This Just In: Maren Morris May Skip CMAs Following Aldean Feud
"I don't feel comfortable going."
Don’t be surprised if you don’t see Maren Morris grace the Country Music Awards stage this year. The singer-songwriter, whose album Humble Quest is nominated for Album of the Year, is saying her RSVP is very much up in the air after erupting in an ugly online feud with Jason and Brittany Aldean.
“I’m very honored that my record is nominated. But I don’t know if I feel [at] home there right now,” Morris said in a new tell-all interview with the Los Angeles Times. “So many people I love will be in that room, and maybe I’ll make a game-time decision and go. But as of right now, I don’t feel comfortable going.”
“I kind of feel peaceful at the notion of not going,” she continued.
On August 23, Brittany posted a glam video to Instagram Reels writing, “I’d really like to thank my parents for not changing my gender when I went through my tomboy phase. I love this girly life.”
While some laughed off the insensitive (yet transphobic) comment, Morris and fellow country music artist Cassadee Pope fired back.
“You’d think celebs with beauty brands would see the positives in including LGBTQ+ people in their messaging. But instead here we are, hearing someone compare their ‘tomboy phase’ to someone wanting to transition. Real nice,” Pope tweeted.
In the same Twitter thread, Morris responded, “It’s so easy to, like, not be a scumbag human? Sell your clip-ins and zip it, Insurrection Barbie.”
The reel was a tipping point. Speaking with the outlet, Morris explained the way in which fans and her country music peers engage with this type of content is a reflection of what’s happening in country music as a whole. And it’s not good.
“I just shot it off. I hate feeling like I need to be the hall monitor of treating people like human beings in country music. It’s exhausting,” Morris said. “But there’s a very insidious culture of people feeling very comfortable being transphobic and homophobic and racist, and that they can wrap it in a joke and no one will ever call them out for it. It just becomes normal for people to behave like that.”
She continued, “Look, I’m not a victim in this and neither is she. But I don’t have feelings of kindness when it comes to humans being made fun of for questioning their identity, especially kids. The whole ‘When they go low, we go high’ thing doesn’t work with these people. Any resistance movement is not done with kind words. And there’s a lot worse things I could’ve called her.”
Morris is also fighting the fight for her 2-year-old son, Hayes, whom she shares with husband Ryan Hurd.
“This whole thing got so ugly so fast because the worst they can say to me is, ‘Oh, you must be a groomer then.’ That’s literally their favorite word. I have a son, and I think we’re all — especially all parents — we’re just trying to do our best and take care of our kids and make sure they’re happy,” Morris explained.
“The Bones” singer added, “You don’t know if one day they’re gonna come home in tears because they don’t feel right in their body. And it’s just so s***ty for the parents that are going through that right now to make a joke out of it… Suicide rates are so high because of hateful bulls*** like that. I don’t care if it’s a joke. But they don’t want to talk about that part because it’s too real.”
The CMAs will air live on ABC on November 9 at 8 p.m. ET. Tune in to see if Morris wins Album of the Year — and if she’s there to accept the award in person.
