What Kevin Morby Can’t Live Without

Katie Crutchfieldbought these for me a couple Christmases ago, but I got into them because ofKim Schifino. They were part of her rehab process after she tore her Achilles, and one day she and I had gone on this long run and afterward my ankle really hurt so she had me try them out. And then I just got obsessed. I’m so active — I play a lot of tennis and I run — so my body is just always aching, and they really do help a lot with the recovery process. I’m also a pretty bad athlete, but when I have them on it makes me feel like a real athlete ’cause all the real athletes use them.

They’re also fun because any time we have friends over, it’s just kind of this thing that we do — we bring out the legs and we’re like,You wanna take a spin on these bad boys?So people will put them on and then we just lie on the couch. And I always take a photo, so I’ve got a bunch of different photos of a bunch of different friends wearing them. They’re a hit because they just feel so good. How could you not love them?

For the longest time, Katie was telling me I needed to get into scents, and I always thought it just wasn’t for me. But then D.S. & Durga sent me this care package. I didn’t know what it was, so it just sat in the corner of my studio for literally two years until my friendAnna St. Louiswas over one day as was like, “Dude, why do you have this? Can I open it?” So she did, and it had all these great perfumes.Cowboy Grassis the first thing I got super into. And then, you know, once you get into something, you kind of discover all the other people in your life that are also into it. My good friendNathaniel Rateliff, who’s an amazing songwriter, he’s really intoperfumes. So when I told him I was finally into perfumes, he’s like, “I’ve got the perfect thing for you.” He bought me theMaison Louis Marie, and it’s become my favorite scent, my everyday go-to. There’s something subtle about it, and it’s got an earthy quality. Of all the scents I wear, it’s the one that always gets a “Man, you smell nice, what is that?” reaction. So it’s the sort of thing I don’t like to leave the house without.

I’ve been wearing this ring for almost 20 years. It’s this beautiful hand, and inside, when you take it off, you can see it’s holding a skull. It’s one of the first pieces my dear friend Maggie Cross made for her jewelry company, Love and Loss. Our mutual friend had passed away, and that was when she started this mourning-jewelry line. I just thought it was so amazing because, at least to my knowledge, that kind of thing didn’t really exist before Maggie did it — or maybe it did, I don’t know, but it’s just so cool. Her whole line has become really successful since then, and it’s not just mourning stuff now; she makes wedding rings and things like that. But when I know somebody who’s gone through a tragedy or has lost someone close to them, I just think it’s so great to be able to recommend a little thing like this to have. Or she’ll do something like a locket or a ring with someone’s hair inside, stuff like that. It’s all just very cool. Anyway, my ring is probably one of the first things she ever made. It’s just really crazy that it’s been on my hand for that long.

[Editor’s note: Morby’s exact ring is not currently available, but we’ve linked to a similar option of two hands holding a heart from Love and Loss.]

Of everything on this list, this mask is the thing I require the most. My manager got it for me a couple of years ago. I have such a hard time sleeping on the road and just sleeping in general. Thismask, the amount of extra hours of sleep it’s provided me, collectively, has probably added up to months at this point, which is such a beautiful thing in my life. It’s nice — it’s silk, and it’s got these beads so there’s weight in it, which feels good. But also psychologically, when it’s on my face, it does something that calms me down and allows my body to shut down in a way it needs to to get really good REM sleep. I’m really able to go under. I wear it everywhere. In L.A., it’s really good because the sun comes in early in the morning. But even in the bunk on the tour bus, where it’s pitch-black, I still have to have it. It’s like a safety-blanket effect. And I’ve never washed it. I don’t ever want to wash it; it’s got this magic power to it. At this point, it kind of lightly smells like my sweat, and it’s got this perfume on it a little bit — it’sme-scented, maybe. But I’m obsessed. I don’t go anywhere without it.

I was on tour in Australia a couple years ago, and when I came back I realized I had this dollar coin in the coat of my rain jacket. It has a really nice weight to it, and because it’s this foreign coin I couldn’t spend anywhere, it just became this thing I started putting in my pocket, kind of like a touchstone, and I just sort of fell in love with it.No Country for Old Menis one of my favorite movies, and it has this whole thing about asking the coin. It’s just become this thing where any time I was at a crossroads with some sort of big life decision and having a really difficult time deciding, I will ask the coin. I can only ask it a question if I’m really stuck, and my rule with it is I have to commit to whatever it says. I’ve been doing it since I guess 2023, and so far it’s done me solid, no complaints.

After that same Australian tour where I got the coin, a few bandmates and I went to Vietnam for a little vacation, and I got really into motorbikes because I was riding them around a lot over there. So when I got back to the states, I went home to Kansas City and I bought a moped — like, the moment I got back. Then shortly after, I bought this Insta360 camera because I wanted to record my rides. It gave me the idea to make a music video with it, which I did for my song “Javelin.” But now, it’s just like this really fun thing I have with me all the time, and I’m making all these videos. It’s got a stand that you can kind of attach to anything, and it records in 360 degrees at all times so you don’t have to worry about any angles. I can mount it on the dashboard of my car or just hold it, and it captures everything — above, below, 180 — and you can choose the vantage point you want later in editing. I take it on tour, and I’m documenting all this stuff now and it’s really because of this camera. I just really love this thing.

First, I should give a shout-out to this really nice North Facerain jacketI bought a couple of years ago that was my favorite thing in the world. I still wear it sometimes, but more recently I bought this two-tone one from Bass Pro Shops — which is funny ’cause I started wearing it around the time of the Oasis reunion tour, so maybe it was a subconscious reaction to seeing all the Liam Gallagher stuff? But either way, a rain jacket has become this thing I never, ever travel without. I think it’s one of the most brilliant pieces of clothing ever invented because you can put it on over a couple of layers and it can kind of act as a winter coat; or you can be in Vietnam, where it’s hot and humid but also raining really hard, so you just wear it over a T-shirt. There’s been a couple of times when I’ve gone to Hawaii or something and it’s supposed to be sunny the whole time so I didn’t take a rain jacket, but then you get there and of course there’s some freak rainstorm. So now I never go anywhere without this thing. It’s also fashionable. It’s sturdy and so easy to pack because you can just shove it into the corner of a suitcase. It has really become my most worn thing on a tour. I love it.

It doesn’t matter how DIY or luxurious a tour is: You’re always going to deal with dirty clothes and having trouble doing laundry, especially overseas. One day before a tour, I was like,I have to figure out how to stop living with this constant anxiety that I’m going to run out ofunderwearon tour. So I went to REI and was like, “What do campers do?” because being on tour is basically just camping. It turns out there’s this underwear that’s sort of pricey but also worth it because it really solves the problem. You just wash them in the hotel-bathroom sink, then roll them up in a towel and step on it for a few minutes — just put all your weight on it and walk across it a bunch of times — and then take them out and hang them to dry and they’re good to go in like 40 minutes. So I’ll just do that before bed. I bought two pairs, and I’ve had those same pairs for a while because I don’t even wear them that often. They really exist as more of a last resort. But when you can’t get to a laundry machine, they’re the best. And I haven’t had to worry about dirty underwear on tour since.

I have a long history of allergies, and especially when touring, you’re always in different environments. This inhaler really does help clear out the sinuses. But it’s also kind of like the Australian coin or the sleep mask in that it’s just sort of this knickknack I have on me, this sort of creature comfort that just makes me feel safe. It’s also nice if someone farts behind you on an airplane or something like that — you just take a couple of hits of this, and, you know, it gives you something else. Clears everything.

These are great. I’m wearing them right now, actually, because I went on a run earlier, but they’ve become what I wear every day — I run in them, I swim in them, I play tennis in them, I hang out in them, and they’re sort of perfect. They’re mesh, and they have a drawstring and what I guess is a short inseam, and they’re just cool and classic looking. I discovered them during the pandemic, so five or six years ago, and now I just swear by them. I probably have ten pairs.

I have to include this because No. 1, I wear it all the time; and No. 2, every time I wear it, I either get a compliment on it or someone asks me where I got it. Unless they’re a Chappell Roan fan, they don’t understand that it’s a merch item, so they’re like, “Oh my God, what’s that? It’s incredible.” And I think that when they see it on me, people get a little confused by it, too. I also completely stole it from Katie — it was hers, and I took it — but I’m a big fan of Chappell Roan’s music, and it’s just the coolest hat.

We went to see her last summer, and it felt like seeing a rock band in the ’70s, like Alice Cooper or something. Everyone was dressed up and celebratory, and it was just awesome. We saw a lot of people wearing the hat that day, too, so we actually ended up buying extras because we just thought we have to have plenty of these hats around just in case.