Maren Morris has carved out a successful career for herself in the music industry, but that doesn’t mean she didn’t deal with rejection. In a recent interview with Howard Stern, Morris reflected on not being selected for American Idol, sharing her experience after Stern said he “still can’t get over the fact that” she didn’t make it onto the show.
Maren Morris Was Rejected From American Idol
Morris said she couldn’t remember the year she tried out but noted she didn’t make it to any sort of televised audition for the show’s original celebrity judges, Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson and Paula Abdul. “I can’t even slag [the judges] off because I didn’t even get past the first open call audition with just the producers,” she said.
“How is that possible?” Stern asked. “Did you just have a bad day?” With a laugh, Maren Morris replied, “No, I killed it.”
She further elaborated, sharing that she was around 16 or 17 when she went to a “cattle call, 20,000 people” audition at the Dallas Cowboys stadium in her home state of Texas.
“You only get 10 seconds in your lineup of five to sing for this tent of 20-year-old producers that their uncle probably knew someone that worked at the network. I don’t know,” she recalled. “I sang Chaka Khan’s ‘Sweet Thing,’ which is still my karaoke song, but I nailed it. I did not have a bad day. I did after that, but.”
The Texas Native Admitted It “Hurt” Her
When Stern asked whether her confidence in singing as a career path took a hit, Morris noted that “it sucked” and “hurt for sure.”
“Just in the moment, you’re a teenager,” she said, pointing out that Kelly Clarkson, who won the first season of American Idol, was also from Texas. “Kelly Clarkson came from my neck of the woods and won the first-ever season, so that was just so inspiring to me as a Texan.”
She Also Auditioned For The Voice and America’s Got Talent
Along with American Idol, Morris shared that she also auditioned for The Voice and America’s Got Talent, but was unsuccessful.
The singer added that she feels “so lucky” that all three shows rejected her. “I was not ready to be in the limelight or have any sort of public-facing anything,” she said. “The music was not there. My voice was still maturing. Even though it was good at the time, I just hadn’t found it yet, and I would’ve been a f—ing nightmare, like a teenage signed artist? I would not have handled it like some of my peers that have been doing this the same amount of time.”
Moved To Nashville And Found Chart-Topping Success
Morris eventually moved to Nashville and worked as a songwriter before releasing a self-titled EP in 2015 that led to her scoring a record deal. Her first major label album, Hero, arrived in 2016 and contained her breakout single “My Church.” She followed Hero with 2019’s Girl and 2022’s Humble Quest and announced a new musical direction earlier this year with the release of her two-song project The Bridge, containing new tracks “The Tree” and “Get the Hell Out of Here.”
After a Los Angeles Times interview supporting The Bridge indicated that Morris was leaving country music, the singer clarified on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in November that she only intends to leave certain elements of the genre behind. “I’m taking the good parts with me and all are welcome,” she said. “But, yeah, there were just some facets of it that I didn’t really jibe with anymore. So, I’m a lot happier now.”
