Singer Maren Morris said it was "hyperbolic" to say she's leaving country music, after she slammed the "really toxic" and "racist" industry in a recent interview.
Singer Maren Morris elaborated on her recent decision to distance herself from the "misogynistic and racist" country music industry, during a New York Times' podcast on Wednesday.
"The Middle" singer claimed last month that the "Trump years" exposed the bigoted views of people in the industry which led to her giving up on the genre. She clarified to the Times this week that she was not leaving country music entirely but did not want to "participate" in the "really toxic" industry which propped up "White men."
"When I zoomed out, just in looking at cold, hard facts, numbers stats,..[I realized] this is getting significantly worse each year for people on the margins, women," Morris said. "Women on the radio, people of color, just anyone who is not [a] White male," she added on the NYT popcast.
She questioned if the female fans she sees at country music shows held bigoted views against their own sex.
"The audience is like, 90% women. So, is this like internal misogyny going on here? Because they are the ones that are buying the tickets, they are buying the merchandise. What’s happening?" she asked.
Morris also complained that recent hit songs, Jason Aldean's "Try That in a Small Town," and Oliver Anthony's "Rich Men North of Richmond," show how the genre has become embedded in the culture wars.
"It is so steeped in, weirdly, like patriotism or quasi-patriotism, lots of like, overt hypermasculinity, Whiteness—that’s just like how it’s been from the jump," she said.
"It does feel like the flame is getting hotter, so maybe it's this last stand of hatefulness," she complained.
Later in the interview, Morris argued her prior announcement she was leaving the country industry was blown out of proportion.
"I think it's a little bit hyperbolic to be like she's ‘left country music,' because that's ridiculous. But I certainly can’t participate in a lot of it," she said.
"I love living in Nashville," she said, but "I couldn’t do this sort of circus any more of feeling like I have to absorb and explain people’s bad behaviors…after 2020 particularly…I've changed," she explained.
Morris claimed her criticisms of country music weren't aimed at fans, but the industry.
"I’m not shutting off fans of country music. Or that’s not my intention. It’s just the music industry that I have to walk away, a few factions, from," she said.
The singer shared how she was delighted to see her "diverse, accepting and loving" fans at shows in New York City.
She explained how she wanted to attract "progressive listeners" who were interested in various genres, not just country. "That's always been kind of my MO from the jump, even from my first record, so it's like, all are welcome," she said.
Earlier this year, the liberal singer taunted the state of Tennessee to come "arrest" her during a speech at a pro-LGBTQ concert just weeks after the state announced a ban on drag shows near schools.
"And yes, I introduced my son to some drag queens today, so Tennessee, f------ arrest me," Morris said last March. Her provocative comments won her praise from a host of liberal media outlets.
Fox News' Lindsay Kornick contributed to this report.
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