Parenting duty doesn't get put on pause for a nationwide tour.
Grammy Award-winning country star Maren Morris chatted with E! News' Daily Pop on June 1 about bringing her 2-year-old son, Hayes Hurd, along for her Humble Quest tour this summer.
"I think he thinks the tour bus is like camp or something, 'cause he just has no idea what's going on, but he gets so excited," she told hosts Loni Love and Garcelle Beauvais. "My tour starts next week, so this will be my first time touring with a baby or a kid, so I'm excited. It's gonna change my way of doing things in a good way, I think."
Maren welcomed her son back in March 2020 with husband Ryan Hurd, right as the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown began. "It was very weird to give birth to my first kid in such an uncertain time for the world," she said. "And then, my tour got canceled because all live touring got canceled for two years because of COVID."
Even with her new bundle of joy, lockdown left Maren feeling "purposeless" creatively. "I had this new purpose as a mother," she recalled, "but as an artist who's been touring half of their life, I really felt out to sea in a lot of ways."
She continued, "I think it helped me recalibrate my priorities and know that as much as I love what I do, I don't do it to be loved anymore. I do it because I love it, and I think that was a healthy pill to swallow."
Doing what she loves has given her the chance to work with music industry icons like Sheryl Crow and Taylor Swift. But there are plenty more artists on Maren's dream collaborations list.
"I love Dua Lipa. I love Phoebe Bridgers," she told Daily Pop. "Jazmine Sullivan is an incredible singer. I don't know anyone on this Earth that can do those runs. Her Heaux Tales album got me through the pandemic, for sure."
Another dream project of Maren's? Starring in the musical Wicked. She threw her name in the ring to play the not-so-evil Wicked Witch of the West, Elphaba, on Twitter earlier this month by sharing an audition video of herself singing "The Wizard and I."
"I put it in the Twittersphere. I don't know," she joked. "I probably would have never done that before the pandemic, but I think all my ‘give a damn' is busted and I just thought, 'What the hell? What's the worst that could happen? They say no?'"
One thing the singer-songwriter knows is that she's not tied down to just one musical genre, as she draws inspiration from all kinds of artists and styles.
"I grew up listening to not just country. I listened to a lot of ‘70s rock, Linda Ronstadt, [Led] Zeppelin, a lot of Motown, a lot of like that muddy water stacks music," she said. "As much as I think that my country songwriting and lyrical structure is very Nashville and very country, I do think that vocally—there's just no rhyme or reason to any of it. Isn't music just supposed to make you feel something? Why does it matter what category it's in?"
Check out the full interview above
Maren Morris' Humble Quest tour kicks off June 9.