With ‘Golden Child: The Final Chapter' Meghan Patrick closes the book on one of the most vulnerable and defining chapters of her career yet. The deluxe edition expands on the story she began telling in 2024, adding six new songs that trace her journey through confrontation, heartbreak, forgiveness and self-acceptance. Written in the wake of deep personal healing, these additional tracks don’t feel like bonus material — they feel like the missing pieces of a narrative that demanded to be told, revealing not just the emotional wounds she endured but the strength she found in facing them head-on. Read our review of ‘The Final Chapter' right here.
For Patrick, this project represents more than just music — it’s a testament to growth, resilience and perspective. With a year that included touring with Brad Paisley, her first Top 20 hit in the U.S. and the momentum of critical recognition behind her, ‘The Final Chapter' arrives at a moment of both artistic and personal clarity. Fans will find swagger and sass on tracks like ‘Jessica Jezebel' and ‘Project,' quiet reflection on ‘Safe Place to Break' and emotional honesty on songs such as ‘You For Me' and ‘Hold On Meg,' allowing Patrick to close this era not just with resolution, but with a deeper understanding of who she’s become as an artist and a storyteller. We were thrilled to catch up with her to talk all about it.
Happy New Year Meghan, it's lovely to speak to you today and thanks for your time. I hope you and Mitchell (Tenpenny, Meghan's husband) had a lovely Christmas?
We did! It was a great, very restful and much needed holiday. We're ready to get back at it now!
2025 was such a breakout year for you – the tour with Brad Paisley, charting songs, charity shows…. even your social media presence and output I feel went up another level last year. What lessons did you learn last year that you are going to carry forward into this year and what were you most proud of?
Honestly, I'm just most proud of the team that I have around me. Last year was definitely a huge year for me, I really worked my butt off but it does take a village to achieve success! I've been doing this a long time now and so I know what it's like to not have the right people around you, it's been so incredibly valuable and I'm proud of how hard the whole team is working.
What inspired you to revisit and expand the ‘Golden Child' album with these six new songs?
At first I was totally against doing a deluxe version of the album. Partially because deluxe albums can just be ‘Oh, here's a few songs that didn't make the first cut,' right? There are all kinds of reasons why artists do deluxe albums that have nothing to do with the artistry of the album and I felt so attached and proud of the ‘Golden Child' record I didn't want to alter it in any way or water it down.
As I was writing these new songs, however, I began to realise they were also part of the same story. Songs like ‘Blood From a Stone' and ‘Whether You Love Me or Not' felt like such a huge step for me at the time but what I didn't realise back then that they were just the beginning of my healing process and these new songs are the culmination of that process. I call them the ‘happy ending' of the ‘Golden Child' era because they are the final step in healing.
Songs like ‘You For Me' are songs about forgiveness – which is the final part of the healing process. The inspiration behind that song came from an interview I watched with this world class bull rider called JB Mauney – he was bucked off this bull called Artic Assassin and broke his neck whilst he was at the top of his career! He was very matter of fact and at peace with himself in this documentary, which I found really interesting as a former athlete who had a life-changing injury that also changed the course of my life and I was not at peace with that at the time it happened. I was really in awe of his mentality around it. You come to realise that the bull he is petting in the film is Artic Assassin! He's taking care of the bull that ended his career – talk about a lesson in forgiveness!
It got me thinking about hurt people who go on to hurt other people. I used to see forgiveness as a kind of weakness in terms of telling them that what they did is OK – but that's not really what it is. Forgiveness is not even really for the other person, it's for you because when you hold on to all that weight you are letting that pain define you, I got tired of carrying that around with me. I took the lessons from it that made me a better person and left the rest behind.
When I first heard ‘You For Me,' it felt like a sequel to ‘Blood From a Stone.' Is it about your relationship with your mother or is it a wider, more general song about forgiveness?
Both. I think both, you know. It's fair to say that my relationship with my mother is the one that has effected me the most but there are other people and things that have happened in my life too. I didn't want to make the song so ‘on the nose' that other people couldn't see themselves in it. There were a lot of people who have hurt or betrayed me in my life who I needed to forgive and I carried that around with me for so long – that's not who I am anymore. People are seeing the real me now that I have taken the armour off and let go of the hurt and the anger.
‘Hold on Meg' is another song in this fast growing tradition of raw, personal Meghan Patrick songs. You've chosen to end this entire project with that song. You've been in this industry for a decade but ‘Hold on Meg' feels like you're still wrestling with what success means.
I wanted to finish the whole project with that song because it's one of the biggest things I've learned from making this album. ‘Golden Child' was inspired by the first line in ‘Blood From a Stone' and the actual song came later. I had been conditioned and raised as a ‘Golden Child' and what that meant was believing that your value was tied to your success. I grew up believing that success was medals, trophies, accolades and followers – all of that external kind of validation. And here's the thing, I'm a human being in a unique and tough industry who will always want those things (laughing) a little bit but I'm no longer making music in order to receive them.
‘Hold on Meg' is a love letter to myself and a reminder to myself about what I have learned this last year or two in making this album. For me, the success we have had through 2024 and 2025 was nice to have but I realised that I no longer needed it to validate myself. It's helped me to make peace with myself. I'm always going to strive for accolades but I no longer place all my value upon them. ‘Hold on Meg' helps me to remind myself who I am and what really matters in life, especially on those days when you see other artists' Instagram Reels and that voice begins to tell you that you don't have what they have yet! It's also a love letter to my fans, who don't care about industry awards – they are the only validation I need, knowing that they have allowed me into their lives and that they see their own experiences reflected in my songs. What an incredible thing it is to have people show up to your shows, to pay money to see you and to be there singing along to every word, that's what keeps me balanced and gives me the energy to keep making music.
Sounds like a healthy mindset to be starting 2026 off with.
Happiness is a choice, right? Life is short and if you spend all your life thinking that whatever you do is never enough you are going to reach your deathbed and never have been happy! That's crazy. What a waste of a beautiful gift, I don't want to waste it.
Talking about beautiful gifts – ‘The Final Chapter' pivots a little with ‘Jessica Jezebel' and ‘Project' – two outstanding songs with warmth, sass, humour and heart. ‘Jessica Jezebel' must be a great song to perform live?
Oh yeah! We played it every night out on tour with Brad Paisley at the end of last year and it was the first time we had played it. It was an absolute fan favourite. I'm a girls girl and I'm gonna stand up for women everywhere but being a girls girl does not mean supporting women who are, habitually, going out of their way to hurt other women! I have a problem with that and I am going to call it out.
I've been the one that's been cheated on and it's humiliating, it's devastating and painful. I wanted to write a song for those women to put on and be empowered – knowing that somebody is standing up for them somewhere.
Was it a song inspired by one particular woman or is it a more generic song?
(pauses) Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't! (laughs) I don't know!
If it was I hope she knows it's about her!
Oh…….. she would, if it were true. I mean, allegedly, who knows, right? Listen – if the song applies to you then it applies to you. (laughing)
‘Project' is the song that is going to explode on social media isn't it?
Yeah, you know, I try not to put expectations on what songs are going to blow up or not because you just can't predict it. Some of the songs on the album are pretty heavy and I wanted to have some levity and fun on there too and that song is about me as much as it is about any other woman! (laughing) As a former habitual fixer of un-fixable men……… when I think back on all the precious time I wasted trying to fix these men………think of all the other things I could have been doing with this time that would have served me well! (laughing) It's a tongue in cheek way of letting women know that their time and energy is valuable and shouldn't be wasted.
You wrote with some super writers on the original album: Trannie Anderson, Caitlyn Smith etc etc Did you stick to your tried and tested group for these six songs or did you stretch out a little into unchartered territory?
‘Project' was written with Kat Higgins and Jake Rose. They were somewhat newish to me in terms of writing. I wrote again with Karen Kosowski and Emma-Lee on ‘Jessica Jezebel.' So it was a mix of trusted confidants and new blood in there for sure. ‘Hold On Meg' was Karen again but with Natalie Hemby added in this time, I absolutely love Natalie, she's such an incredible writer and ‘You For Me' was written with Jon Decious & Paul Sikes who are great writers in town but fairly new to me, Jon has had some success with Lainey Wilson, obviously.
If there was a writer or artist that you could manifest working with on the next album that you haven't managed to work with yet, who would it be?
Easily Chris Stapleton. I came from a Bluegrass background so I was listening to Chris back when he was in the SteelDrivers, almost 15 years ago now. I've been obsessed with his writing, his voice and his playing ever since. I always remind myself of him when I think about my own career and worry that I am behind where I should be – Chris was making incredible music and writing such great songs back in the SteelDrivers for years before he reached the level that he is at now – I always look to that for inspiration when I am feeling behind the ball, you know?
I'd also like to write with this new breed of female artists that have come into Country music in the last few years. They are so much more exciting than a lot of their male counterparts just because I think they have so much more originality and uniqueness. The reality is that women have had to work twice as hard and become so extra-ordinary to rise above the noise of a bunch of guys who, to me, I'm not saying that they aren't talented, all sound the same. I get it – a lot of the stuff they write is successful and radio plays it because it's familiar and it works but I think this new generation of female artists are incredibly exciting and unique.
What's going to be your main focus in 2026? Is it live shows? Writing? Recording?
Probably my primary focus this year is touring and live shows. I'm going out on my first headline tour in the USA, which I'm super excited about. A lot of the US stuff I've done so far has been radio shows or shorter sets supporting other artists so I'm excited to get out on the road and do my own headlining show! I can give the fans the full ‘MFP' experience. I've already been writing for my next album as well, I like to keep that muscle working when I can so there are things in the bank for that too and I've got some really exciting writes coming up in the next couple of months with some bucket list writers as well!
Could 2026 finally be the year we get the ‘non-Christmas song' duet with Mitchell?
(laughing) You know, I don't want to make any promises but I would say the chances are good! We've actually been trying to make an effort and spend more time writing together recently. We're in the process of building a studio at our house right now so once we have that creative space and the ability to go into it as and when we want there will be even more songs! Mitchell is an incredible producer, he can play just about every instrument there is, a lot of people don't know that about him, he is a triple threat talent! I know people want a duet and I promise that we are going to give it to you but not until it is perfect, something that we feel is truly great – we're working on it, I promise!
Check out Meghan Patrick's new deluxe album ‘Golden Child: The Final Chapter' in all the usual places right now. 2026 tour dates can be found here also.
