Am I the only one whose head is officially spinning from Maren Morris leaving and then not leaving country music?
After all the hoopla about her EP The Bridge, Maren said she was “moving forward” from country music:
“Honoring where I’ve been and what I’ve achieved in country music, but also freely moving forward.”
After that release, she said that country music was burning itself down during a Los Angeles Times interview.
“I thought I’d like to burn it to the ground and start over… but it’s burning itself down without my help.”
And she also called country music “toxic” and said she could no longer participate:
“I don’t want to say goodbye, but I really cannot participate in the really toxic arms of this institution anymore. I couldn’t do this sort of circus anymore, feeling like I had to absorb or explain people’s bad behavior. And you know, laugh it off.”
It seemed like she’s pretty set in her choice to no longer participate in the genre, right? Sounds pretty clear to me.
Think again. She threw the biggest curveball of all while appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, saying that she was leaving ‘parts’ of country music behind, but not the genre entirely.
“No, no. I’m taking like the good parts with me, and all are welcome.
But there were some facets of it that I didn’t really, like, jive with anymore. So no, I’m a lot happier now.”
While this left fans more than confused, she elaborated on the topic again during last night’s episode of Watch What Happens Live. During the virtual fans question portion of the late-night talk show, a fan asked Morris if she could describe her sound on her upcoming album since she is “leaving country music.”
“I will sort of just clarify: I have not left country music; that was just the headline. I like what I said was that I was just leaving behind the kind of toxic parts of it – and that’s in any part of the music industry. But just like the things that I am in control of. Yeah – I want to take the good parts with me.
I’ve always written everything like very genre-bendy for years.
I don’t think people label it as much anymore. I’m from Texas, I grew up on all of that music, so the way I write, the way I sing, that’s just how it comes out -whatever genre I’m doing or whatever feature I’m doing.
So yeah, that was just a headline, clickbait that got blown up. I just make music.”
She also revealed that she was a little annoyed that media outlets ran with the headline that she was quitting country music, as those words never came out of her mouth.
“There is so much contention and drama…and maybe I attract some of it, but certainly, my heart is always in the right place.”
While maybe those words did not come out of her mouth directly, she did imply strongly that she was not a fan of the genre, even referring to it as “toxic.” It feels odd to trash the genre that brought you success and then say you are remaining a part of it? Like I said, am I the only one confused?
But as Morris did mention in her The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon segment that she’s not really country, so at this point… does anyone who is a fan of country music even care?
