Maren Morris on New Anti-Hate Song: ‘I’m Sick of Not Doing Enough’
Maren Morris may not have just written “Dear Hate,” but it’s a song that has become tragically relevant in the past 24 hours for the Grammy winner and members of the country-music community the world over. In the wake of Sunday night’s mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas, Morris posted the song, which features Country Music Hall of Fame member Vince Gill, on Monday afternoon.
“I wrote this song 3 years ago, recorded it last year with Vince Gill, and always have fans asking when I’ll put it out. I never knew when would be the right time, but I realized today that there’s never a right time,” Morris wrote in the Instagram post debuting “Dear Hate.” “Hate is everywhere, and I’m sick of not doing enough. In the darkest tunnel, there is still love & music. That’s what it’s here for. Here is Dear Hate. Any cent I see from this I’m donating to the Music City Cares Fund.”
The shooting in Las Vegas has claimed more than 50 victims, with hundreds more injured, making it the deadliest mass shooting in modern United States history. Morris played the three-day festival on Friday, just 48 hours before the massacre, a fact which she reflected on in another Instagram post earlier today. “We played Route 91 in Vegas the night before last. It was one of my favorite shows and festivals to be on. We were all singing,” she wrote. “I’m in shock over this unfair, senseless tragedy and heartbroken for the lives taken too soon.”
“Dear Hate” is a bare-bones rumination with just Morris and Gill’s singing and a pair of acoustic guitars. “Dear hate, I saw you on the news today. Like a shock it takes my breath away,” Morris sings, phrasing the song in the form of a letter. Reaching back to biblical allusions like the Garden of Eden as well as American tragedies like the assassination of John F. Kennedy and 9/11, “Dear Hate” ends on a note of hope, with Morris and Gill singing in unison, “Love’s gonna conquer all.”
The Music City Cares Fund was set up to benefit victims of the Las Vegas shooting.