LGBTQ

The Aldean family conflict with Maren Morris reached a new peak at Jason Aldean‘s concert Friday night (Oct. 14). While teasing the identity of his show’s surprise guest — who turned out to be Morgan Wallen — the “You Make It Easy” singer name-dropped Morris and paused as his Bridgestone Arena crowd in Nashville loudly booed.
“I thought, man, who could I call?” Aldean told his audience in fan-captured video, drawing out the suspense of his surprise guest. “I got some friends in town. I could call Luke Bryan. I could call Kane Brown. See if Kenny Chesney’s here and not at the beach.”

Then, he simply said the name of “The Middle” singer, before trailing off as his audience audibly jeered.

This follows an August social media disagreement between Morris and Aldean’s wife, Brittany Aldean. After Brittany made a transphobic joke on Instagram (“I’d really like to thank my parents for not changing my gender when I went through my tomboy phase. I love this girly life,” she’d captioned a makeup video). She followed it up with an Instagram Stories statement in which she doubled down on her stance. “Advocating for the genital mutilation of children under the disguise of love and calling it ‘gender affirming care’ is one of the worst evils,” she posted. “I will always support my children and do what I can to protect their innocence.”

In a response to Cassadee Pope, who had tweeted her opposition to Brittany’s comments, Morris agreed with the singer and former Voice contestant. “It’s so easy to, like, not be a scumbag human?” replied the “Make You Say” singer. “Sell your clip-ins and zip it, Insurrection Barbie.”

In September, Morris opened up about why she feels so strongly about speaking out when it comes to social justice issues, even when her fellow country artists and fans of the genre oftentimes disagree with her — and do things like, say, boo the mention of her name at a concert.

“I try to rise above — not even bad behavior, but just expected behavior that has become normalized that is bad,” she told Apple Music Country’s Proud Radio with Hunter Kelly. “[My husband’s] like, ‘I hate that you always feel like you have to be the hall monitor of modern country music’s behaviors in and around race and homophobia, transphobia.’”

“I don’t need to feel like I have to always be that person that speaks up,” she continued. “I think I come across a lot louder than I actually am because everyone else is so quiet.”

Watch a fan video of Morris’ name getting booed at a Jason Aldean concert below: