Cassadee Pope Is Trading Country Music for Rock So She Won’t Be ‘Shamed for Speaking Out’

Cassadee Pope is ditching country music and going back to her pop-punk roots.

"I realize every genre has problematic people in it," Pope, 34, said in an interview with Rolling Stone published on Thursday, February 15. "I'm not saying there's not a frontman in a band who hasn't been accused of something in rock music. But I guess rock is in my bones more. You're not completely ostracized and shamed for speaking out."

Before embarking on a solo music journey, Pope was the frontwoman for the rock band Hey Monday. She ultimately decided to pursue country music in 2012 after she joined Blake Shelton's team on The Voice, which she ultimately won.

Since breaking out in the genre, Pope hasn’t shied away from calling out other artists’ controversial remarks. In 2021, she condemned Morgan Wallen after he went viral for using the N-word. After looking back on how she handled the situation, Pope wishes she would have reacted differently.

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"I look back on it and I'm like, 'You're so annoying,'" she reflected. "I was just another angry white person who just learned about racism. If that were to have happened today, I would have had a different response."

Wallen, 30, isn’t the only musician Pope has confronted. She and pal Maren Morris also have feuded with Jason Aldean and his wife, Brittany Aldean, over the years. Pope and Morris, 33, called out Brittany, 35, for her transphobic comments in 2022. The tension escalated in 2023 after Jason, 46, dropped his song “Try That in a Small Town.”

“I just feel like if you’ve been called out THIS MANY TIMES about being problematic, maybe it’s time to self-reflect? But what do I know ???♀?,” Pope wrote via X in July 2023.

After speaking out, Pope addressed her drama with the Aldeans and explained why she felt the need to address the couple’s actions.

“If I see something that is being said that I feel is harmful to a community that I care about … I’ll say something,” Pope said during an August 2023 episode of the “Hold My Hair?” podcast. “Sometimes it’s better to just amplify the voices of that community because they know what they’re talking about way more than I do, sometimes I can’t help [but stick up for them myself].”

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Pope revealed on Thursday that while she was “proud” for standing up for what she believed in, she realized that the constant backlash did not sit well with her.

"I had no feeling of regret. I just kept my head down and kept going,” she explained. “It's only been the past few months that I've let my guard down in therapy and said, 'Wait, I actually wasn't OK.' But I think that kind of comes with the territory of including activism in your life. You're not going to please everyone."

Pope’s transition to back rock music began last year after she released her song “People That I Love Leave,” which pays homage to her early pop-rock days.