Probably not the call he was expecting.
By now we all remember Morgan Wallen‘s infamous chair incident. During opening weekend of Eric Church‘s downtown Nashville bar, Chief’s, Morgan was arrested after throwing a chair off the rooftop, which reportedly narrowly missed two police officers standing on the sidewalk below.
The country music superstar was originally charged with three felony counts of reckless endangerment, but ultimately pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors and was sentenced to seven days in a DUI education center.
Obviously the incident hasn’t hurt Morgan’s career. Not long after the incident, he played three sold-out shows at Nissan Stadium just across the river from the scene of the crime, and his One Night At A Time stadium tour went on to become one of the biggest tours in country music history.
After being unexpectedly thrust into the spotlight from the incident, Chief’s has had some fun with it. The next day the marquee on the bar was changed to read “Our Pigs Fly, Our Chairs Don’t,” and they even installed a plaque to commemorate the spot – and warn others not to do their best Morgan Wallen impression while they’re on the rooftop:
“Don’t Even Think About It. You’re Not Morgan Wallen.”
Most recently, the bar debuted a brand new drink called “The Chair,” which features a miniature decorative chair on top (which, fun fact, also doubles as a cell phone stand).
Morgan hasn’t really spoken much about the incident, although he did issue an apology and take responsibility for his behavior immediately after his arrest. (Well, after he was released from jail…)
But apparently one of his first calls after it happened was to his friend, and the bar’s owner, Eric Church.
Church has served as a mentor of sorts to Wallen throughout his career, and the two even recently teamed up to buy the iconic outdoors brand Field & Stream. And during an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Church recalled hearing about the chair incident for the first time – while Morgan was still standing outside of his bar:
“Morgan called me from the street after it happened. I was watching college basketball, and he said, “Hey, this just happened.” I said, “Uh-oh.” I knew it was gonna be noisy, and it was — it was damn noisy.”
Just a little bit. I know on our end it was one of the biggest stories that we posted all year, and it was something not only all over the news but all over social media with memes and jokes. Pretty noisy.
But Church says he thinks the incident was a learning moment for Morgan, one that he’s grown from in the year since it happened:
“It was actually a good thing for Mo. I think that was a line for him, and he’s done really well since then — it was a thing he’s reacted positively to as a person. I used the old Billy Joe Shaver line on him: “I’m just an old chunk of coal, but I’ll be a diamond one day.” He went down [to Chief’s] and apologized to the staff, shook everybody’s hand. I was proud of him.”
Good on him.
As for Morgan, he recently revealed during a conversation with Theo Von that his fateful trip to Chief’s was the last time he’s been in a bar:
“It’s definitely the best thing for me, you know…
I ain’t been in a bar since the last time I was in a bar that everybody knows about. The most public time I was in a bar, that’s the last time I was in a bar.”
Smart. Definitely smart.
This post contains links from our Affiliate Partners program. If you use these links to make a purchase, we may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.
