Ryan Hurd Shares How Maren Morris Inspired ‘Love in a Bar’
Navigating a career in the music industry can be stressful and difficult at times, but Ryan Hurd and Maren Morris lean on each other for support. In an interview with People, Hurd shares how his relationship with fiancee Morris inspired his song "Love in a Bar" and how she is a constant shoulder to lean on.
“[‘Love in a Bar’] is very much an autobiographical song about my relationship with Maren,” Hurd tells People. “I met Maren writing songs and I met her when I was starting to have success. We wrote ‘Last Turn Home,’ that Tim McGraw recorded, and we would write and then after we’d go over to a bar in Midtown and have a couple beers. That’s when we started making a real connection, beyond a creative partnership."
Hurd tells People that the song "Love in a Bar" represents who he was at 28, living in Nashville and writing songs for other artists.
“The imagery in ‘Love in a Bar’ — the cigarettes and a Corona — those are vivid pictures in my head and I’m giving the listener a version of that in their head," he adds. "It’s such an expression sonically. That’s who I was at 28 years old and that’s the thing my heart was chasing and the thing my music was gravitating toward.”
The couple celebrated their one-year anniversary in December and Hurd says there is nothing that can replace someone who knows what he's going through in navigating his career.
“It’s another thing to be supportive and know why this is difficult and what it means to make an album and put your whole self into it. We have really difficult calendars and if one of us wasn’t supportive, it would be really easy to give up on that," he admits. "This is a hard thing to do and it’s not glamorous. Every time I want to quit, she tells me how close I am. She does my career with me and I do mine with her. In chasing my career, I feel like it’s part hers.”
The couple announced their engagement via social media on Sunday (July 9).
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