Latest news with #BlueJeans
Sydney Morning Herald
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
‘You need to let people know where you stand': Maren Morris on being country music's most outspoken star
'Sitting on the fence feels good between my legs' sings Maren Morris on Push Me Over, the best song on the country star's new album Dreamsicle. Co-written and produced by the queer pop band MUNA, the song is a flirtatious statement of intent for Morris, who publicly came out as bisexual last June. For someone who's made a career out of righteously aggravating country music's conservative base, it's also typically provocative. Singing so slyly about same-sex lust in Nashville, the heart of the country music establishment, where Christian values still reign supreme: does it still feel taboo? 'I mean, less so than it used to. But maybe that's just because I've removed myself a bit from the machine of all that,' says Morris from her home in Nashville. Despite the assumptions of outside onlookers, Nashville is more than just the 'mechanism of mainstream country music,' the 35-year-old says. 'It is that, but there's also so much diversity here and it's always been that way. It's a progressive dot in the middle of a really conservative state, and it has to be because it's a music town. It has to lend itself to open-minded ideals, because we're making music here and we're empaths and we feel deeply.' It's why Morris has never left the city, even if country music's more conservative forces have tried hard to excommunicate her. 'There's a heartbeat here that's very free and accepts people, and that's why I've chosen to remain here and make this my home. I have my community here that I love, but I also want to help make it better and redefine what people maybe think of the South or of country music.' The same sentiment that seeps through Chappell Roan's The Giver, her '90s-flecked country hit about sapphic generosity, lives in Morris' Push Me Over. More than just a lavender moment for mainstream country, it's country outcasts staking their territory. We're as country as Mr All-American Blue Jeans, they seem to be saying, you can't tell us we don't belong. 'I'm such a fan [of Chappell] and I think what she's advocating for and doing musically is so important,' says Morris. 'You just know when you're watching a true artist be themselves, fully be themselves, and not follow a script or a paradigm. I don't want perfection from the artists I love; I want real, I want authenticity, and she's definitely that.' I'm speaking to Morris over Zoom, but with some foresight I might've caught her in person. Last month I noticed a Reddit commenter wonder aloud if they'd really just spotted Morris in Sydney. 'Yeah, that was me, I was on vacation,' Morris laughs. 'I had a week off and I was like, I really want to have a little adventure before all the tours and album stuff kicks in. I'd always wanted to go to Sydney and just explore, be a random person. The only plan on the schedule was to get a tattoo.' She lifts her forearm to show me the martini glass inked there by Sydney tattooist, Lauren Winzer. In a recent interview, Morris had mentioned it was her favourite drink. 'It is now. It's my 30-something cocktail. The dirtier, the better.' The local souvenir, one she hopes to add to when she returns on tour next summer, is also a symbol of her lively new era. Dreamsicle – her first album since her divorce from longtime partner, country singer Ryan Hurd, with whom she shares a five-year-old son – finds Morris blending her pop sensibilities with her country DNA. For each Push Me Over, there's an emotional barnstormer like This is How a Woman Leaves, written with Madi Diaz. (The song ends on a pure country couplet: 'You have the nerve to ask why I'm not crying/ I did all my crying lying next to you'.) 'They're songs tackling all these feelings of liberation – sexual, personal, vulnerable, angry,' says Morris. 'That's kind of the through line of this record, it's someone in a mess finding themselves and finding their power again.' A decade since her major label breakout, 2016's Hero, Morris remains one of country music's more intriguing figures, at once both insider and outsider. A Texan native, she started playing country fairs and rodeo circuits when she was 10 years old. After flunking at every reality TV singing competition (American Idol, America's Got Talent, The Voice, et al), she eventually made the move to Nashville and became a hired gun in the songwriting machine, before becoming a star in her own right with Hero 's smashes My Church and '80s Mercedes, and 2018's crossover EDM hit The Middle with Zedd. In the intervening years, she also became one of country's loudest progressive voices, speaking out often and unequivocally against racism, misogyny and homophobia in its ranks. (In one memorable instance, responding to transphobic comments from Brittany Aldean – the wife of country star, Jason – she labelled her 'Insurrectionist Barbie'.) Loading In an interview with New York Times ′ Popcast in 2023, Morris decried an ugly strain of 'hatefulness' in country music at the time, a period dominated by MAGA-fied culture wars around Jason Aldean's Try That In a Small Town, Oliver Anthony's Rich Men North of Richmond, and Morgan Wallen's post-slur comeback. That same year she told the Los Angeles Times she'd 'take a step back' from the country industry amid conservative backlash and death threats. With some dust settled, does country feel less hateful now? 'I mean, I'm so out of the loop. But the people I hang around with here in Nashville and make music with are my best friends for a reason,' says Morris. The backlash just let her know who's really onside, anyway. 'I've always been rebellious and risky, and it's totally fine if people don't get it, not everyone is supposed to. Of course, you're going to lose some people along the way, that's life. But you need to let people know where you stand. 'That's why the fan base I do have is so diverse and safe,' she adds. 'It's because I've stuck my neck out for them and vice versa. It's not been me just towing the line and keeping my mouth shut to keep coins in my pocket. I really believe in what I'm saying and what I'm writing, and I think that's only been a benefit to my work. I've just never had it in me to be a fence-sitter.' Pun completely unintended.
The Age
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
‘You need to let people know where you stand': Maren Morris on being country music's most outspoken star
'Sitting on the fence feels good between my legs' sings Maren Morris on Push Me Over, the best song on the country star's new album Dreamsicle. Co-written and produced by the queer pop band MUNA, the song is a flirtatious statement of intent for Morris, who publicly came out as bisexual last June. For someone who's made a career out of righteously aggravating country music's conservative base, it's also typically provocative. Singing so slyly about same-sex lust in Nashville, the heart of the country music establishment, where Christian values still reign supreme: does it still feel taboo? 'I mean, less so than it used to. But maybe that's just because I've removed myself a bit from the machine of all that,' says Morris from her home in Nashville. Despite the assumptions of outside onlookers, Nashville is more than just the 'mechanism of mainstream country music,' the 35-year-old says. 'It is that, but there's also so much diversity here and it's always been that way. It's a progressive dot in the middle of a really conservative state, and it has to be because it's a music town. It has to lend itself to open-minded ideals, because we're making music here and we're empaths and we feel deeply.' It's why Morris has never left the city, even if country music's more conservative forces have tried hard to excommunicate her. 'There's a heartbeat here that's very free and accepts people, and that's why I've chosen to remain here and make this my home. I have my community here that I love, but I also want to help make it better and redefine what people maybe think of the South or of country music.' The same sentiment that seeps through Chappell Roan's The Giver, her '90s-flecked country hit about sapphic generosity, lives in Morris' Push Me Over. More than just a lavender moment for mainstream country, it's country outcasts staking their territory. We're as country as Mr All-American Blue Jeans, they seem to be saying, you can't tell us we don't belong. 'I'm such a fan [of Chappell] and I think what she's advocating for and doing musically is so important,' says Morris. 'You just know when you're watching a true artist be themselves, fully be themselves, and not follow a script or a paradigm. I don't want perfection from the artists I love; I want real, I want authenticity, and she's definitely that.' I'm speaking to Morris over Zoom, but with some foresight I might've caught her in person. Last month I noticed a Reddit commenter wonder aloud if they'd really just spotted Morris in Sydney. 'Yeah, that was me, I was on vacation,' Morris laughs. 'I had a week off and I was like, I really want to have a little adventure before all the tours and album stuff kicks in. I'd always wanted to go to Sydney and just explore, be a random person. The only plan on the schedule was to get a tattoo.' She lifts her forearm to show me the martini glass inked there by Sydney tattooist, Lauren Winzer. In a recent interview, Morris had mentioned it was her favourite drink. 'It is now. It's my 30-something cocktail. The dirtier, the better.' The local souvenir, one she hopes to add to when she returns on tour next summer, is also a symbol of her lively new era. Dreamsicle – her first album since her divorce from longtime partner, country singer Ryan Hurd, with whom she shares a five-year-old son – finds Morris blending her pop sensibilities with her country DNA. For each Push Me Over, there's an emotional barnstormer like This is How a Woman Leaves, written with Madi Diaz. (The song ends on a pure country couplet: 'You have the nerve to ask why I'm not crying/ I did all my crying lying next to you'.) 'They're songs tackling all these feelings of liberation – sexual, personal, vulnerable, angry,' says Morris. 'That's kind of the through line of this record, it's someone in a mess finding themselves and finding their power again.' A decade since her major label breakout, 2016's Hero, Morris remains one of country music's more intriguing figures, at once both insider and outsider. A Texan native, she started playing country fairs and rodeo circuits when she was 10 years old. After flunking at every reality TV singing competition (American Idol, America's Got Talent, The Voice, et al), she eventually made the move to Nashville and became a hired gun in the songwriting machine, before becoming a star in her own right with Hero 's smashes My Church and '80s Mercedes, and 2018's crossover EDM hit The Middle with Zedd. In the intervening years, she also became one of country's loudest progressive voices, speaking out often and unequivocally against racism, misogyny and homophobia in its ranks. (In one memorable instance, responding to transphobic comments from Brittany Aldean – the wife of country star, Jason – she labelled her 'Insurrectionist Barbie'.) Loading In an interview with New York Times ′ Popcast in 2023, Morris decried an ugly strain of 'hatefulness' in country music at the time, a period dominated by MAGA-fied culture wars around Jason Aldean's Try That In a Small Town, Oliver Anthony's Rich Men North of Richmond, and Morgan Wallen's post-slur comeback. That same year she told the Los Angeles Times she'd 'take a step back' from the country industry amid conservative backlash and death threats. With some dust settled, does country feel less hateful now? 'I mean, I'm so out of the loop. But the people I hang around with here in Nashville and make music with are my best friends for a reason,' says Morris. The backlash just let her know who's really onside, anyway. 'I've always been rebellious and risky, and it's totally fine if people don't get it, not everyone is supposed to. Of course, you're going to lose some people along the way, that's life. But you need to let people know where you stand. 'That's why the fan base I do have is so diverse and safe,' she adds. 'It's because I've stuck my neck out for them and vice versa. It's not been me just towing the line and keeping my mouth shut to keep coins in my pocket. I really believe in what I'm saying and what I'm writing, and I think that's only been a benefit to my work. I've just never had it in me to be a fence-sitter.' Pun completely unintended.
7NEWS
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- 7NEWS
Community rallies to remember teen killed in freak horse accident
The horse-riding community is banding together to honour a free-thinking teenager lost in a freak accident. Brandi Wilkinson, from the tiny NSW towns of Kandos and Dunedoo, will be forever 16 after being kicked in the head by her horse in a freak incident on April 11. Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today A born animal lover, Brandi and her boyfriend Tyler were out riding, doing nothing out of the ordinary when Brandi was kicked. She suffered a fatal blow to the head and was not able to be saved, dying in Tyler's arms leaving behind a heartbroken family and two grieving regional communities. Rebecca Stewart, a high school friend of Brandi's mother, told about the profound loss of a girl she had known since she was born. 'Brandi was a funny, witty little like girl who loved her animals, ranging from frogs to horses, but horses was her passion,' she said. 'She was bullied at school. Using her horses as her outlet to escape that, she enjoyed her life.' The animals brought Brandi happiness and freedom as she fought through own self-consciousness battles. When Brandi was out riding her horses Azzlin and Blue Jeans she was at her happiest. Her dogs Buster, Pluto and Chox weren't far behind. She would claim anything and anyone as a friend and rarely let the bad overcome her goals and the good. Pyper, one of Brandi's sisters, wants to remember her sister as a person who made people smile. 'Brandi was a beautiful, young gentle soul that put a huge grin on everyone's face. She adored being with the people who made her feel blessed and the ones who she loved most,' she said. 'Brandi enjoyed being around any animal from a young age.' Another sister, Akyah said she will miss laughing with Brandi. 'Brandi was one of the kindest, most selfless, and funniest people I've ever known. She had this incredible way of making people laugh, even when they didn't want to, and she'd always help me out no matter what even though she'd whinge the whole time and make sure I knew how much of a favour she was doing me,' she said. 'One of my favorite memories is when we'd take the dogs for walks around town, just talking shit about anything and everything, laughing until our stomachs hurt. We fought like cats and dogs, constantly bickering and getting under each other's skin, but no matter what, she always made sure we were on good terms before the day ended. That was Brandi: real, loyal, and full of love in her own loud, hilarious way.' Brandi's boyfriend's parents also paid tribute, knowing their son was the last person to hold her. 'We can honestly say in the short time we have known this beautiful soul she went from being a quiet and very reserved teenager to a bright, bubbly and quite a smart young lady who had a rough time over the years with being bullied at school but once she came to us and [we] were getting our four children ready to go back for this year's schooling,' they said. 'She didn't waste any time asking if she could give school another go and attend with Ty and two of his siblings that are in high school, in the first term she was back at school she was kicking goals. Brandi was so proud of herself and so were we all. 'She really was a breath of fresh air and we are very pleased that she chose our Ty to fall in love with.' Chelsea, who had known Brandi since year one, was also quick to pay tribute. 'There is a lot I could say about her, she had a heart of gold and was always there when you needed someone, she had a laugh that you couldn't forget, there was never a dull moment when you were around her, she was very set on her goals in life and would always find a way to complete them,' she said. Another friend, Emily, told that Brandi could brighten anyone's day. 'I don't even know where to start — there's just so much to say,' she said. 'Brandi was my best friend since we were little kids. From playdates to fights, we always stuck by each other's side. 'Her kindness and love inspired everyone around her to be their best, even through the toughest times. Her smile could brighten anybody's day, and her laugh — well, it was so contagious we'd end up both laughing on the ground, not even knowing why anymore. 'And lastly, her goofy but loving personality made her the amazing person she was — a caring, kind-hearted best friend. 'She was, and will always be loved and missed.' Tamika Stewart grew up alongside Brandi and said she was a very much a happy-go-lucky type. 'She really loved living in the moment, not planning things,' she said. 'She just lived on. Just lived her life.' Stewart added Brandi was a big Lane Pittman fan. Pittman is a rising Australian country music star who has gained a significant following after touring with Luke Combs. Brandi was usually singing Pittman's songs while with her horses. Her parents, Tracey and Tim, are now faced with the task of planning their eldest daughter's funeral with a GoFundMe started by the Stewarts to help give Brandi a good country send-off. He funeral will be held on May 1, with attendees being asked to come Cowgirl style — with odd socks and crocs. On the funeral notice it quoted 'rode hard, to fly high': a testament to how Brandi lived her life. In addition to Pyper and Akyah, Brandi also leaves behind siblings Shayde and Rhys.
