From watching the knights in his jersey at 3:30am to slipping a new hometown anthem to players ahead of its release, Newcastle’s Morgan Evans is riding the same Grand Final high as the city that shaped him.
The country music stars Steel Town (knights version) could hardly have arrived at a better time as Newcastle prepares for its first grand final appearance in 25 years.
Evans told Newcastle Weekly the idea emerged after hearing his original Steel Town had become somewhat of a fixture at recent Knights games.
“My family and friends go to those games and they’re like “dude, they’re playing your song,’” he said.
However, it was performing the track at the Anzac Day game at McDonald Jones Stadium that helped crystalise the idea of creating something specifically for the Knights.
The new version incorporates the famous Newcastle chant and audio from the 1997 grand final call – including Ray Warren’s iconic description of fans “dancing in the streets of Newcastle”.
“It just gives me goosebumps every time,” Evans said.
“I’ve been doing this a long time. I’ve never been able to write a song specifically about my hometown that I felt captured that feeling of what Newy is to me.”
Evans even secretly sent an untitled link to the club for the boys before its release.
“If I can give them anything to get them fired up or feel any more pride, not that they probably needed it, I sent it over for them,” he said.
For Evans, Newcastle’s grand final fever has stirred memories extending far beyond football.
He was a child when the Knights won their maiden premiership in 1997 and still remembers the atmosphere that swept through the city.
This year looked a little different.
“I was watching the game in my jersey, in bed the other night,” he said.
“It was like 3.30 or four o’clock … I was just yelling at the TV. It was unbelievable.”
His phone lit up immediately afterwards as mates back home celebrated.
But Evans said a friend’s description of what the Knights meant to Newcastle had stuck with him.
“It’s not just the game,” he said.
“It’s family memories, missing people that aren’t around anymore, just decades of watching games with your brothers and your sisters, your mates.
That connection has made hearing his own music accompanying the Knights’ success particularly surreal.
The Knights aren’t the only reason Evans’ has something to celebrate, his album Steel Town has earned him another ARIA nomination, news he received backstage at Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry.
“I was genuinely shocked and genuinely appreciative,” he said.
It is particularly significant as Evans’ first independently released album and arguably his most personal.
“I’m singing songs about Newcastle and Australia and personal moments of my life and kind of heavy things,” he said.
“This record is definitely the most honest and the most vulnerable I have been.
“For that to have been received so well, it’s really cool.”
The deluxe release digs even deeper into Evans’ past, featuring a song for his mum and a cover of a Garth Brooks track he remembers singing around his parents’ home with his brother as a child.
Next up, Evans will return to Australia to join Australian Idol as a judge, while already spending time in the studio working towards his next record.
But first comes Sunday, and if Morgan had one message for our boys in red and blue before they run onto Rugby Leagues biggest stage-
“We’re all here. We are all here. Lets go!!” he joyfully expressed.
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