Despite dominating both Canada's Spotify Wrapped stats and top Tinder anthems this year (and generally having his fame skyrocket), Morgan Wallen has spent the past couple years being fairly elusive in the media since he was filmed yelling a racial slur during a "72-hour bender" in early 2021. Today, Billboard published the first major interview with the country star in two years, where he addressed the "playful" incident and how he's learned from it.
While Wallen's career in country music has, again, really only benefitted from people knowing that he used the N-word, he would like to be clear that the experience has had other effects, telling the publication's Melinda Newman that the backlash showed him "just how much people listen" to what he says. "I don't think I realized that, at least not at that grand of a scale at the time," Wallen said. "I [learned] how much my words matter."
He continued, "That person is definitely not the same person I am now," admitting that he was frustrated by how many people — and radio stations and TV networks, awarding bodies, etc. — quickly branded him as a racist without offering any grace. (Newman pointed out that the artist failed to garner any Grammy nominations, save for a Best Country Song nod for the hit "Last Night" that he didn't write, or win any CMA Awards this year, but that Dangerous had won Album of the Year at the 2022 Academy of Country Music Awards.)
"There's no excuse. I've never made an excuse. I never will make an excuse," Wallen said of using the slur. "I've talked to a lot of people, heard stories [about] things that I would have never thought about because I wasn't the one going through it. And I think, for me, in my heart I was never that guy that people were portraying me to be, so there was a little bit of like, 'Damn, I'm kind of actually mad about this a little bit because I know I shouldn't have said this, but I'm really not that guy.'"
The musician added, "I put myself in just such a shit spot, you know? Like, 'You really messed up here, guy.' If I was that guy, then I wouldn't have cared. I wouldn't have apologized. I wouldn't have done any of that if I really was that guy that people were saying about me." Who is that guy?
As per Newman, "any of that" included Wallen meeting with several Black leaders, including 300 Elektra CEO Kevin Liles and Grammy-winning gospel artist Bebe Winans, as well as the Black Music Action Coalition (BMAC) and other groups in an effort to educate himself amid the ongoing process "to learn and try to be better" he said. The singer has also reportedly donated $500,000 USD to organizations, including the National Museum of African American Music, Rock Against Racism and the BMAC.
Furthermore, Wallen did a 30-day stint in rehab after the viral incident — which helped him go on to drastically change his on-the-road drinking habits. "That used to be my warmup — to get half lit: 'I'm going out there, and we're going to go have fun,'" he admitted. "Now, that is not the way I approach it." Of course, part of this change is simply logistical, because the artist is playing massive stadium stages and "there's a lot more ways you can fall than there is on a little one."
"I used to be scared to even think about what it would be like to play a show without drinking: 'That sounds terrible. Why would I ever do that?' And now I'm almost scared to wonder what it'd be like if I was drunk," Wallen said. As for drinking off-tour, he added, "I'm still figuring out my personal life. I probably always will be."
Even before the slur scandal, the country musician was arrested for public intoxication and disorderly conduct at Kid Rock's honky-tonk bar — where he would later reemerge from his initial performance hiatus following the controversy — in May 2020.
While Wallen's career in country music has, again, really only benefitted from people knowing that he used the N-word, he would like to be clear that the experience has had other effects, telling the publication's Melinda Newman that the backlash showed him "just how much people listen" to what he says. "I don't think I realized that, at least not at that grand of a scale at the time," Wallen said. "I [learned] how much my words matter."
He continued, "That person is definitely not the same person I am now," admitting that he was frustrated by how many people — and radio stations and TV networks, awarding bodies, etc. — quickly branded him as a racist without offering any grace. (Newman pointed out that the artist failed to garner any Grammy nominations, save for a Best Country Song nod for the hit "Last Night" that he didn't write, or win any CMA Awards this year, but that Dangerous had won Album of the Year at the 2022 Academy of Country Music Awards.)
"There's no excuse. I've never made an excuse. I never will make an excuse," Wallen said of using the slur. "I've talked to a lot of people, heard stories [about] things that I would have never thought about because I wasn't the one going through it. And I think, for me, in my heart I was never that guy that people were portraying me to be, so there was a little bit of like, 'Damn, I'm kind of actually mad about this a little bit because I know I shouldn't have said this, but I'm really not that guy.'"
The musician added, "I put myself in just such a shit spot, you know? Like, 'You really messed up here, guy.' If I was that guy, then I wouldn't have cared. I wouldn't have apologized. I wouldn't have done any of that if I really was that guy that people were saying about me." Who is that guy?
As per Newman, "any of that" included Wallen meeting with several Black leaders, including 300 Elektra CEO Kevin Liles and Grammy-winning gospel artist Bebe Winans, as well as the Black Music Action Coalition (BMAC) and other groups in an effort to educate himself amid the ongoing process "to learn and try to be better" he said. The singer has also reportedly donated $500,000 USD to organizations, including the National Museum of African American Music, Rock Against Racism and the BMAC.
Furthermore, Wallen did a 30-day stint in rehab after the viral incident — which helped him go on to drastically change his on-the-road drinking habits. "That used to be my warmup — to get half lit: 'I'm going out there, and we're going to go have fun,'" he admitted. "Now, that is not the way I approach it." Of course, part of this change is simply logistical, because the artist is playing massive stadium stages and "there's a lot more ways you can fall than there is on a little one."
"I used to be scared to even think about what it would be like to play a show without drinking: 'That sounds terrible. Why would I ever do that?' And now I'm almost scared to wonder what it'd be like if I was drunk," Wallen said. As for drinking off-tour, he added, "I'm still figuring out my personal life. I probably always will be."
Even before the slur scandal, the country musician was arrested for public intoxication and disorderly conduct at Kid Rock's honky-tonk bar — where he would later reemerge from his initial performance hiatus following the controversy — in May 2020.
