We last discussed country music star Morgan Wallen in February 2021, while most people were still social distancing because the Covid vaccines were not widely available. Wallen went out for a drunken night on the town, in Nashville, with some of his good ‘ol boy bros. They got sh-thoused and rowdy, and made their way back to Wallen’s home. In the middle of the night, they started screaming at each other outside of Wallen’s home, and one of his neighbor’s recorded Wallen yelling at one of his friends and calling the guy the n-word. What happened next was surprising in several different ways – Wallen was widely condemned by country music’s gatekeepers and elder statesmen, his music was pulled from country music radio stations and Wallen quickly gave a thorough apology where he promised to use this incident to educate himself. He also asked his fans to stop defending him, that what he said was indefensible.
Well, Wallen largely weathered the storm. His apology worked, his career rebounded quickly, and he’s continued to be a very successful country star, although I still cannot name one of his songs. From what I gather, the February 2021 was not the first or the last problematic incident for Wallen, but he has not been publicly caught saying racist sh-t again (fingers crossed). That being said, that man just got arrested and charged with multiple crimes because of a particularly drunken night out in Nashville.
The country singer Morgan Wallen was arrested early Monday in Nashville on charges of reckless endangerment and disorderly conduct, after he was accused of throwing a chair from the roof of a downtown bar, according to reports. Mr. Wallen, 30, a superstar who had last year’s most popular album, and who had just opened his latest tour with two shows at a stadium in Indianapolis, was arrested and booked by police in Nashville, according to court records.
WTVF, a CBS television affiliate in Nashville, reported that Mr. Wallen is accused of throwing a chair from the sixth story of Chief’s, an establishment on lower Broadway — an area of the city full of honky-tonks and concert venues — that had just been opened by another country star, Eric Church. The chair hit the ground near where some police officers were standing, and staff members at the restaurant told officers that Mr. Wallen had been responsible, the station reported, citing the police.
Mr. Wallen was arrested on three counts of reckless endangerment, a felony; and one count of disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor. He was released early Monday and has a court date set for May 3. In a statement, Worrick Robinson, a lawyer for Mr. Wallen, said: “Morgan Wallen was arrested in downtown Nashville for reckless endangerment and disorderly conduct. He is cooperating fully with authorities.”
This sounds less like Johnny Cash and more like Biffington Von Wasp misbehaving at a frat party. Yes, someone could have been seriously hurt and Wallen should be incredibly grateful that he avoided killing, hurting or maiming anyone when he threw the chair. I absolutely wonder about the circumstances around this and whether that contributed to what Wallen was charged with. Because it sounds like there was possibly a brawl or something else was happening (apparently, his ex just eloped and he was in his feelings about that, but is that it?). It’s not like Wallen was just having a cocktail and he decided to simply throw a chair off a roof for the hell of it. Bonkers. Anyway, if Morgan Wallen wasn’t canceled for saying the n-word, he probably won’t be canceled for reckless endangerment.
Beyoncé with the #1 album and Morgan Wallen arrested for a felony pic.twitter.com/td4vNdrUmA
— j (@jinagarten) April 8, 2024
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.