How Miranda Lambert and Kid Rock are inspiring new country singers Megan Moroney and Jelly Roll

Up-and-coming country artists Megan Moroney and Jelly Roll are both nominated for their first CMT Awards this weekend — and they’re both looking back on their journeys that inspired them as singer-songwriters.

“Well, I think songwriting-wise, I still love Kacey Musgraves…Miranda Lambert,” Moroney told Fox News Digital, adding that the “If I Was a Cowboy” singer was one of his “musical influences”.

Moroney clarified that although she never spoke to Lambert, she did meet her — literally.

The 25-year-old said that several years ago, while still in college in Georgia, “I accidentally met her…and I stepped on her by accident. But I I’m just sorry, but I haven’t had a conversation with her now.”

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Moroney is nominated for two CMT awards: Breakthrough Female Video of the Year and CMT Digital Debut Performance of the Year for “Tennessee Orange,” which fans guessed was about Morgan Wallen, who is a blue-eyed Tennessean like the man she sings about in the song.

“I’ve officially decided that the song is about who you would like to think the song is about. That’s my final answer,” Moroney told Fox News Digital about the speculation. The two have previously fueled romance rumors.

Moroney also had kind words for Carrie Underwood, who she says has a “very creative mind.”

Megan Moroney said her father taught her to play the guitar. (Jason Kempin/Getty Images)

“I think she’s probably behind a lot of that stuff, which I think is important as an artist,” Moroney said of the work that went into designing a music video and performance. , noting that the CMT awards are “centered around videos.”

“I guess she has a lot to do with how everything looks, and it looks a lot like her. So, I think it looks authentic,” she added.

“I’m very involved in all the videos and all the visuals,” she added of her own music.

She said her father, who taught her to play the guitar as a child, was another positive influence on her musically, adding that he helped her learn to pay attention to music and lyrics.

“He never pushed me to do it, but he loved the music so much it was kind of like, ‘Hey, I wouldn’t hate it if you picked up a guitar,'” she said.

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Moroney said her father also taught her to play the guitar and helped her learn to pay attention to music and lyrics.

“He never pushed me to do it, but he loved the music so much it was kind of like, ‘Hey, I wouldn’t hate it if you picked up a guitar,'” she said.

Jelly Roll, who comes from a rap background, has cited Kid Rock, Brothers Osborne, Wallen and Ernest Hardy as influences.

Jelly Roll called Kid Rock “borderline genius” in business. (Michael Hickey/Getty Images)

“I’ve been inspired by so many different eras of country music,” the singer, who is up for three awards, told Fox News Digital.

“Kid Rock gave me some great advice when we first met. He’s so overlooked as a businessman,” he said, calling the “All Summer Long” singer “to the limit of genius”.

“And when you really sit down and talk to Kid Rock, he’s borderline genius because…he doesn’t have enough,” he said. “People don’t see that side of him. And he helped me with everything from management, commissions, bottom line, reducing production costs before paying commissions. You see what I want say? As he just taught me, I could bore you with some of the things Kid Rock taught me.”

The “Need a Favor” singer said he was “blindsided” by his nominations for Male Video of the Year, Breakthrough Male Video of the Year and CMT Digital Debut Performance of the Year.

“I didn’t even think it was possible,” he told Fox News Digital. “Like I just said, ‘I’ve probably, you know, I’ve got a couple more years of work to do to kind of prove that I’m here to stay or whatever,’ you know. And it was just unreal. I was just – we celebrated like we won just by being nominated. So if we lose, we still won.

Jelly Roll said he always viewed music as a form of “therapy”. (Terry Wyatt/Getty Images for BMG/BBR Music Group)

He added, “No matter what happened that night, we won. We were in the building, baby. Our name was on that piece of paper.”

The singer, who spent a few years in his teens and early twenties in prison, also opened up about his commitment to helping those incarcerated.

“I spent a lot of my early life bleeding on people who didn’t cut me,” the singer said. “I think it’s a responsibility to go back and try to help the people that I didn’t cut out, you know? I believe as a kid who was in the system, the years the most impressionable in our lives are between 14 and 17. And there are a lot of these kids who feel extremely hopeless at that point and they make these drastic decisions – these drastic decisions that change the landscape of their whole lives And I just wanted to go back and love them.

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He explained that he works with a program that brings music to prisons in Tennessee and “we’re partnering with Impact Youth Outreach and donating a quarter of a million dollars to the Central Juvenile Facility. city ​​for follow-up programs for kids here. And it’s become an annual charity for us. What we’re going to do for at-risk youth in Nashville, I have a five-year plan that’s going to blow people’s minds.

Jelly Roll said he always viewed music as a “form of therapy”.

“I got into music because of what music has done for my family,” he told Fox News Digital. “You know, we were a lower middle class family and my mom had a lot of mental health issues. And there was something about music that changed our home. Like if we were playing an old Barbara Mandrell record or something like that, and the whole house would come together, and I always looked at music as therapy.”

The 38-year-old added that family has always been his “anchor”.

“The first person to congratulate me yesterday on my nomination was my older brother,” he said, explaining that his brother’s birthday was April 1, the day before the show. “So he said, ‘On April 2, we’ll celebrate you, Jason. “” Jelly Roll’s real name is Jason DeFord.

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He continued, “My daughter and my wife have changed my whole life. They’ve changed my outlook on love. They’ve softened my hard old heart. You know, I haven’t always been the grateful, patient human that I was. I try to become today.”