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- Morgan Wade (b. Dec. 10, 1994) is a country music singer known for her ‘Wilder Days’ song.
- In May 2023, she revealed that she tested for the BRCA gene and would undergo a double mastectomy.
- Those who inherited variants of the BCRA1 and BCRA2 genes have a high risk of several cancers.
Morgan Wade is “going really hard” in 2023. The 28-year-old country music star behind the “Wilder Days” hit is enjoying as much of the year as she can before undergoing a double mastectomy as a precaution against breast cancer. “I had the BRCA gene,” she told Page Six at London’s Highways Festival on May 20. “It’s a breast cancer gene, so I’m having a double mastectomy in November. I’m going really hard up until November, so then November and December, I have off to rest.”
BRCA1 and BRCA2 are genes that produce proteins that help repair damaged DNA, according to the National Cancer Institute. However, when someone inherits a harmful variant of one of these genes, they have an increased risk of several cancers, most notably breast and ovarian cancers. Morgan is not leaving anything up to chance. ” “I’m feeling fine. I’m just pissed I won’t be able to work out because I really like working out,” she told Page Six about her upcoming operation, adding that she usually works out seven days a week. “That’s my only qualm about it.”
As she continues her 2023 – catch her on tour – here’s what you need to know about Morgan.
Morgan Wade Is A Country Star.
Morgan’s career began in 2018 when she was a freshman in college. She recorded and released her debut album. While performing at the ’18 FloydFest, Jason Isbell‘s sound engineer gave her album to Sadler Vaden, guitarist for Isbell’s band, The 400 Unit. Sadler and producer Paul Ebersold knew that Morgan had it, and they worked with her to put together Reckless, her debut major-label album. Thirty Tigers put it out in 2021, which earned major critical acclaim.
“With insider trade HITS proclaiming, ‘Imagine Kris Kristofferson as a Gen Z woman,’ The New York Times raving, ‘she sounds like she’s singing from the depths of history,’ and FADER offering, ‘Wade has a voice like a jagged blade, sharp enough to draw blood but lustrous under the light,’ Reckless landed hard and true,” reads the bio on her website.
Reckless gave a Top 40 hit for Morgan. “Wilder Days” peaked at No. 36 on the Billboard Hot 100.
She’s Pretty Fairless.
“The first time I sang in front of people I just went down into this basement with five random men that I found on Craigslist to start a band,” Morgan told Rolling Stone. At the time, she was a 19-year-old student attending college in Roanoke, Virginia. “I just remember there was a guy sitting out front with sunglasses on at eight o’clock at night, smoking weed. That was really normal. And I just went on in the house, and they were like, ‘Yeah, down in the basement.’ So I went down there, and there were five guys down there. But, here we are.”
The Craigslist band helped Morgan record her first album, the self-released Puppets With My Heart. She told Rolling Stone that the album came from a moment of heartbreak after dumping a boyfriend. “I just got it in my head that I could form a band,” Wade recalls. “It would either piss him off or get him back, either one.”
She Loves Tattoos.
“I was sitting in my apartment. One of my friends from college, she was there. She was just like, ‘I think you would like tattoos,’” she told Rolling Stone. “I don’t know why she said that to me, and I was like, ‘I think you’re right.’ Literally drove to the tattoo parlor to get a tattoo. I had like 90 dollars in my bank account.” Her first tattoo was her sibling’s initials. It wouldn’t be the last. “I got pretty addicted, obviously,” she said, her body now covered in designs.
Morgan Decided To Get A Double Mastectomy Due To Her Family History.
In May 2023, Morgan revealed to Page Six that she found out that she has “the BRCA gene.” Everyone has two copies of these genes – one inherited from each parent, per the National Cancer Institute. BRCA1 and BRCA2 are genes that help repair damaged DNA, and are considered tumor suppressor genes. Yet, when they have certain changes – considered harmful variants or mutations – they can develop cancers.
People who inherited harmful variants are at risk of several cancers, most notably breast and ovarian cancer. People with harmful variants of BRCA1/BRCA2 tend to develop cancer at younger ages. “My mom had [cancer], and my little cousin is going to get it, but I’ll be fine,” said Morgan. She opted to undergo a double mastectomy as a preventative measure.
Her Second Major Label Album Promised To Go Crazy.
Rolling Stone named Reckless as the Best Country Album of 2021. The follow-up, Psychopath, was set for an August 2023 release date. “With ‘Psychopath,’ we’ve done a really good job of moving on from Reckless to the next stage without it being so crazy different,” she told Page Six in May 2023. “I’m excited. Every song on there has its own sound and is completely different. … [The album] goes into where I’m at in life right now. Which is so busy. It’s about growing up and being older and starting to feel like, ‘Is it time to settle down?’ I think you’ll see a lot of that on the record.”
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