Cassadee Pope is getting back to her musical roots — and for good reason.
The Voice season 3 winner shared in a new interview with Rolling Stone that she’s planning to leave country music behind and focus on pop-punk and rock.
It’s not a huge surprise, given that Pope got her start as the lead vocalist of pop punk band Hey Monday back in 2008. However, the 34-year-old singer explained that the departure is due to both professional and personal motivations.
Pope has made headlines in recent years for some of her public comments, including those about fellow country star Morgan Wallen — after a video surfaced of Wallen using the N-word on a night out with friends. However, she admitted that now she has regrets about her response to that incident.
“I look back on it and I’m like, ‘You’re so annoying,'” she shares. “I was just another angry white person who just learned about racism. If that were to have happened today, I would have had a different response.”
Pope and Maren Morris also called out Jason Aldean’s wife, Brittany, in the fall of 2022 for making comments about genderthat many regarded as transphobic. The remarks earned Pope death threats from country music fans at the time.
“In that moment, I felt so proud,” she tells Rolling Stone. “I had no feeling of regret. I just kept my head down and kept going.”
“It’s only been the past few months that I’ve let my guard down in therapy and said, ‘Wait, I actually wasn’t OK,'” she continues. “But I think that kind of comes with the territory of including activism in your life. You’re not going to please everyone.”
While the singer recognizes that “every genre has problematic people in it,” she’s hoping that a departure from the country music world might make her feel a little more at home.
“I’m not saying there’s not a frontman in a band who hasn’t been accused of something in rock music. But I guess rock is in my bones more,” she notes. “You’re not completely ostracized and shamed for speaking out.”
Earlier this month, Pope shared that she was almost finished with the album that represents her “return to pop punk.”
“I wanted to thank you all from the bottom of my heart for the support and warm embrace back in the genre that started it all for me. I’ve never been more proud of an album….” she wrote in an Instagram post. “Get ready.”
