Maren Morris has been performing this ode to love over hate live since she wrote it in 2015, but for several years she sat on the official studio version of the track. However, in the wake of the October 1, 2017 deadly mass shooting in Las Vegas at a country music festival, that left over 58 dead and more than 450 injured Morris decided to drop the single to benefit the victims of the deadly attack. "I wrote this song three years ago, recorded it last year with Vince Gill, and always have fans asking when I'll put it out," Morris wrote. "I never knew when would be the right time, but I realized today that there's never a right time. Hate is everywhere, and I'm sick of not doing enough. In the darkest tunnel, there is still love & music. There's what it's here for. Here is 'Dear Hate.' Any cent I see from this I'm donating to the Music City Cares Fund. #LovesGonnaConquerAll."
Vince Gill's verse chronicles the history of violence and tragedies in America, including the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Maren Morris originally wrote the song with Tom Douglas and David Hodges in 2015, two days after a white gunman killed nine parishioners at a historic black church in downtown Charleston, South Carolina. Morris sent the song to Gill requesting him to add harmonies and guitar, but the musician was so touched by the lyrics, he turned it into a duet. "I was so moved I did something I've never done before - I sang one of the verses unsolicited," Gill told Billboard magazine, after the song's release. "After I finished and sent her my contributions, I told her she didn't have to use it, but explained I felt compelled to sing those words. I'm so glad she decided to include it."
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