“Four awards and two years probation, what a wild day.”
That top comment on YouTube under Morgan Wallen’s Billboard Music Awards speech pretty much sums up his day yesterday…
Making national headlines, the superstar country singer appeared in Davidson County court, where he pled guilty to misdemeanor reckless endangerment, bringing to an end a legal saga that started back in April when the country music superstar was arrested for allegedly throwing a chair off the rooftop of Eric Church’s downtown Nashville bar, Chief’s.
Judge Cynthia Chappell sentenced the singer to 11 months and 29 days in jail on each count, with all but seven days suspended. Those seven days are to be served in a DUI education center. The remainder of his sentence will be served on supervised probation, and will be served consecutively for a total of two years on probation.
The plea agreement is subject to judicial diversion, which means that Morgan will be able to petition the court to have his record expunged if he successfully completes probation. Morgan spoke at the hearing only to confirm that he was pleading guilty, and to confirm that he understood the plea agreement and his rights as a defendant.
Later that evening, Wallen was also a big winner at the Billboard Music Awards, where he won four awards for Top Male Artist, Top Country Artist, Top Country Male Artist and Top Collaboration (for his Post Malone collaboration “I Had Some Help”).
He also gave a speech that was prerecorded, thanking fans for always supporting him and giving him “so much freedom” to make music that he wants to and always “giving it a chance”:
“What’s goin’ on, Billboard Music Awards. Morgan Wallen here. I just wanted to say thank you guys, for everyone who’s supported me along my journey. As always, most importantly, thank you to my fans.
You guys have just given me so much freedom to make music that I want to make, whether it’s a song that sounds similar to something I’ve put out in the past, or whether it’s something that’s completely different.
You guys have always just at least given it a chance, and that’s all I can ask for. And I really just want to say thank you guys for being that way with my music. I hope I can come back next year and accept some more, but for now, I really appreciate it. God bless.”
Last year, he won the most BBMAs picking up 11 wins, and this year, he earned 15 finalist entries in 13 categories, including five for his Post Malone collaboration “I Had Some Help.”
They say life’s all about balance, though I’m not sure these types of extremes are what most normal people consider “balance.” It had to have been a wild day, even though he obviously did not attend the show in person, nor did he make this speech yesterday, either.
Notably, Morgan won the coveted CMA award for Entertainer of the Year a few weeks ago, and he has yet to publicly comment on it, which says a lot about the state of award shows in general.
You can watch his BBMAs speech here:
You can watch Morgan’s court appearance and sentencing below.
