On her way out the door, a country singer took a literal scorched earth approach to bailing on the genre while pointing a finger at former President Donald Trump and fans for forcing her “woke” exit.
Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Maren Morris, 33, recently spoke with the Los Angeles Times about her future plans in music bent on disparaging the genre and fanbase that established her career.
Marking the release of an EP that featured a thinly-veiled clap back at Jason Aldean’s “Try That in a Small Town,” the singer lamented people openly sharing views in the country music business to the newspaper, exclusively those that she disagreed with.
“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,” she alleged. “All these things were being celebrated, and it was weirdly dovetailing with this hyper-masculine branch of country music. I call it butt rock.”
On the genre itself, Morris suggested, “I thought I’d like to burn it to the ground and start over. But it’s burning itself down without my help.”
When asked about a public feud with Aldean and his wife Brittany, the singer denied the success of protest anthems against leftist policies like “Try That in a Small Town” and contended, “But I think it’s a last bastion. People are streaming these songs out of spite. It’s not out of true joy or love of the music. It’s to own the libs. And that’s so not what music is intended for. Music is supposed to be the voice of the oppressed — the actual oppressed. And now it’s being used as this really toxic weapon in culture wars.”
As previously reported, Morris’s gripe with the Aldeans reached back to her criticism of his outspoken wife who had slammed transgenderism and said on Instagram in 2022 she was glad her parents had used her “tomboy phase” to try and “change her gender.”
“Advocating for the genital mutilation of children under the disguise of love and calling it ‘gender affirming care’ is one of the worst evils,” added Brittany Aldean.
Morris had reacted to the post by saying, “It’s so easy to, like, not be a scumbag human? Sell your clip-ins and zip it, Insurrection Barbie.”
In his own commentary on the singer, then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson had called Morris a “lunatic” and “fake country music singer,” a point of pride for her when she received the Excellence in Media Award at the 2023 GLAAD Media Awards New York in May.
“And, okay, fine, maybe I felt a little badass taking Tucker Carlson’s calling me a lunatic for standing up to transphobia, turning it into a T-shirt, and raising $150,000 for LGBTQ+ charities, yeah,” she said. “That made me feel a little cool, but I don’t want to gloat, I would never insult the recently unemployed.”
Left-wing country singer accepts award by saying she’s a ‘badass’ for being exposed by Tucker Carlsonhttps://t.co/ls7ticHjm9
— American Wire News (@americanwire_) May 16, 2023
In the recently released video for “Get The Hell Out Of Here,” images depict a small town featuring yard signs that read “GO WOKE GO BROKE” and “I believe in God & Guns” burning and getting buried in ash as she sang, “I do the best I can, but the more I hang around here the less I give a damn. So to all the doubts and demons that I held so dear, go on, get the hell out of here.”
Meanwhile, reactions to her departure from the genre included disinterest and the view that the opposite had occurred. As political commentator and former congressional candidate Robby Starbuck said, “This is hilarious. @MarenMorris says she’s quitting country music but the truth is, country music quit her. Awards shows had issues getting artists to sit near her because she’s so insufferably woke & toxic. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out Maren!”
This is hilarious. @MarenMorris says she’s quitting country music but the truth is, country music quit her. Awards shows had issues getting artists to sit near her because she’s so insufferably woke & toxic. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out Maren! pic.twitter.com/iVJ2NWud0M
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) September 16, 2023
Maybe when Maren decided to side with drag queens over parents protecting the sexualization of their children and taunting TN officers to arrest her because she had her toddler in the dressing room with drag queens like some form of rebellion instead of actually reading the TN…
— Lucy Riles (@LucyRiles) September 15, 2023
She was in country music?
— Gatlin Didier (@gatlin_didier) September 16, 2023
Her 15 minutes were up anyway
— MurcielagoMike (@MikeMurcielago) September 16, 2023
— GOPPouncer (@Mellecon) September 16, 2023
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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