Maren Morris leaves country music industry to escape 'drama' and politics

Maren Morris announced her departure from the country music industry on the same day she released her songs The Tree and Get the Hell Out of Here.

Speaking to the Los Angeles Times on Friday, the 33-year-old singer revealed her plans to release music under Columbia Records in lieu of Columbia Nashville. 

Morris ascribed her decision to “take a step back” from the genre to the toxic politics within, prompting her to feel “very, very distanced” from it.

“I thought I’d like to burn it to the ground and start over,” Morris told the outlet. “But it’s burning itself down without my help.”

“I’ve always been an asker of questions and a status quo challenger just by being a woman. So it wasn’t really even a choice,” she shared. “The further you get into the country music business, that’s when you start to see the cracks. And once you see it, you can’t un-see it.”

The Middle singer also brought up gender disparity in the genre, that scrutinizes an action of a successful woman more sharply than its male counter-part.

“Being one of the few women that had any success on country radio, everything you do is looked at under a microscope,” Morris explained. “You’re scrutinized more than your male peers, even when you’re doing well. So I’ve had to clear all of that out of my head this year and just write songs.”

“A lot of the drama within the community, I’ve chosen to step outside out of it,” the singer added.