Maren Morris on Female Girl: The World Tour: 'I Want to Pay It Forward'

Maren Morris just kicked off her all-female Girl: The World Tour, with RaeLynn and Cassadee Pope serving as her opening acts. While Morris likely could have had her pick of rising stars who would hit the road with her, the 28-year-old chose both RaeLynn and Pope to give them the same kind of chance that was given to her.

"Putting Raelynn and Cassadee Pope on the bill was important because – well, they're my friends, so I'd love to see them every night – but also, their music is incredible, and I'm excited for my fan base to see them live every night," Morris told Billboard. "And we have to stop just talking about it, we have to do something about it. Now that I'm headlining, I want to pay it forward and give people the same opportunites that people like Keith Urban offered to me in the beginning, and Sam Hunt and Niall Horan. It's just about giving back."

Morris' Girl: The World Tour kicked off one day after the March 8 release of her sophomore GIRL album, which became a brave declaration of who Morris is, both as a woman and an artist. Included on the record is a song called "RSVP," which Morris admits took her a bit out of her comfort zone.

"[It's] very sexual, but in a clever way," Morris explained. "It's not just straight up dirty – not that there's anything wrong with that. It's definitely the most confident I've ever been with my body, my sexuality and my prowess, and that was fun to tap into. If you do it in the right way and it's almost silly, it's believable. That's my favorite part about those '90s R&B jams, they're so good they're almost a joke. So we tapped into that."

Morris penned "RSVP" with Natalie Hemby, Jon Nite and Mark Trussell, and while the song might be sexy, the writing session was a far cry from how the song ended up.

"We were just dying laughing," Morris recalled. "We were like, 'What does RSVP even mean?' We looked it up, and it's 'Répondez s'il vous plaît,' so we worked that into the bridge – it's me speaking really American French."

GIRL, which includes collaborations with both Brothers Osborne and Brandi Carlile, also includes songs like "The Bones" and "Good Woman," both inspired by her marriage to Ryan Hurd. Purchase GIRL, and find a list of all of Morris' upcoming shows, at MarenMorris.com.

Photo Credit: Getty images/Mat Hayward