Maren Morris is done with country music. The singer-songwriter said her announcement in an interview with the Los Angeles Times last month to leave the industry came after she decided that while she didn’t “want to say goodbye,” she could no longer “participate in the really toxic arms of this institution any more.” In a Wednesday interview with The New York Times’ Popcast podcast, the 33-year-old said: “I love living in Nashville, I have my family. There’s a reason why people come there from L.A. and New York to write with us. It’s because we have amazing songwriters there. That’s not gonna change. But, she added: “I couldn’t do this circus anymore of like—feeling like l have to absorb and explain people’s bad behaviors and laugh it off. I just couldn’t do that after 2020 particularly. I’ve changed. A lot of things changed about me that year.” Morris said that while saying she has left country music is “ridiculous,” she “certainly can’t participate in a lot of it. I’m OK just going and doing my own thing. Come with me, if you please, everyone’s welcome.”
