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Meghan Trainor recently embarked on her first tour in seven years, which takes her to the FirstBank Amphitheater in Franklin on Tuesday to play a show outside of Nashville, the city where it all began for her.
“Nashville is like a second home to me,” Trainor said in an interview with The Tennessean. “I moved to Nashville for a year, where I wrote ‘All About That Bass.’ And then I got a contract in that one year. The year after I moved, we packed up and went to LA.”
Trainor has been in Los Angeles since her career took off, but she still has her Nashville phone number.
The Nantucket, Massachusetts native has released six studio albums, won a Grammy Award and two Billboard Music Awards, and released hits such as “Made You Look,” “Like I’m Gonna Lose You,” “Dear Future Husband” and “No.”
Trainor released her latest album, “Timeless,” on June 7. It features songs with T-Pain, Lawrence and Niecy Nash.
While working on her latest album, Trainor also had to juggle her life as a mother of two and took a break from touring. Now she’s back on the road, but not without a healthy dose of nerves.
“I’m definitely nervous, but I’m also excited,” she said. “I can remind myself that that anxious feeling is the same feeling in your body as excitement. So I can choose which one it is – and I’m going to choose excitement.”
Meghan Trainor talks about taking the whole family on the ‘Timeless Tour’
Trainor wasn’t alone when her tour kicked off on September 1. She was opening for Paul Russell, the hip-hop artist who sings “Lil Boo Thang” and “Slippin’.” Her “TikTok bestie” Chris Olsen is also opening for the show.
Trainor’s brother Ryan will accompany her on tour as a DJ and singer-songwriter Natasha Bedingfield will join her at some of the bigger shows.
“It’s just going to be my favorite show of all time,” Trainor said. “Just a really good time.”
Ryan Trainor isn’t the only family member on the tour. Meghan is bringing her 3-year-old and 1-year-old sons. Trainor’s mother will also be at every show and serve as her assistant, and her husband, grandmother and nanny will also be coming along.
“We all travel together all the time, so it’s nothing new for us. But it’s a little scary,” Trainor said, pointing out that it’s not just a flight or a stay in a hotel and then back home – it’s a 26-stop tour.
“It’s going to be chaos,” she said. “And I’m so excited.”
On the tour bus, Trainor wants to give her kids the best experience possible. Like any normal mom, Trainor wants to find a way to keep her son away from the iPad and maybe even find a fun way to decorate his bed.
“My three-year-old is busy and bored. And he tells you when he’s bored and screams, you know, for fun,” she said.
Trainor has been busy at work trying to find the best tips for balancing touring and motherhood. Her nanny reached out to Pink’s team, Trainor said. The singer is known for touring with her family for many years.
“We reached out to a bunch of moms who were on tour with them … and I said, ‘Please send me all the Amazon links, send me everything I should get,'” Trainor said.
“I was on Kelly Clarkson’s show and she said it’s really difficult with kids when you try to play the hero and say, ‘Okay, let’s go to an aquarium all day tomorrow or let’s go to a park all day and then I’ll do my show,’ which was literally my plan,” Trainor said.
After speaking with Clarkson, Trainor said she knew she had to find balance on tour or she would be too tired to play her show.
“So I’m going to try to find the balance, which is not something I’m good at,” she said.
Trainor gives her nanny a lot of credit for making it all possible. “She saved our lives – she was a hero,” Trainor said.
Trainor talks about the album “Timeless,” duets with T-Pain and writing country music
Trainor, who released a deluxe version of “Timeless” on August 16, believes the album has been received mostly positively.
“People love multiple songs,” she said in a radiant voice.
“My fans come up to me and say ‘Timeless,’ they know. It’s really cool not to just be the ‘Made You Look’ girl or the ‘Bass’ girl,” she said, adding that she thinks the album is the best thing she’s ever done.
Trainor wanted to stand out from all the music on the radio, and she believes that’s why “All About That Bass” was a success. Little surprises, like her two songs with T-Pain, were pieces she hoped would spark curiosity.
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“I adore him,” Trainor said of the singer and rapper. “Any reason to get him in a music video was like a dream to me. I’ve achieved all of my life goals.”
Trainor said she sent T-Pain a song “a while back” but he never responded – so she sent him another one. Four months later, on her 30th birthday, T-Pain told her he wasn’t just available for one song. He recorded features on both. Those songs became “Love on Hold” and “Been Like This.”
“It was a dream come true because my brothers both wrote songs with me,” Trainor said. “So we jumped together and were like, ‘We have a song with T-Pain!'”
T-Pain isn’t the only well-known artist Trainor has written songs for. She’s written songs for Jojo Siwa, Jennifer Lopez, Fifth Harmony, John Legend, and others. When she moved to Nashville, two of her first big songs were with Rascal Flatts and Lauren Alaina.
“I’m forever grateful for that, because I can tell people I write country music,” she said. “Here’s my proof, you know?”
Trainor said she loves country music and continues to study it. Recently, she tried writing for Bailey Zimmerman. In the future, she said, she would like to write for Kelsea Ballerini and Alaina again. She also mentioned Lainey Wilson.
“All these new, young, cool kids are coming up in the country. They’re the absolute rage. I think to myself, ‘Oh, this is so exciting. I want to be a part of this.'”
Trainor is looking forward to the camaraderie she will feel at her Franklin show.
“It’s more like my hometown to me because I lived there for a year and know so many songwriters and producers there. I also got my first publishing deal there. So my whole family goes to the shows and I can’t wait to see everyone again,” she said.
“It’s one of my favorite places to perform.”
For more information about Meghan Trainor, visit meghan-trainor.com.
Audrey Gibbs is a music reporter for The Tennessean. Reach her at [email protected].
