Is Maren Morris really distancing herself from country music?
On the Nov. 7 episode of "The Tonight Show," Morris clarified the recent comments she made to the Los Angeles Times that she was taking a “step back” from the country music industry.
While speaking with host Jimmy Fallon, Morris said she doesn't think she'll ever be done with country music.
"I don't think it's something you can really leave because it's a music that's in me and that's what I grew up doing," she said. "It's the music I write, even if I've been sort of genre-fluid my whole career. You can't, like, scrub the country music out. So, it was very, like, hyperbolic. But, you know, headlines are different from the things you actually say."
"So, you're not leaving country music?" Fallon asked.
"No, no. I'm taking, like, the good parts with me and all are welcome," she said. "But, yeah, there were just some facets of it that I didn't really, like, jibe with anymore. So, I'm a lot happier now."
During the interview, Morris also talked about her new EP, "The Bridge," which she released on Sept. 15.
When asked how she came up with the title, Morris said it was all about the two songs on her EP.
“I wrote these two songs, ‘The Tree’ and ‘Get the Hell Out of Here,’ and I just felt like I was leaving some things in country music behind that didn’t really serve me anymore,” she explained. “So, it felt like calling it 'The Bridge.' It felt like just this step to the next thing, whatever that is.”
In an October interview on The New York Times' “Popcast” podcast, Morris also talked about her decision to distance herself from certain aspects of country music and recalled backlash she received in 2016 following the release of her singles “My Church” and “80 Mercedes.”
“Ironically, it was like, ‘She’s not country. Look at the way she dresses. Get the hell out of here. You don’t belong here. This is not, like, Dolly (Parton),’” she said.
Things eventually got so bad that Morris said she found herself in a “toxic” environment.
“I don’t want to say goodbye, but I really cannot participate in the really toxic arms of this institution anymore,” she said.
When asked if she was referring to Nashville, Morris replied in the affirmative, though she said she loves living there.
“We have amazing songwriters there, so that’s not going to change. But I couldn’t do this, like, sort of circus anymore of feeling like I have to absorb and explain people’s bad behaviors and laugh it off,” she said. “I just couldn’t do that after 2020, particularly.”
She added that it is “a little bit hyperbolic” and “ridiculous” to say she quit country music.
“But I certainly can’t participate in a lot of it. So I’m OK kind of just going and doing my own thing,” she said.