Maren Morris on stepping back from the country music industry: ‘I couldn’t do this circus anymore’

Maren Morris is opening up about her decision to take a break from the country music industry, revealing that it was an announcement years in the making.

Last month, the 33-year-old singer released an EP called “The Bridge,” featuring two tracks titled “The Tree” and “Get the Hell Out of Here” that touched on her strained relationship with Nashville and country music. She then confirmed in an interview with the Los Angeles Times that she was taking a “step back” from the country music industry.

In an interview on The New York Times “Popcast” podcast that was released Oct. 4, she reflected on the moments in her career that pushed her away.

She recalled the “backlash” she received in 2016 following the release of the singles “My Church” and “80 Mercedes” from her debut album, “Hero.”

“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 told co-hosts Jon Caramanica and Joe Coscarelli.

Morris said she wasn’t trying to be like other artists and was carving out her own lane. Around the same time, she performed her first big show in New York City . She remembered being “floored” seeing the diversity in the crowd.

“It felt so diverse and accepting and loving. And I’ve only wanted to continue that and amplify that through my work each time,” she explained.

Seven years later, Morris realized she was in a “toxic” environment after going through some “traumatic” experiences.

“I don’t want to say goodbye, but I really cannot participate in the really toxic arms of this institution anymore,” she said.

When Coscarelli wondered if she was specifically referring to Nashville, she said “yes,” but added that she loves living in the cultural center of country music.

“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. I just couldn’t do that after 2020, particularly.”

The singer continued, “I’ve changed. A lot of things changed about me that year.”

However, she said it is “a little hyperbolic” and “ridiculous” to say she quit country music.

“But I certainly can’t participate in a lot of it. So I’m okay kind of just going and doing my own thing,” she said. She encouraged her fans to follow her music journey and said “everyone’s welcome.”

Going forward, she told her team not to submit her songs for consideration at country music award shows.

“I’m not shutting off fans of country music. That’s not my intention” she clarified. “It’s just the music industry that I have to walk away — a few factions — from.”

Morris has been outspoken about the lack of diversity and inclusivity in country music throughout her career.

She reflected on the list of controversies involving country music singers when she released her EP last month. When asked in a September interview with the L.A. Times if it’s “been a good year or a bad year for country music,” Morris first congratulated singers like Jason Aldean for “crossing over onto the big all-genre chart” before sharing where she stands on the current state of country music.

“I’ve tried to avoid a lot of it at all costs. I feel very, very distanced from it,” she told the newspaper.

She said “The Tree” and “Get the Hell Out of Here” represent the “aftermath of walking away from something that was really important to you and the betrayal that you felt very righteously.”

“I thought I’d like to burn it to the ground and start over,” she said, describing the goal of the new songs. “But it’s burning itself down without my help.”

Morris has voiced her support for gender-affirming healthcare and addressed the lack of LGBTQ+ representation in country music, making waves in the genre in recent years. But, she said she didn’t originally think of herself as a “political artist.”

She wrote songs “through a lens of deep respect for my country heroes,” but started to see the “cracks” within the business of country music.

“And once you see it, you can’t unsee it. So you start doing everything you can with the little power you have to make things better,” she said.

She also shared why she isn’t afraid of criticizing country music and its audience, pushing back against the fear of “getting Dixie Chick-ed,” which refers to the vitriol The Chicks faced in 2003 after speaking out against then-President George W. Bush.

“Country music is a business, but it gets sold, particularly to young writers and artists who come up within it, as almost a god. It kind of feels like indoctrination,” she said. “If you truly love this type of music and you start to see problems arise, it needs to be criticized. Anything this popular should be scrutinized if we want to see progress.”

She attributes the “problems” in country music to the post-Trump era when “people’s biases were on full display,” she said.

“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,” she said.

She said now the genre is used as a “really toxic weapon in culture wars” and she reached a point where she’s “kind of said everything I can say.”

“I always thought I’d have to do middle fingers in the air jumping out of an airplane, but I’m trying to mature here and realize I can just walk away from the parts of this that no longer make me happy,” she said.

Morris has dabbled in different genres before. She teamed up with Zedd and Grey for the pop hit “The Middle” in 2018.

In 2021, she was featured on the Taylor Swift track “You All Over Me” and performed at the Chicago stop of the “Eras Tour” over the summer of 2023. She also collaborated with pop production royalty Jack Antonoff on “Get the Hell Out of Here,” and she said the experience was comparable to getting her start in music.

Her latest songs and new musical direction carry a thread of ‘hope” for what she’s walking toward.

“It’s like, let’s write something bats--- insane today, and it might suck, but this is what I used to do when I moved to Nashville 10 years ago,” she said. “The freedom to fail, you know?”

This article was originally published on TODAY.com