Maren Morris Skips People's Choice Country Awards After Taking a Step Back from Country Music

Maren Morris is unsurprisingly not in attendance for this year's People's Choice Country Awards .

The "GIRL" singer skipped out on the fan-voted country music award show in Nashville on Thursday, Sept. 26, one year after announcing she would be taking a break from the genre altogether.

Morris, 34, was among the nominees for this year's award show ceremony, earning recognition for her version of Billy Idol 's "Dancing With Myself," which is up for the Cover Song of 2024 award.

Attending Thursday night's award show would have been a tight squeeze for Morris, who has a concert scheduled in California on Friday, Sept. 27.

Plus, her absence at the ceremony isn't much of a shock, considering her complicated relationship with the country music industry over the past year.

Back in September 2023, Morris announced that she needed a break from the genre, saying she felt "very, very distanced from it."

Morris has notably butted heads with some major players in the country music industry, namely Jason Aldean and his wife, Brittany Aldean , who are both outspoken about their conservative political beliefs.

After getting into an internet feud with Aldean's wife over contentious comments she made regarding transgender youth, Morris later took issue with the "Dirt Road Anthem Singer" himself over his highly controversial song "Try That In A Small Town."

As a result of all the drama, Morris said she had no interest in being part of the country music scene's "toxic" culture.

"The stories going on within country music right now, I've tried to avoid a lot of it at all costs," she told the Los Angeles Times last September. "I had to take a step back."

Next: Maren Morris Brings Country Music to the DNC With Powerful Performance