Maren Morris clarifies plans in country music after revealing she’s stepping away

Nearly two months after announcing she would be stepping away from country music, Maren Morris is clarifying comments she made in an interview with the Los Angeles Times last September.

“I don’t think it’s something you can really leave because it’s a music that’s in me,” Morris, 33, told Jimmy Fallon during an appearance on ‘The Tonight Show’ last Tuesday. “That’s what I grew up doing.”

Morris added, “That’s the music I write, even if I’ve been kind of genre-fluid my whole career, you can’t scrub the country music out. So, it was very hyperbolic.”

When pressed further about whether she was leaving country music, Morris told Fallon, ”No, no, no. I’m taking the good parts with me and all are welcome. But, yeah, there were just some facets of it that I didn’t really jibe with anymore.

“So, I’m a lot happier now.” Watch her FULL interview with Fallon below.

As she leaves behind certain parts of the country music genre, Morris says she will continue to make music.

Morris released two new tracks this fall called “The Tree” and “Get the Hell Out of Here.” The new tracks are part of her EP called “The Bridge,” which she told the Los Angeles Times is one of many metaphors as she started “imagining a path out of the world of country music.”

“These two songs are incredibly key to my next step because they express a very righteously angry and liberating phase of my life these last couple of years, but also how my navigation is finally pointing towards the future, whatever that may be or sound like. Honoring where I’ve been and what I’ve achieved in country music, but also freely moving forward,” Morris said in a statement this past September.

Over a decade ago, Morris moved from Texas to Nashville for country music. She wrote songs for country artists like Tim McGraw, according to the LA Times. She later got a record deal of her own.

According to People Magazine, Morris is planning to release music on Columbia Records instead of Columbia Nashville. “The Bridge” EP marks her move to Columbia Records, the Times reported.

“I thought I’d like to burn it to the ground and start over,” she says of country music, according to the newspaper. “But it’s burning itself down without my help.”

She is working on her next LP with producer Jack Antonoff who produced “Get the Hell Out of Here.” Antonoff has worked with Taylor Swift, Niall Horan and Zedd. Read more here.

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