Of all the puzzling things that exist in this world, one of the more confusing situations is Maren Morris' relationship with country music. It's fair to say that the "My Church" singer has "played the hokey pokey" with the genre, constantly putting herself in and then back out of the classification of country music (no word on if she's turning herself around). Morris has said she no longer wants to be a country music artist just as much as she's backtracked and said country music is a part of her. For example, Morris voiced that's she was leaving the genre behind... then she said it was all of those headlines were "clickbait." Then she released an EP titled The Bridge in 2023, which featured two songs called "The Tree" and "Get The Hell Out Of Here" that were both clearly commentary on her leaving country music... then she said this in an interview on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon: “I don’t think it’s something you can really leave because it’s a music that’s in me, and that’s what I grew up doing. That’s the music I write. Even if I’ve been sort of genre-fluid my whole career, you can’t like, scrub the country music out.” Playing both sides, I see... Now, in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the country music singer seemed to flip back to the "I'm not a country artist anymore" side of things. When asked about her departure from country music, Maren Morris likened it to... well here's what she said: "It was a little like a limb being cut off. My life has changed immensely from that choice. But it’s for the best.”  The conversation was then steered to the number of other female country artists that have made the switch to a different genre - including Taylor Swift and Kacey Musgraves. Morris related to them, and suggested that leaving country music wasn't ever her personal plan, though at one point she felt as though it was her only option: "We all had our different reasons for walking away. It wasn’t really a plan for me. I was just starting to see my voice get smaller and smaller and the ceiling lower and lower. I just felt like, ‘I’m going to have to sacrifice a lot of comforts to be able to do what I want to do.’" The former (?) country music artist then made sure to clarify that any one who was choosing to stay in the genre she left behind (?) is not in the wrong - even though her speech implies the country genre as a whole is toxic. It was somewhat of a backhanded statement of understanding, since Morris calculated that some people are only staying in country music for the money and fame: "I don’t shame or judge anyone who wants to stay and do the carousel. A lot of people are scared to lose money or fans. For me it was like, I don’t really want to do that. I’ve got finite time here and I’d like to live with myself and sleep at night. You feel alone at the beginning. And it’s intentionally done to make you feel isolated from the community when you veer away from or criticize it. The last two years have been wildly uncomfortable, but that’s how I know it was right." Gee, thanks Maren... glad people have your permission to make a living in "toxic" country music. All in all, the back-and-forth nature of Maren Morris' country music career is perplexing. If she wants to say she's not a country artist anymore, that's fine. There's nothing wrong with moving on. However, the issue lies within the fact that she's flip-flopped between condemning and commending the genre. She says she doesn't blame anyone who "stays" in the country music industry, but then implies that it's all about the money if they do. But in the same breath, she says she left country because her ceiling was too low... meaning she couldn't make as much money? I'm genuinely confused by the word salad. As the saying goes, Morris has got to figure out if she's fishing or cutting the bait...