“I’m sorry”

Maren Morris was guest judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race Friday’s aftershow was MTV’s official aftershow. She seemed more exacited than any contestants to be in the Werk room. Untucked.

“I’m obsessed. I’ve loved this show for so many years, and it’s crazy how far Drag Race has come,” the country superstar — who in a Friday tweet described her appearance on the show as the fulfillment of a “decade-long dream” — gushed to the cast. “I can’t believe I am in here right now. I feel like I’ve stepped through my TV screen.”

Morris’s kiki with the queens started off lightheartedly, as she admitted she was wearing a wig (which — inside Drag Race joke alert — appeared to be at least 40 inches long) to elevate her style for the occasion, and also doled out advice about handling setbacks and criticism in the talent show world.

“I’m 32, but I’ve been performing since I was 10. American IdolI tried it for. America’s Got Talent, The Voice — they all said no,” Morris revealed. “I was devastated, obviously. And now I’m so glad I took the long way… because now people audition with my songs on those shows!”

But as Morris wrapped up her Werk Room chat with the 15 contestants vying to be crowned America’s Next Drag Superstar, she grew surprisingly serious.

“Coming from country music and its relationship with LGBTQ+ members, I just want to say I’m sorry,” she said. “And I love you guys for making me feel like a brave voice in country music. Thank you guys for being so inspiring. I’m gonna cry! I gotta go!”

“Just you being here shows you’re an ally,” contestant Mistress Isabelle Brooks assured the emotional singer.

After Morris actually left the set, contestant Spice told producers, “I love hearing Maren share her story, because a lot of times with country artists, they can’t really express their more progressive ideals. Just her being here shows she’s down and can roll with the LGBT.”

Morris was not the first to be vocally pro-queer in country music. Back in 2018, during Pride Month, she penned a “Love Letter to the LGBTQ Community” for Billboard, writing: “One of my favorite experiences from my headline tour [in 2017] was getting to really see who my fans were and where they’ve come from. The LGBTQ community was so embracing of me and I felt this precious responsibility to be a voice in country music for them, because it’s a genre that historically has not.”

More recently, for GLAAD’s Spirit Day 2022 campaign, Morris gave an interview to the advocacy organization in which she explained, “It was just always a conversation in our household that we’re all the same, and there is no ‘us and you.’ I think that being instilled in me from such an early age, particularly growing up in the South, was really important. It wasn’t until my twenties that I realized how important this was. I started to work in country music and solidified my adulthood. … I think that in correcting that, I definitely get heated because it’s not like we’re talking about what your favorite color is; we’re talking about people’s lives.”

Also last year, Morris went viral for blasting Brittany Kerr Aldean, wife of conservative country star Jason Aldean, for a transphobic comment Brittany made on Instagram, calling Brittany a ”scumbag human” and “Insurrection Barbie” — an exchange that had Fox News show host Tucker Carlson describing Morris as a “lunatic country music person.” Morris responded by selling official “Lunatic Country Music Person” T-shirts To raise $150,000 or more for Trans Lifeline and GLAAD’s Transgender Media Program.

While Morris may be a minority pro-LGBTQ+ voice in the country music world, she’s certainly not alone — so she didn’t necessarily need to say sorry to the Drag Race Cast on behalf of her genre. Her apology was sincere and well-received. Shania Twain guest-judged Drag Race in Season 10, recently recorded a duet, “Legends Never Die,” with openly gay rising country singer Orville Peck (who is set to appear on Drag Race this season), and “Follow Your Arrow”/“Rainbow” star Kacey Musgraves has also guest-judged Drag Race; performed with Drag Race alumni Monet X Change and Trinity the TuckSymone, the Season 13 winner, was hired by her to be her star “Simple Times” music video. Musgraves is the executive producer of a new Apple+ talent contest. My Kind of Country, on which Peck will judge alongside Jimmie Allen and Mickey Guyton, in the hopes of “breaking down barriers in country music by providing an extraordinary opportunity to diverse and innovative artists from around the world,” according to a press release.

“I think country fans are not given enough credit for how open they can be,” Peck told Yahoo Entertainment last year. “I play a lot of true-blue, very country music festivals, and there are times when I go onstage and I feel a little nervous. Then, by the end, everyone is singing and dancing along. Country is about storytelling. If you are a true country fan, you want to hear more stories. You just want to hear new perspectives. I know I do.” And while Peck acknowledged that “that innate feeling of marginalization still exists,” he said his success is a sign that the country genre “is absolutely changing and evolving.”

One of the Drag Race franchise’s most successful music artists, Americana singer-songwriter and All Stars 3 winner Trixie Mattel — who recently took on the iconic June Carter Cash role in a rebellious remake of the Carter/Cash duet “Jackson” with Peck, also told Yahoo Entertainment: “I think the perception of audiences that love folk and country is they’re perceived to be more closed-minded than they really are. It’s one of those things where the most extreme voices represent the masses. It’s like, not everybody goes to church hates gay people. Drag is not something that everyone who listens to country and folk would oppose. I mean, look around — is Dolly [Parton] Is she in drag? She’s in probably a bigger wig than I am right now!”

Speaking of Parton, on Friday’s Untucked episode, another grateful Season 15 queen, Loosey Laduca, thanked Morris for praising her spot-on Dolly Parton impersonation, as seen below, during this week’s maxi-challenge. “You being a country gal, your validation of my Dolly meant Everything to me,” Laduca said. I hope one day. RuPaul’s Drag Race Parton can also be convinced to serve as a guest judge.

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