John Morgan Takes a Ride Down Memory Lane: 'Everybody Could Sing and Everybody Could Play Something'

John Morgan hasn't always had long hair.

"Actually, I started growing it out right before the pandemic and I just kept letting it go," admits the 27-year-old singer/songwriter during a recent interview with PEOPLE. "I just quit caring, and here we are."

He lets out a laugh but make no mistake. His hair hasn't been the only thing that has changed for Morgan in recent years, as the accomplished wordsmith now finds him under the bright lights of Nashville. But what hasn't changed is that the small town of Sylva, North Carolina still lives in his heart.

"When I was growing up there, we had just a little main street with a couple mom and pop shops," remembers Morgan, whose childhood story is lovingly told in an extended video premiering exclusively on PEOPLE. "It was a very quaint little mountain town."

Eric Ryan Anderson John Morgan

A natural left-hander, Morgan grew up playing baseball.

"My dad made me play right-handed though because he wanted me to play shortstop," says Morgan with a laugh of his days on the baseball field. "I was a decent player. I've always told people that if I wasn't doing this, I would probably be coaching somewhere. I really fell in love with coaching."

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At the time, there was also another love in his life.

"Where I grew up in, Appalachian music is pretty generational," he explains. "Everybody played an instrument as a hobby. That's bluegrass music at its very root. I just kind of grew up in the middle of where everybody could sing, and everybody could play something."

Soon, this pastime morphed into a family bluegrass band which Morgan played in for 10 years, before he went and shocked everyone courtesy of an electric guitar.

Eric Ryan Anderson "Sorry Not Sorry" cover art

"I got into Eric Clapton and John Mayer and Stevie Ray Vaughan and just went down those rabbit holes and never wanted to come back," recalls Morgan, who has become a husband and first-time father all in the past year. "I loved bluegrass, but I really just wanted to start writing my own music and try some different chord progressions and whatnot to get out of that world a little bit."

And out of it he is, as the accomplished songwriter now finds himself not only churning out hit songs such as Jason Aldean's back-to-back No. 1 hits "Trouble with a Heartbreak" and the GRAMMY and CMA-nominated "If I Didn't Love You" featuring Carrie Underwood but is also establishing himself as a solo artist intriguing enough to watch.

"I am a believer and I definitely think it was a God thing because that's the only way I can figure out how all of this has happened," says Morgan, who was basically discovered during an Uber ride with a driver who had worked with longtime songwriters and Aldean collaborators Kurt Allison and Tully Kennedy. "It's just a one-in-a-million kind of thing."

Co-produced by Aldean himself, Morgan's current unapologetic single "Sorry Not Sorry" tells the story of a genuine country boy who ain't about to change for anyone. And in the music video for "Sorry Not Sorry" is Morgan's very own truck.

"[They needed] a real old piece of s— truck, and I was like, 'Yeah, I just bought one,'" laughs Morgan, who is set to make his Grand Ole Opry debut in May. "I drive it every day. It's an old Ford F350 and I love it."