Maren Morris Is Done Feeding the Online Trolls. Now, She’s Ready to Wail.
A couple weeks ago, country music superstar Maren Morris brilliantly summed up her attitude toward her critics with a single tweet: “And to the turkey-necked, fake Christian Karens who flood my mentions with utter nonsense, death threats, and laughable hypocrisy every chance you get, you keep me young.”
It was a succinct kiss-off that could’ve been prompted by any number of inciting “offenses” by the 31-year-old, who’s earned a reputation as a squeaky wheel in Nashville thanks to her candid (and liberal-leaning) thoughts on gun control, posing for Playboy, racial equality in country music, and fellow artist Morgan Wallen’s flippant use of the N-word, among other contentious topics.
But Morris has other, more important things on her mind. After the release of her sophomore effort, Girl, in 2019—as well as the debut album later that year from The Highwomen, the supergroup she formed with Brandi Carlile, Natalie Hemby, and Amanda Shires—Morris had her career upended by the pandemic, weathered a hurricane of hate from those aforementioned internet trolls, and dealt with postpartum depression after she and her husband, singer-songwriter Ryan Hurd, welcomed their son, Hayes, in March 2020. It was a humbling series of disappointments, and one that forced her to relinquish control.