Maren Morris knew that her recent shoot for Playboy might stir things up a bit with her somewhat conservative group of country music fans. But then, she stopped and thought about the legendary Dolly Parton, and she knew exactly what she wanted to do.

She needed to do it.

“I remember Dolly Parton’s amazing [October 1978] Playboy cover and reading about the drama surrounding this wholesome figure being part of a magazine that has showcased naked women for decades,” Morris says in a new interview with Playboy that accompanies her relatively tame photo shoot. “It was such a faux pas in country music, and yet she ended up making one of the most iconic Playboy covers of all time … so many of the moves Dolly made in her career were about bucking the status quo, especially when it came to sexuality and gender norms within country music.”

Morris’ decision to pose for the magazine was also made that much easier after receiving the support of her husband Ryan Hurd, who was all in favor of bucking the system a bit with this shoot.

“It’s awesome to be with somebody who is an equal and isn’t trying to make you feel like a skank because you’re proud of your body, someone who’s not watering down your ideologies for patriarchal and bulls--it standards that women in country music have been locked into for the past several decades,” says Morris, who recently collaborated with nine-time Grammy award winner Sheryl Crow and the legendary Stevie Nicks on the empowering new song “Prove You Wrong.”

Crow and Morris performed the new song together during the recent CMT Awards.

See Maren Morris and Ryan Hurd's Sweetest Pictures Together

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