Carrie Underwood Explains Why She Wants to 'Stay Far out of Politics'

Carrie Underwood wants to be known for her music, and not for her political choices. While plenty [...]

Carrie Underwood wants to be known for her music, and not for her political choices. While plenty of artists, including Taylor Swift and Maren Morris, have chosen to speak out about their own views on politics, Underwood says that is one discussion she will gladly avoid.

"I feel like more people try to pin me places politically," Underwood told The Guardian. "I try to stay far out of politics if possible, at least in public, because nobody wins. It's crazy. Everybody tries to sum everything up and put a bow on it, like it's black and white. And it's not like that."

Underwood recorded a song, "The Bullet," on her latest Cry Pretty album. Although the song, which is one of a few on the record that Underwood didn't write, is more of an overview of the impact of gun violence instead of a specific stance, Underwood was still disappointed when fans read more into the song than what she intended.

"Immediately people said 'Oh you have a song about gun control!'" lamented the singer. "It was more about the lives that were changed by something terrible happening. And it does kind of bug me when people take a song, or take something I said and try to pigeonhole or force me to pick a side or something. It's a discussion – a long discussion."

"The Bullet" became even more important after the Route 91 Harvest Festival shooting, but Underwood actually had the song before the tragic event occurred.

"We had that song on hold before a lot of the big incidents happened, before Vegas," Underwood told PopCulture.com and other media. "After that it was like, 'OK. Do we still do this? Am I the one to do this?' And I know it is a hot button issue, for sure."

While Underwood didn't intend "The Bullet" to be a political stance, she does hope the song opens people's minds to the consequences of events.

"I feel like we, as a society, we are so conditioned and so used to seeing bad things on the news every night," Underwood reflected. "So, we really don't stop to think about all the other people involved and that's what this song is about. You say, 'Wow that's really sad that that person lost their life.'

"But, then you're not like, 'Oh. Their mama. Oh, they have two kids. Oh my gosh,'" she continued. "You don't think about that as much, and one of the great things I love about how the song is written is, you don't know what happened. You don't know what the incident was that they are dealing with. It could have been military, it could have been some sort of street violence. It could have been a cop. It could have been anybody. It doesn't matter what it was, it matters that there are people dealing with this."

Photo Credit: Getty images/Jeff Kravitz

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