Maren Morris is one of a lucky few who gets to call her hero a friend. While on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon Tuesday (Nov. 7), the vocalist opened up about her relationship with Taylor Swift five months after she and the “Anti-Hero” pop star performed their Fearless (Taylor’s Version) collaboration “You All Over Me” together at the Eras Tour.
“We’re the same age, but looking up to her since I was a teenager, and watching her navigate her country music to pop career so gracefully, and the way she treats her fans is so kind and generous,” Morris gushed. “She’s setting a high bar.”
The 33-year-old singer-songwriter also recalled meeting Swift in 2018 on the Reputation Tour. “She was kind enough to ask me to come out and sing my song ‘The Middle’ with her,” Morris shared. “She’s just been so supportive of me and my career over the years.”
Following somewhat in Swift’s footsteps, Morris recently announced that she’s planning to leave country music behind. Her genre hop, however, isn’t just about changing up her sound. As she explained to Fallon, “There were just some facets of [country] that I didn’t really jive with anymore.”
In October, Morris revealed she will no longer submit her music for country awards consideration and transferred from her label in Nashville to the New York-based Columbia Records. “I really cannot participate in the really toxic arms of this institution anymore,” she shared in an October interview on the New York Times’ Popcast, noting her disappointment with the country industry’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and social issues such as the Black Lives Matter movement.
“I couldn’t do this circus anymore of feeling like I have to absorb and explain people’s bad behaviors and laugh it off,” she added. “I just couldn’t do that after 2020. … I’ve changed.”
As part of her departure, Morris released two-track EP The Bridge in September, produced by Swift’s own frequent collaborator, Jack Antonoff. The Grammy winner performed one of the project’s songs, “The Tree,” alongside guests Mickey Guyton and Brittney Spencer for Fallon’s audience on The Tonight Show.
Watch Morris’ Jimmy Fallon interview and performance below: