Maren Morris is opening up about her 2023 comments about leaving country music and the controversy that followed.
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According to the artist, her statements were misinterpreted. She never intended to leave country music for good. Morris took to TikTok after three years to clarify exactly what she meant.
"As an artist, and as a Texan, I feel like I have pretty thick skin," Morris said. "You have to if you're in this line of work. But for years I've seen comments on my videos, or articles posted about me that say, 'She said she hates country music.' And it's exhausting because I can't reply to all of them and be like, 'Cite your source.'"
Morris clarifies that she does not hate country music and the genre is in her roots as a person and artist.
Morris continued, "I love country music, full stop. It's my home. I grew up loving it in Texas, being so proud that so many of my country heroes are from that state. It made me want to be a songwriter. My dad bought me an acoustic guitar. I taught myself how to play and write songs in my bedroom as a kid. And then I moved to Nashville and made my dreams come true."
However, Morris says that she dealt with criticism throughout her career for not being country enough. Her songs frequently blur the lines between traditional country and pop, and it's something that she says she has had a lot of fun with.
Maren Morris Speaks Out
She said, "I was always talking about the music business side of things because I think in country music particularly — I'm sure in other genres this is prevalent — but in country music, where it's like, this is almost religion, and then the music business machine of it is like, you kiss the ring."
"You always say 'thank you.' You pave over the cracks. If you see something, don't say something. And me and my friends, we're just trying to write songs and have fun and make this feel safer," added Morris. "And I even say in that article, when you love something it's okay to criticize it because you're not doing it because you hate it, you're doing that because you love it and want to make it better."
Morris is now setting the record straight on her comments that she made.
Morris also said, "I just want to clarify here, I was never talking about country music, I was talking really about the machine of the music industry, which as any artist will tell you, is more business than music at times."
So don't say that she doesn't love country music.
