Maren Morris Says She Received 'Scary' Death Threats Against Her and Son Hayes for Calling Out Morgan Wallen

Maren Morris isn't the only one who received death threats after calling out Morgan Wallen for using a racial slur.

During the Thursday, Aug. 29 episode of Sophia Bush's Work in Progress podcast, the Grammy winner, 34, opened up about how in addition to the hate she experienced after speaking out against the "Last Night" singer in February 2021, her son, Hayes Andrew, 4, received death threats as well.

"I mean, the death threat portion for me as a young mother was, yeah, obviously, like, scary," said Morris. "And it wasn't death threats against me. It was against my son, too. So it's like, 'Oh, wow. Now we're involving the kids, the ones that you cared so much about.'"

The "Cut!" singer says she's contemplated for years how people could be "this pissed" over "the criticism of cruelty"

"I think it's because they're not only, like, defending the person that said this, but they are taking it personally as if I'm criticizing them, which I think says, you know, a lot more about their interpretation of criticism and what that content was than me as a person calling out someone using the N-word. Or even transphobia that I've criticized in the past that sort of, like, exploded in another wave," Morris said.

She noted that as "a peer" in the music industry, she was encouraging Wallen, 31, and the music industry to "do better."

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In February 2021, Wallen was captured using the N-word in a video, which prompted the country community — including Morris, Mickey Guyton and Kelsea Ballerini — to react to his use of the racial slur.

Ballerini, 30, tweeted at the time that "the news out of Nashville tonight does not represent country music." Others, however, including Morris, disagreed.

"It actually IS representative of our town because this isn't his first 'scuffle' and he just demolished a huge streaming record last month regardless," she tweeted. "We all know it wasn't his first time using that word. We keep them rich and protected at all costs with no recourse."

Morris hasn't been shy about wanting to transform the country music industry and her progressive beliefs, which have included supporting the LGBTQ+ community, taking a stand for the Black Lives Matter movement and critiquing people like Jason Aldean’s wife Brittany Kerr Aldean for making transphobic comments.