INTERVIEW: Maren Morris Talks About The 5 Year Anniversary of Hero

If I remember correctly, the first song I wrote that ended up being on [‘Hero’] was maybe “Drunk Girls Don’t Cry,” if I had to guess. It was in that batch of songs. Yeah, I would have to say “Second Wind” or “Drunk Girls Don’t Cry” were maybe the first songs that were written, but not in the headspace of me being an artist yet.

I think because I grew up in Texas doing shows and, I guess, in a smaller sense, being an artist as a child… I was touring all over the state and doing every chili cook-off and talent show you can think of. I think by the time I reached my early 20s and wanted to move to Nashville, I was very burned out on the idea of being on stage and being in the spotlight. And so writing songs for other people was what I wanted to sink my teeth into. And I also sucked when I got to town as a co-writer. I had to learn how to write with other people, which is what Nashville is so about. Those first few years were really just me in the trenches honing in on my songwriting and writing with anybody that would be in the room with me. And thank God that ended up leading to some of the people that I’m still close with and write with today, like Laura Veltz and Jimmy [Robbins] and all of those people. But yeah, I didn’t have the interest to just be back on stage again for probably four or five years. And then I wrote “My Church” and it just kind of rekindled this flame in me of wanting to be the one on the microphone because I just couldn’t hear someone else singing that song. I think that’s the song that broke the levy was “My Church” because I felt very protective of it and wanted to sing it myself.

With “Rich,” I wrote that with Laura Veltz and Jessie Jo Dillon, and it was just us and a guitar. So [Busbee] really had free rein to build on top of it. Songs like that are really, they’re in your face but the production was really reserved for what I do now, or at least I did on ‘Girl.’ But then on songs like “How It’s Done” and “80s Mercedes,” and “Once,” those were all a little more pop elemented production-wise, and I think that’s because I wrote them with [Busbee]. But it all ended up working together. And I think that’s the testament of his brilliance as a producer, is that he just knew how to tie all these different weird sounds and songs together to make a cohesive project.

In preparation for this interview, I listened to [‘Hero’] yesterday in my car, just driving around Nashville and going to Whole Foods. And if anyone saw me, yesterday in my car, I was listening to my own music. Yeah, it was weirdly emotional. I guess it dawned on me, that I hadn’t really allowed myself to listen to that album since before Busbee died, and probably for good reason because it’s… I mean, he’s just so embedded in every tom sound, every kick drum, every bass note is him playing. And so… Yeah, I was just bawling in my car yesterday, listening to “80s Mercedes” and “Second Wind” and “Once” and “How It’s Done” and all these things that he was so influential in creating. I mean, it still is such a timeless record, to me, because of him. But yeah, emotionally, I hadn’t really allowed myself to go back there until yesterday. So… But it ended up giving me such an insight because I’m in the middle of making my third record. I don’t know. It was like a really weird, necessary therapy session yesterday. Just being like, this is back when you gave zero f***s about what anyone was going to say about it. All you cared about was that you loved it. It’s like, how do you get back to that? And so, it actually was like really, really cathartic.

Definitely Sheryl Crow. I think even the day that we wrote “My Church,” that was the drum sound that we were trying to just be inspired by. We were listening to ‘[The] Globe Sessions’ and ‘Tuesday Night Music Club’ to just get inspired for those drum sounds. I think ‘The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill’ is a huge influence on drum sounds for ‘Hero.’ Also, I will say The Cardigans. If you haven’t checked them out, they’re a very talented band that gets knocked as like a one-hit wonder because they had the song “Lovefool” in the ’90s, but they are so much bigger and better than even that song, which was a huge hit. But their record ‘Long Gone Before Daylight’ was, and it still is, hugely influential to me on just the sonic elements of a really dark sounding record with just bright female voices.

Going into the Grammys [in 2017], we were nominated and I was performing that evening with Alicia Keys. And it was just all so crazy and surreal for words. But I just remember I won for “My Church” for Country Solo Performance, so that obviously would only be awarded to me. And I remember thinking at the time, “Busbee deserves a Grammy today for all of the work that he did on this record.” But he was just really excited to be nominated so many times as a writer and producer. He was always so gracious about being nominated. But at the same time, it was so bittersweet when I won for album of the year for ‘Girl.’ Because it was the first time I would have been able to stand on stage with him and accept a major award, and he had died a few months prior.

I remember getting sent the demo for “The Middle” and just knowing that whoever gets to do this song is going to crush it. And I think the song is going to be a hit, but I definitely fought for it. And I didn’t even realize that many people were auditioning for the song, but I just remember talking to Sarah Aarons who wrote it, and Zedd who I’m on it with. They were like, “We listened to tons of amazing vocalists, but you were the one that sounded the most gritty.” And I was like, “Maybe that’s the country part of me.” But it melded well in the pop world.

[Busbee] was one of the greatest vocal producers I think I ever… will ever work with because even, and you could probably ask Carly Pearce the same thing, but the way that he would just stay on you while you’re in the vocal booth, no matter how long it took, no matter how many notes were too high, he would know how to stretch your voice because he just … I don’t know, he just knew female voices in such a particular way. Whereas a lot of producers now, and even writers I work with just to do a quick vocal, they’re like, “Oh, don’t worry. I’ll fix this with Melodyne later.” And Busby was not about that. He was definitely like, “You’re going to get this note by note.” And the harmonies, same thing. A lot of people just throw away the harmonies, because they’re going to auto tune them later, but he was not about that ironing out.

It took 42 weeks for [“I Could Use a Love Song”] to go [No. 1.] And I remember, with “My Church” and “80s Mercedes,” those were back to back singles, they both went top 10. And I remember after we pulled “My Church” from radio, there were achievements and like also, “oh man, I wish we had gone on the way with that one.” But then weirdly enough, it being, “I Could Use a Love Song,” which is so ballady and at the time I don’t think people remember how unheard of that was for a female with a ballad or low tempo song to go all the way to the top. It was just very rare anyways, but 42 weeks later, standing at Crying Wolf in East Nashville, which is where we had the number one party, it was super emotional. Just getting to see all my peers show up and really congratulate, not just me, but Busbee and Laura Veltz and Jimmy [Robbins] for coming together and writing a song.