Not the worst decision to make.
There’s really no way around it; Morgan Wallen is equally the most successful artist in country music history as he is the most controversial. From a charts and sales standpoint, he’s truly unmatched. Scoring four all-genre #1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 over the past few years and recently dethroning Garth Brooks to become the highest-selling country artist of all time (4th all-genre), the “Whiskey Glasses” singer has experienced unprecedented numbers in terms of crossover success, unlike anything we’ve ever seen so far.
With that being said, however, there’s a plethora of criticism baked into that said success. Even ignoring the slew of off-stage controversies over the years, Wallen has cemented himself as one of the most genre-irreverent artists country music has ever seen.
Upon his debut in 2018 with If I Know Me, it was clear that the Tennessee native was never going to be a staunch traditionalist or anything resembling that, leaning on a slew of outside influences, including the bro-country stylings of Florida Georgia Line, pop influences and the most controversial of all: rap/trap elements in the form of snap tracks and 808 beats.
Wallen has only doubled down on these non-country influences over the years. While If I Know Me, for all intents and purposes, was a country album with pop elements implemented throughout, the likes of Dangerous and One Thing At A Time continued to blur the lines between genres.
If you thought his first three albums were all over the place stylistically, 2025’s record-breaking, 37-song album, I’m The Problem, solidified Wallen’s status as a pop star first and a country singer second. While, of course, you have quite a few relatively country tracks present, such as “I’m a Little Crazy,” “Jack and Jill,” “Number 3 and Number 7” with Eric Church and “The Dealer” with Ernest, there was an even heavier emphasis on both pop and rap stylings throughout the album.
This was undoubtedly highlighted by the inclusion of his all-genre #1 hit, “What I Want,” with Canadian pop star, Tate McRae, his highly-controversial interpolation of Keith Whitley’s “Miami, My Amy” on “Miami,” which ended up getting a remix with rappers, Lil Wayne and Rick Ross, and the track “Interlude,” which was by all intents and purposes a short, 44-second snippet of a rap song.
On the touring side of things, however, Wallen has kept things fairly traditional from an opening act perspective, surprisingly. This year on the Still The Problem tour, he employed the likes of Ella Langley amid her record-breaking summer, independent favorites, Flatland Cavalry, Hudson Westbrook, Jason Scott & The High Heat and most notably, the legendary duo themselves, Brooks & Dunn, among others.
As it turns out, some of the picks, Brooks & Dunn in particular, were extremely intentional.
During a recent conversation with Bobby Bones on The Bobby Cast, Ronnie Dunn would admit that the decision to accept an opening role as they neared 35 years in the industry was not an easy one. With that being said, however, he realized that it was a mutually beneficial relationship, given the fact that it exposed Brooks & Dunn to a much younger audience who may not have been familiar with their music.
“No, we had to think about it. We had to think about all the implications and perceptions… At first, it was uncomfortable, because you walk up there and go, ‘Man, I’m the opening act… We’re used to headlining.’ But what it proved was he brings such a younger [audience]… We’ll stop at our shows right now, and Kix will go, ‘How many of y’all is this the first time you’re seeing a Brooks & Dunn show?’ 80% of the audience goes off. Like, what? That’s what doing the Morgan shows is all about.
From there, the 73-year-old singer/songwriter would also reveal the main reason why Wallen asked them to open up in the first place. As Dunn explains it, the “Last Night” singer wanted a well-respected, legacy act to open to prove his credibility to critics who say he’s not country enough.
“He tells me. He goes, ‘The reason why I have you guys up there is because of the people who say that I’m not country enough.’ It really works. It has worked well for the both of us.”
While I think collaborating with traditional country artists in the studio rather than the likes of Lil Durk, Lil Wayne, Rick Ross and Moneybagg Yo would be the easiest way to go about proving the “that ain’t country crowd” wrong, I guess you can’t blame Wallen for that business move.
“Neon Moon” (with Morgan Wallen)
