I'm a huge country fan and am always inspired by classic country.
— Maren Morris
I wanted to become a better songwriter, so it seemed like a no-brainer to move to Nashville, where some of the best writers in the world live.
The support I've had from home has made it so much more fun to put music out.
It seems like almost every day I've been able to cross things off my bucket list.
Food is always a favorite on my docket when I go somewhere.
I love all types of music, and I think the genre lines are starting to get thinner every year.
As a songwriter, I listen to everything to be inspired... from Rihanna to Bruno Mars to Springsteen to Johnny Cash.
When it comes to best new artist or album or song of the year, yeah, it's very rare that you see someone in country win one of those. It's a very strong genre, and it's got roots so deep in our culture. I think the pool of voters listen more to pop and R&B and hip-hop. Those seem to be the major contenders.
I always go back to old vinyl albums I loved, and that's sort of the aim I had with 'Hero' - just to make it look classic and feel like me, but also timeless in a way.
A lot of new artists sign their deal and then go into a development stage for a year or two or sometimes never get out of it. For me, because I had been a working songwriter in town, I had a collection of songs that I was ready to make into an album. At the time, I didn't realize it was becoming an album, but it was.
My lyrics are more country - what I love is the storytelling and the structure, how tight the rhymes can be. But pop melodies have always been intrinsically linked to my writing style.
I was rejected from 'American Idol' - and I'm happier for it now.
I've never been this loud personality. I don't dominate the room when I walk into it. I save that for stage.
Right before I go out, we usually put on some Lauryn Hill or Fugees, and I'll do a shot of tequila just to calm my nerves.
I love listening to the radio because there's something about that discovery, that platform, still being the main medium. And it is changing with streaming services, but I like to listen to what people are listening to and figure out why is this song so catchy.
With streaming services, the walls have come down a bit on genres. So I never really set out to make a country record or a pop record. I just wanted to make it mine.
Ever since the Dixie Chicks, the female perspective on country radio has been love songs. I love love songs, but we do have more to talk about, so it's nice that other perspectives are coming back.
When I was touring in Texas, that was before iPods and Spotify. Driving around through towns, I had to, out of necessity, scroll the radio. Whatever region of the country you are in, that's a great way to find out what they listen to. You find music wherever you are, and that becomes the soundtrack for whatever your road trip is.
There's not a lot of good content to write about when you're 13 years old, so you just have to kind of fake it.
I'm young, but I've been doing this a long time... There's obviously a lot of hard work that goes into it. It's a hard town. There's a lot of talent here. It's all about timing, too. I just feel like I finally found the right town and the right song.
I have a Prius, but I'd love to have a white convertible like Richard Gere's in 'American Gigolo.'
Being the everyman in the writing room helps a lot: you have to be a real collaborator and selfless, and not have ego when you walk in there. That's the antithesis of the artist mentality.
I hope there is a place for me in the country landscape, but I'm not too precious about it, either.
I love pop music, I love country music.
I did choir, soccer, some theater. The only weird thing about my life was that I was playing honky-tonks on the weekends.
There are so many fun things that you live that you can write about and people of all ages can connect to.
Definitely scatterbrained. I internalize a lot of thoughts, and sometimes it seems like I'm not listening or totally zoned out, but I'm always on a loop of ideas and song titles. I'm definitely kind of a space cadet, but I'm very laid back.
'My Church' - that was really the tipping point of me going from songwriter to artist.
I think about all of the freaking talent shows I've tried out for in my life, and I'm so glad I didn't make any of them.
I internalize a lot of thoughts, and sometimes it seems like I'm not listening or totally zoned out, but I'm always on a loop of ideas and song titles. I'm definitely kind of a space cadet, but I'm very laid back.
There are so many times I turn on the radio, and I hear a guy, and I have no idea who it is because it sounds like four other people.
I love love songs, but sometimes it's okay to just be young and talk about something other than getting married or falling in love. There are so many fun things that you live that you can write about and people of all ages can connect to.
I'm not in the teenybopper bracket, and I'm not in the 30-plus bracket. The fan response has been really widespread, age-wise.
If you think about 'The Pill' by Loretta, that was totally blacklisted back then. But she revolutionized and liberated a generation of women - country listeners and beyond - that were sort of in that box and were able to break out of it.
I get a lot of my songwriting done while driving around Nashville - sometimes it comes to me that way.
It's hard to say exactly when it all started or what show it was, but I started touring when I was 11. I played all over Dallas and Fort Worth, and eventually I was touring the whole state.
I want to be as gracious and thankful as I can because it has been a long road.
Nashville has become sort of this go-to writing city for every genre.
I learned to write from different points of view and not just something I would say.
I thought there was a glitch when they told me that in two or three weeks 'My Church' hit a million streams.
Fine arts education in public schools is really abysmal. The same emphasis should be put on music, theater, dance - anything creative - that's put on math and science.
I always get less nervous when we get into rehearsals because it just gives me a better idea of how it's gonna go.
I love, love songs, but sometimes it's okay to just be young and talk about something other than getting married or falling in love.
It's funny to think that at 22 years old, I was really burned out from being on the road for 10 years.
This never happens, but I was writing with my friend Ryan Hurd and Eric Arjes, and we wrote this song called 'Last Turn Home.' The next day, my publisher emailed it to Tim McGraw's label. He listened to it, and I think within the week, he went into the studio and recorded it. And that never happens.
I love dry British humor. I love to sketch in my off time. I love tequila.
Being on the stage is the one place I don't get nervous. Before the show is another story, but once I'm up there, and the first chord hits, I go to this other place. It's like a dream land.
I've written some really good songs that I love hungover because I wasn't overthinking it.
It's not my aim to be this, like, 'savior for females.' I just want to make good music.
I don't want to get political here, but everything I've heard out of Donald Trump is definitely, um, shocking. The fact that he's got women fans is very alarming to me, because some of the stuff that has come out of his mouth is just so awful.
