Maren Morris Explains How ‘My Church’ Brought Her Back to Performing on ‘Sunday Morning’ [WATCH]
Maren Morris' story of success isn't particularly unique -- like many others, she started singing at a young age and worked for years to become a known name in country music -- but there's one key detail that sets her career trajectory apart: After a decade of performing, she quit.
The 26-year-old singer self-released a number of albums in her teens, but at 21 -- 10 years after her very first performance at the White Elephant Saloon in Fort Worth, Texas -- she decided that it was time to say goodbye.
"I was a little fed up with myself, and I wanted to make a change," Morris recounts in a feature that recently aired on CBS' Sunday Morning program. "I had never lived anywhere else besides Texas, and I just wanted to be a better something. I was trying to scare myself a little bit."
So, Morris packed up and moved to Nashville to pursue a songwriting career. She started finding success with some of her work, but her publisher had an issue with a number of her songs.
"I remember turning songs in to my publisher, and I would get the same emails back," Morris recalls, "and it would say, 'Maren, I love this song, but I don't even know who to send this to because it just has you written all over it.'"
Still, it took penning "My Church" -- Morris' breakout single -- to bring the Texas native back to the microphone. The singer remembers that she came up with the idea for the track while on a writing trip on the West Coast.
"I was trying to find Santa Monica, and I just headed west, wherever that would take me, [and I] finally hit the water. I just remember seeing the ocean, having a good song on, and it was just the soundtrack for this cathartic moment in my life," Morris explains. "I just remember thinking to myself, 'This is like church to me.'
"Everything changed when I wrote "My Church,"" she continues. "That was the day I realized, when the demo was done, 'I am not sending this to anybody.'"
Following its release in June, Morris' debut album, Hero, hit No. 1 on Billboard‘s Top Country Albums chart and debuted at No. 5 on the all-genre Billboard 200.
“I am still in shock at the response to Hero,” Morris admits. “This album is everything I had envisioned when I first thought about making a full record. I couldn’t be more proud, and I’m so grateful.”
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