Grammy Award-winning country music star Maren Morris will appear on The Tonight Show tonight for an interview and a performance. The country star made it big in 2016 with the release of her hit My Church and has only grown since then.
Her most recent album, Humble Quest, was released today as well. Fans are anticipating hearing new songs from the album on The Tonight Show as well as learning more facts about Maren’s life.
The country star has had an interesting journey coming into fame, and some experiences may be surprising for fans to learn. The star hasn’t always had it easy when making music and didn’t start as a singer in Nashville. In fact, she started out in Texas.
IMDb reports that Maren Morris was born in Dallas, Texas, on April 10, 1990. She’s not only a musician but is listed as an actress known for appearing in her music videos and shorts. At approximately 5’1” tall, the star needed a push to move to the country music capital, Nashville.
5. Kacey Musgraves inspired Maren to move to Nashville
Wide Open Country reports that Maren first started out in Texas, but when she met Kacey Musgraves, everything changed.
Kacey convinced Maren to move to Nashville to continue to pursue her career in music, and Maren took her advice, which seemed to help bring her fame and fortune.
Maren said that “Kacey played a big role in my life just by getting my a** to this town. I had no idea before I moved here that songwriting was a ‘five days a week’ job. She enlightened me and it was really cool to see because I was like, ‘Oh my God, I can actually write for a living and go into an office.’ I felt like it was very grown up, even though you’re still writing songs.”
Kacey Musgraves is only a couple of years older than Maren but had great success earlier in life. Kacey was born in Texas as well, so there was good reason for Maren to trust her advice to take the leap and move to Nashville.
Kacey isn’t the only inspiration Maren has. She looked up to LeAnn Rimes as a kid because of their closeness in age. LeAnn’s age inspired Maren to sing, making her dreams seem closer.
4. Maren Morris’s estimated net worth is about $5 million
Maren has accumulated a net worth of $5 million. Her major debut only occurred six years ago, bringing her to major wealth. Although $5 million may not seem like much in comparison to other musicians, it’s still more money than the majority of her fans could even imagine having.
Since her debut album made it onto the Billboard Hot 100 chart, her other hits were welcomed by fans. Her second album was a huge success with popular hits as well, showing that Maren’s success and popularity are only moving up.
Her appearance on The Tonight Show could bring even more fans to the singer as she’ll be promoted through an interview and performance. While the focus will likely be on her new album, the star could be discussing her future tour dates.
Her Humble Quest tour starts in June in Raleigh, North Carolina, and continues through October, with a concert set for Dallas, Texas. Then, she will take a break before performing in Nashville in early December. The future can’t be predicted, but her appearance on The Tonight Show paired with the upcoming tour, could increase her net worth.
3. Maren Morris started out as a songwriter
It’s not uncommon for musicians to start out writing songs for other singers, and that’s exactly where Maren began. She started writing songs for other musicians when she was only 20.
She didn’t write for small stars, either. She wrote for Tim McGraw, Kelly Clarkson, and Brothers Osbourne. Fortunately, she saved her hottest singles for herself.
Writing for prominent musicians paid off in another way for Maren outside of her career. While writing Last Turn Home for Tim McGraw, she was introduced to her husband, country singer Ryan Hurd.
They first met in 2013 and began dating a couple of years later before finally getting married in 2018. They had their first child, Hayes Andrew Hurd, in 2020.
Even more surprising to many, Morris performed at the Houston Rodeo when she was nine months pregnant with her son. Her team was ready for her water to break while she was performing, but fortunately, she made it through the performance.
Maren revealed she has been battling post-partum depression following her pregnancy, but her husband Ryan has been a great support to the star and even helped diagnose her.
She told People magazine, “I do check-ins all the time [with] therapy, which I’ve done for years, and my husband was a huge help diagnosing that too. Sometimes it’s just someone really close to you saying, ‘Are you OK?’ It’s so simple, but it kind of snaps you out of whatever fog you’re in that you think is normal, but isn’t.” Maren’s post-partum depression began to go away once her son was about six months old.
2. Maren played herself on TV
Alongside her music performances while pregnant and her time spent writing songs for musicians, Maren has appeared on television as well.
For NCIS: New Orleans’ episode, Pandora’s Box II, she performed an acoustic version of My Church at the Roosevelt Hotel Sazerac Bar.
Before her guest appearance on NCIS: New Orleans, Maren tried to appear on television to kickstart her music career at least three times… the keyword being tried.
1. Maren Morris was rejected by The Voice, American Idol, and America’s Got Talent
Despite her successful career in music now, Maren was previously rejected by The Voice, American Idol, and America’s Got Talent. While it likely wasn’t easy being rejected from three of the biggest television shows for musicians, it worked out for Maren in the end.
She revealed to Rolling Stone Country that she was happy she didn’t make it in the end. She said, “I think about all of the freaking talent shows I’ve tried out for in my life and I’m so glad I didn’t make any of them. It’s full circle because I was rejected from The Voice. I was rejected from American Idol — and I’m happier for it now.”
There was no way for those three programs to know that Maren Morris would become a star, but that’s exactly what she did. Now that she’s paving her own pathway in country music, there’s no turning back.
The Tonight Show airs weeknights at 11:35/10:35c on NBC.