Country music is one of those genres that has a unique ability to create these powerful bonds between artists and their fans. 28-year old singer Morgan Wallen has gotten the chance to experience this in the last seven years or so since his big breakthrough on the NBC singing competition show, The Voice.
Wallen first came to national attention in the fourth episode of Season 6, when during the blind auditions, he sang Howie Day's single, Collide and got coaches Shakira and Usher to turn their chairs. He opted to go into Usher's team, although the iconic R&B singer dropped him in the second Battle Round, which gave Adam Levine a chance to pounce and steal Wallen for his team. The budding musician was eventually eliminated in the Playoff Round, with his last appearance on the show coming in the 17th episode.
Since then, while his career has continued to move on an upward trajectory, he has also split fans' opinions of him thanks to multiple controversies that he's been embroiled in.
Untamed Side
Wallen was born in May 1993 to Leslie and Tommy Wallen. His father is a preacher, which unsurprisingly means that they have clashed in the past, given the singer's untamed side. He did tell Taste of Country that they enjoy a good relationship, partly based on the fact that the pastor himself lived a pretty wild life as a young man himself.
"I think that's one of the things I've loved about him, he's lived," the younger Wallen said. "Up until 25, he told me he was pretty wild." Wallen took piano and violin classes when he was a boy, but he grew up really wanting to become a professional baseball player. This dream died when he hurt his elbow, forcing him to focus on music.
"After I got hurt during my senior year of high school, I went through a period of 'What am I supposed to do?'," reflected Wallen. "So I went through a little period of trying to figure it out and I just prayed and said I need a sign to what I need to do. I started playing guitar and started writing my own songs."
Ill-Advised Incidents
His moment of reckoning came a bit unexpectedly, as his mother heard his songs and decided to sign him up for The Voice. "Just singing [his songs] around my mom and she signed me up for The Voice," he carried on. "I ended up making it on the show. So I took that as my sign, you know, like I have a chance to be legit at this so I’m going to give it my all." Wallen has released two albums since he left The Voice. The first, If I Know Me was done in 2018 and went platinum.
In 2021, he released Dangerous: The Double Album, which as the name suggests, contains two albums in one. This type of success has not shielded him from receiving bad press, following a number of ill-advised incidents. In May last year, he was arrested by Metro officers in Nashville and charged with public intoxication and disorderly conduct. Despite apologizing for the debacle on Twitter, he found himself in hot water again a few months later after posting a video on TikTok that showed him breaking COVID protocols.
Fans Were Up In Arms
Fans were up in arms over the footage, which depicted a mask-less Wallen kissing multiple women in a bar. One Twitter user wrote, ""Heeeeere’s the thing...I don’t think Morgan Wallen breaking COVID protocols before his originally scheduled [Saturday Night Live] appearance is funny... This guy was willing to put at risk the crew, the cast and the audience full of first responders all to go to a party in a place full of people who don’t give a s**t." Another user took specific issue with the apparent age of the girls who appeared in the video.
Let us take a moment to recognize that Morgan Wallen is a total dirt bag. Most of the girls in this video are 19 years old. As a reminder, he is 27 with a baby.
Round of applause, dude.@MorganWallen pic.twitter.com/3UyH2Qsw84 — Heather Kirk (@heatherkirkk) October 4, 2020
To make things even worse, another video surfaced in February, of Wallen casually hurling a racist slur while returning home from a party with friends. The footage was obtained from the doorbell cam of a neighbor by TMZ, and showed the musician referencing one of his friends using the n-word. The fallout from this episode was a lot more dire for Wallen, as radio stations and streaming platforms removed his music from their playlists.
The Academy of Country Music also banned his album from the 2021 ACM Awards. He later issued an apology for the misdeed, but it appears that fans are not completely enamored with him, given his knack for making the wrong decisions.