they had ever done it at the Ryman – my type of episode. Afterward, we had an after-party. It was over capacity within 15 minutes,” she continued. “I think the best part of that night coming from The Voice was I sang my music that I wrote. I sang ‘Sanctuary’ at the ‘Mother Church.’ Then I sang ‘Woman of My Word,’ which is about standing up for what’s right for yourself.”
She continued, “To have people stand up for that and then still pulling me back up on stage and dancing at the end to close out the stage – It was just such a magical night. I wasn’t even nervous or worried because I felt like it was finally my time. And you have gotten off this stage where you’re being critiqued all the time, and you’re worried. And Tuesday’s coming with elimination, and there’s just so much unknown when you’re on The Voice. But with that experience that night, I could sit back and go, ‘let’s smile and enjoy and soak in where the heck I’m at right now. This is wild.’”
Indeed, Myles has put in years of hard work, having spent over a decade playing music in Nashville before her stint on The Voice. When asked what advice she would give her younger self if she could go back in time, she says, “there’s so much.”
“I think, be okay with saying “no.” Man, there’s so much. I think that’s such a hard thing… but you’ve got to go through it to be a better writer. It’s so hard because I keep telling people, like Brayden and stuff, this isn’t instant, to be a better storyteller. You gotta live it. That’s why we call it a 10-year town. And, for me, it’s been a heck of a lot longer than that,” Myles shared. “I’ve achieved some pretty awesome stuff, but I still don’t feel like I’ve gotten to where I’ve wanted to get to. But you only can get better and better and better. I don’t know what the best advice would be, but it would definitely be something like: don’t ever let other people own or take advantage of your happiness. If you can uphold your mental love from the get-go, like thank God I have two amazing parents that are my foundation, but people will come and try to take and own you, and it’s hard. It’s a really hard thing to be the product and have a heart and you need to have that emotional side of yourself so that you are a genuine, authentic storyteller and performer. So definitely there’s just so much.”
For Myles, that advice seems to have paid off, as she has a clear goal for the future. Myles says she plans to release plenty more music and even hopes to work on some collaborations with some not-yet-announced names.
“There’s literally music that’s been sitting around that we’ve been working on for two years now, and we’re wrapping that up,” she explains. “I want to do some cool collaborations with some of my friends. And then I’ve got a ton of shows coming up that we’ll be announcing soon. So just trying to balance all that.”
“I think my goal is always simple – to work with amazing people and to be better,” she adds. “Always be better as a human, a writer, and an artist. I want to reach as many people as I can, and hopefully, music will be healing to them.”
