Maren Morris sets record straight after saying she is leaving ‘toxic’ country music

HITMAKER Maren Morris has finally set the record straight after saying she was leaving the world of ‘toxic’ country music behind.

In 2023, the 35-year-old Texas-born singer said that the country music industry was “burning itself down”, hinting at its ingrained toxicity and how she wanted to distance herself from it.

She also released a song at the time implying she was leaving country music, with the song titled Get The Hell Out Of Here.

But now Maren, who has just released her new album Dreamsicle, has said that she never said she was leaving country music.

Two years ago a chat between Maren and the LA Times was published, with the headline reading: “Maren Morris is getting the hell out of country music: ‘I’ve said everything I can say’.”

Maren has now described the title of the piece as “really unfortunate”, telling The Guardian: “I never said I’m leaving country music, because that’s not really how I feel at all.”

She explained: “You hear country music on this album. You can’t just intentionally take the parts away.

“There would be nothing left of the sound of me. Because it’s just there. It’s in my bones and it’s in the way I write.”

She then spoke about how the 2023 article caused a lot of “unnecessary drama” for her.

Maren went on: “I’m not backtracking what I said, I just never said that.

“It’s not going to be some tussle that’s going to make me change my address,” she added, touching on how she resides in Nashville and doesn’t plan on moving.

DISTANCED FROM THE GENRE

Although Maren says she never said she was leaving country music per se, she did move label divisions and no longer does the country radio circuit.

The singer also does not submit her music to the CMA or ACM awards.

She added to the outlet: “I live in Nashville and I work with all my same friends.

“It would be strange to be like: ‘This music isn’t me anymore.’ That makes me feel like I’m shitting on the music I’ve already put out, and that’s not how I feel at all.”

In September 2023, Maren released the songs The Tree and Get the Hell Out of Here.

In the lyrics of the songs, she seemingly addressed her estrangement from the country music genre.

In a statement at the time, she said: “These two songs are incredibly key to my next step because they express a very righteously angry and liberating phase of my life these last couple of years, but also how my navigation is finally pointing towards the future, whatever that may be or sound like.

“Honouring where I’ve been and what I’ve achieved in country music, but also freely moving forward.”

WHAT MAREN SAID IN 2023

Meanwhile, in her chat with the Los Angeles Times two years ago, she said: “I thought I’d like to burn it to the ground and start over.

“But it’s burning itself down without my help.”

She also said during the same chat: “After the Trump years, people’s biases were on full display.

“It just revealed who people really were and that they were proud to be misogynistic and racist and homophobic and transphobic.

“All these things were being celebrated, and it was weirdly dovetailing with this hyper-masculine branch of country music. I call it butt rock.”