Darius Rucker is ready to forgive Morgan Wallen for using a racial slur – but he can’t say the same for the rest of the country music community.
“I think Morgan’s become a better person since that. I’ve known Morgan a long time,” the former Hootie & The Blowfish frontman said on the Rolling Stone Music Now podcast, referencing Morgan’s use of the N-word that ultimately led to his “cancellation.”
“Since all that happened, you know, Morgan’s tried to really better himself, become a better person and see the world in a much better way. And you know, he’s not forgiven…Morgan’s still not up for CMAs and ACMs.”
“They can say what they want but the fact that Morgan Wallen is not up for Entertainer of the Year and those things is crazy, cause no one’s sold more tickets than Morgan. Maybe Luke Combs is right up there with him. But they’re playing stadiums, man,” Rucker emphasized.
“But that’s society. What I think doesn’t matter. People are gonna make their own opinion and go with it. And so, it is what it is,” he added.
In 2021, TMZ released video of Wallen using the N-word. He was met with immediate backlash, having his music taken off the radio and being suspended from his record label. “That person is definitely not the same person I am now,” Wallen told Billboard last year of the man in the video. Months after the incident happened, Wallen shared on “Good Morning America” that he and his friends were clearly drunk when he uttered the slur.
Following the scandal, Wallen checked himself into rehab. He also spoke with Black leaders and pledged $500,000 to Black-affiliated groups, which he ultimately fulfilled. A large portion of that money went to the Black Music Action Coalition. Wallen donated $300,000 on behalf of 20 individuals who counseled him through the trying period. According to USA Today, those 20 people were given the choice to keep the money in the BMAC or donate their portion to a charity of their choosing.
Despite the scrutiny, sales of Wallen’s music actually increased.
Of the experience, Wallen says he realized “just how much that people listen” to him. “I don’t think I realized that, at least not at that grand of a scale at the time,” he added. “I [learned] how much my words matter.”
Last year, Wallen spoke out in his first major interview in two years, reflecting on the consequences he faced and his displeasure of cancel culture. He also admitted to being angry over how quick the world was to label him a racist.
“There’s no excuse. I’ve never made an excuse. I never will make an excuse,” Wallen said. “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.’”
“I put myself in just such a s— 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,” the “Lies Lies Lies” singer said of rectifying his mistake.
Since the slur, Wallen has been trying to rehabilitate his image. He’s hit a few bumps in the road, including an arrest in April for allegedly throwing a chair off the roof of a Nashville bar. The singer is currently on his “One Night At A Time” tour.
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