Maren Morris Does Not Regret Being a 'Lunatic Country Music Person' Who Thinks Bigotry is Bad

By Emma Chance | Celebrity | September 3, 2024 |

By Emma Chance | Celebrity | September 3, 2024 |

Maren Morris was just the latest in a sacred tradition of female country artists calling out male country artists for their assholery when she tweeted about Morgan Wallen using the n-word in 2021. Wallen was caught using the slur in a TMZ video, and Morris commented by saying that if she or another female artist did the same, they’d “be dropped, endorsements lost [and become] social pariahs to music row.”

“It actually IS representative of our town [of Nashville] because this isn’t his first ‘scuffle’ and he just demolished a huge streaming record last month regardless. We all know it wasn’t his first time using that word. We keep them rich and protected at all costs with no recourse,” she added.

Wallen made an apology video a week later in which he asked his defenders, “please don’t.”

Then, in 2022, Morris responded to an Instagram post made by Brittany Aldean, wife of “Try That in a Small Town” singer Jason Aldean. Aldean’s post read, “I’d really like to thank my parents for not changing my gender when I went through my tomboy phase. I love this girl life,” and Morris retorted, “It’s so easy to, like, not be a scumbag human? Sell your clip-ins and zip it, Insurrection Barbie.”

It’s so easy to, like, not be a scumbag human? Sell your clip-ins and zip it, Insurrection Barbie.

— MAREN MORRIS (@MarenMorris) August 26, 2022

That delicious clap-back launched a right-wing media takedown against Morris, including Tucker Carlson referring to her as a “fake country music singer” and a “lunatic,” which Morris now uses to sell “Lunatic Country Music Person” merch benefiting Trans Lifeline and GLAAD’S Transgender Media Program. She later released music about the whole situation, distancing herself from the country music establishment, saying she “thought I’d like to burn [the genre] to the ground and start over … it’s burning itself down without my help.”

She was recently rewarded for her efforts with a performance at the Democratic National Convention, and now she says she and her family received death threats because of her statements.

“It wasn’t death threats against me; it was against my son, too,” Morris told Sophia Bush on the Work in Progress podcast last week. Her son, Hayes, was an infant at the time. “So it’s like, ‘Oh wow, now we’re involving the kids.” Ironic, since Brittany Aldean responded to the backlash against her transphobic comment by saying she was “extremely surprised” because she thought she was “advocating for children.”

But she regrets nothing. “I feel the exact same way as I did that day,” she said. “Would I maybe use the channels of Twitter again? Probably not. There’s probably more dignified ways to get my point across but hey, it is what it is.”

“Don’t be racist. Don’t be transphobic. Don’t be homophobic,” she continued. “I still stand by that so if you’re expecting me to feel bad, no I [don’t].”