Morgan Wallen has finally addressed the Saturday Night Live controversy that’s dominated online discourse for the past few days.
The country music superstar was the musical guest last weekend alongside Mikey Madison (2025 Oscar winner for “Best Actress”) on the iconic skit show that’s celebrating its 50th year in production. The show itself was fine by all accounts and his performances were pretty solid but it’s what happened right as the show ended that got people up in arms.
Right after the sendoff, when the cast typically hangs to hug and talk with each other while the cameras cut around, Wallen hugged Madison and abruptly walked off stage. The cast was oddly separated from the two hosts and Wallen appeared to have no interest in closing the gap, instead walking straight off set without so much as a glance backwards.
Wallen then posted a rare non-promotional Instagram story of his plane with a caption that’s since set the internet meme machine on fire:
“Get me to God’s country”
Morgan Wallen on Instagram Stories after his #SNL performances pic.twitter.com/S89xjcgIqs
— Saturday Night Network (@thesnlnetwork) March 30, 2025
This lead to a few viral reactions from cast members Ewo Nwodim and Kenan Thompson, with the latter saying in an interview:
“Aren’t we all in God’s country? I don’t know if he understood the assignment, is what that looks like. Ego’s the one giving the side-eye…
I guess it was just different because it just felt so abrupt. And it was already such a small grouping on the stage anyway. So it was just like, oh wow, that was pretty visible. You know what I’m saying? It was a pretty visible thing…
The ‘God’s country’ of it all is strange because it’s like, what are you trying to say? You trying to say that we are not in God’s country? We’re not all in God’s country? We’re not all under God’s umbrella? That’s not necessarily my favorite.”
Ego Nwodim and Kenan Thompson watching that Morgan Wallen walkoff at the end of the show. #SNL50 pic.twitter.com/M6W0DrCV7h
— Karen DaltonBeninato (@kbeninato) March 30, 2025
Allegedly someone close to Wallen spoke with TMZ and clarified that the whole thing was a misunderstanding and he exited the stage just as they’d practiced all week but that didn’t quiet the crowd of people thinking that Wallen showed his true colors in that moment and subsequent Instagram story.
Morgan Wallen himself had been quiet on this matter since making the Instagram post, that is until today, when he released a statement on the ordeal giving his side of the story.
It read:
“Honestly, I don’t know why I accepted the SNL musical guest spot. You hear SNL and obviously think of all the huge names that have played it and hosted it before and you want to be part of that group. Maybe I wanted to make up for the first go around, but I just felt like I should do it.
Then I got there and realized I made a mistake because, well, them theater kids make me nervous. Always talking with their hands, big smiles on their face when you think they don’t mean it, talking about how good ‘Wicked’ is. I get the game, I was in my high school play, but I just realized that Studio 8H isn’t a place for a redneck like me. I just don’t belong there.
While I appreciate SNL having me out, I needed to get out of New York City as fast as I could, those buildings were so tall it made me dizzy. Too many people around, just feeling squeezed walking down the street, yeah it’s just not for me.
The pizza was good though, I’ll give them that. We don’t have anything like Sbarro’s back in the holler.”
There you have it. Wallen just wasn’t comfortable in New York City being around a bunch of people that were very much unlike him.
They say you can take the boy out of the country but you can’t take the country out of the boy and that appears to be correct in this case. Got to appreciate him giving the nod of approval to New York’s best slice of pizza though, the locals have to be at least a little happy about that…
We can always count on Morgan Wallen to set the record straight.
…
APRIL FOOLS!
Obviously, Wallen would never release a public statement about “them theater kids”, at least I don’t think he would. If we know anything about Wallen and his various controversies (the others being much more significant than an early exit from the SNL stage), he’s going to stay quiet and let this whole thing play out while continuing to sell out stadiums and put way too many songs on his albums (an opinion I will stand by until I die).
Do I think that cultural differences played a factor in the apparent divide between Wallen and the cast? Absolutely, I think we’ve all been in situations where we just don’t really fit in but fortunately for us there’s usually not a bunch of national broadcasting cameras around.
Whatever the reason for Wallen leaving the stage the way he did, we probably will never hear a clear answer.
Let’s just put this story to bed once and for all by saying that, for better or worse, Morgan Wallen is going to do what Morgan Wallen wants to do. He’s one of the biggest musical acts of any genre on the face of the planet and until he’s not, we’re just going to have to deal with it.
Here’s his performance of “Just In Case” from his most recent SNL appearance:
