Morgan Wallen is fresh off his Dangerous Tour, spending a year full of packing out arena after arena across the country.
So, as you can imagine, Wallen was probably ready to wind down a little bit…
And he’s spending it out in the woods, joining the team from Drury Outdoors for their first trip to the northern Missouri woods.
They documented the trip, and Wallen was joined by his cousin and fellow songwriter Jared Mullins alongside the rest of the crew for his first Missouri buck hunt.
They were hit with some of the coldest weather they’ve seen yet this deer season, setting the scene for a perfect morning of deer hunting.
From Mullins’ stand, they see a few nice bucks strut from the woods, and they finally get a clear shot at one, and Mullins drops one.
Then they transition to Morgan and Mark Drury’s stand, and when things got a little slow, he was able to ask Morgan some questions about his country music career.
Morgan explained how he got his start:
“Yeah my mom threw me on stage when I was three years old at church… When I was five I asked for a violin for Christmas, which was probably more fiddle because you know I was at church, being Appalachian Mountains I like to listen to bluegrass and stuff a lot.
So I learned how to play that but I learned how to classically play violin, and not fiddle. I quit after two or three years because I didn’t think it was cool no more.
All I was doing was playing baseball, so I didn’t think it was cool at all at the time… but I played piano, so I learned how to play piano when I was seven so I learned how to classically play piano.
I wouldn’t ever write songs really, sometimes I’d write poems and just random stuff, but I didn’t start writing probably until I was 19. And I remember I got hurt in baseball and didn’t get to go to college to play, so I started writing songs, trying to get my feelings out I guess.”
He also discussed the first time he got exposure to the music business:
“Yeah my mom actually signed me up for ‘The Voice,’ the TV show, went on there. I didn’t even know what it was I never even heard of it, and I was like, yeah I guess I’ll go, you know, if you drive me to St. Louis I’m actually willing to try it out, and made it on there, made like top 20, but I didn’t really know what kind of, I wanted to sing country music but they wanted me to sing pop music, so I was just like I guess these people are really smart people, I guess I’ll try it.
And I sang some pop songs and then they finally let me pick a song, and I picked a country song and they kicked me off. It was the best thing to ever happen though. But I just met some people through that and ended up moving to Nashville in 2015. It’s been good to me.”
Morgan and Mark didn’t see anything in the morning, and didn’t have as much luck as Jared at his stand.
So, that afternoon they set back out and moved to a better location.
Sure enough, they got a clean look at a MASSIVE buck strutting just outside the brush, and Morgan smoked him at what appeared to be right behind the shoulder.
They tracked down the buck, and Morgan couldn’t contain his excitement:
“This is my first Missouri deer, and my heart’s still beating pretty fast if I’m being honest. It kept getting bigger the closer we got…
This is nice for me, you know I don’t get a whole lot of time away, or time in the woods as much as I’d like so it’s nice for it to turn out like this, I appreciate y’all.”
You can watch the full video here:
Morgan Wallen Spent Most Of The ‘Dangerous Tour’ Performing Sober
What a year for Morgan Wallen.
His 2021 double album Dangerous has continued to smash records, and he spent much of 2022 playing sold out shows across the country in support of the record… which usually means there’s a lot of partying and drinking going on as artists travel from one town to the next constantly.
But in the wake of Morgan’s highly publicized racial slur incident, which occurred in February of 2021, it led some to speculate about his relationship with alcohol.
And he revealed himself in an interview with Michael Strahan last year that he actually checked himself into rehab because he knew he needed some sort of help, though he didn’t specify exactly what came of it, and has certainly been seen drinking at public events since:
“I went and checked myself into rehab. And for 30 days I spent some time out in San Diego, California.
Just trying to figure it out, why am I acting this way? Do I have an alcohol problem? Do I have a deeper issue?”
And ahead of the 56th annual CMA Awards show last week, he talked to Extra about his life this year and what it was like being on the road, which was actually a really interesting interview.
When asked what stands out about what he’s learned about himself in 2022, he responded that he treated the Dangerous tour run how an athlete would treat a sports season, and he mostly even stayed away from alcohol while performing:
“I think we played like 75 shows or something like that this year, and I did them all mostly in a sober state of mind. I was really, really focused.
I kind of treated it like an athlete would a season, and I think that was really key to me. I feel like I really thrived in that. So I think that’s really stood out to me.”
It’s no secret that many artists have struggled with alcohol in the past due to the nature of the lifestyle of being a country artist, many of which have since become totally sober (Morgan Wade, Evan Felker, Jason Isbell, just to name a few).
While I certainly don’t think that means Morgan’s totally sober now and no longer enjoys a few drinks post-show, it seems like an overall step in the right direction for the country superstar.
Mostly, it’s cool to see Morgan take his on-stage performance so seriously and give the fans the show they deserve… and likely spent quite a nice chunk of change on to see in person.
Love him or hate him, he’s the biggest thing in the genre right now, and I think it’s encouraging to hear him talk about his career like this and maybe taking it a bit more seriously than how it sometimes came across in the past.
He also noted that, with Thanksgiving coming up next week, he’s most thankful for his family and little boy Indie:
“My little boy, that’s gotta be my number one. I’m going to just try to teach him to be grateful for the things that really matter. He’ll grow up in a way that I didn’t, just because of me and who I am.
I didn’t really have a whole lot growing up, so I got to learn the importance of just values, and I just hope I can really instill in him the same that my parents did.”
You can check out the whole interview here:
He also performed his most recent #1 single “You Proof” on the show:
