The Morgan Wallen backlash has been severe.
But make no mistake, this isn’t the end of his career. And that’s not what most people are even advocating for…
Take Jason Isbell for example, he called Morgan’s behavior “disgusting and horrifying” and said that Morgan’s current place in the country music spotlight should be perhaps given to a black country artist. But in a more recent tweet, he also said that we shouldn’t “tar and feather” Morgan either.
Accountability matters, remorse matters, education matters… and and for Morgan it’s pretty safe to say that he’ll be welcomed back into the country music community.
As a guy that has had his own share of issues with alcoholism, before getting sober back in 2012, the response was prompted after a fan on Twitter pointed out the toxic relationship Morgan appears to have with alcohol.
And if you didn’t know, the reason people continue to ask Jason Isbell what he think of the Morgan Wallen situation is because 1) he’s an articulate dude who’s been in this industry for a while, but also because 2) Morgan covered his song “Cover Me Up,” a deeply personal song that was written for his wife shortly after he got sober.
Earlier today, Nashville NAACP President Sheryl Guinn offered to meet with Morgan Wallen to have a candid conversation about the use of the n-word.
Is Morgan the absolute scum of the Earth who should be erased from country music completely, never to be heard from again? No. He made a mistake, one representative of a deeper character issue and now he has to own it, but more importantly, fix it.
So no, he won’t be canceled forever and his career probably isn’t over, but does he have some shit he probably needs to figure out before he continues to represent country music as the highest selling artist in the genre right now? Yeah… absolutely.
We’ll see what happens… I imagine Morgan will have to release some kind of statement in the days/weeks.
And speaking of “Cover Of Me Up,” how about this performance from Austin City Limits? If that don’t hit you somewhere deep down in your soul, check your pulse.
