Troublesome country music star Morgan Wallen has seen rapid repercussions after a video surfaced where he uses the n-word while during loud outdoor conversation with friends while he was returning home apparently after a night of drinking, the Washington Post reports.
The reaction to the video was swift. Wallen’s record label, the independent Nashville group Big Loud, has suspended him, and his new album has been pulled from promotions on Apple iTunes and his songs have been removed from Spotify and Apple Tunes. Wallen’s were removed from rotation on stations owned by Cumulus Media and iHeartMedia, the two largest operators of country music stations in the nation, as well as SiriusXM stations and its Pandora streaming service.
The video, uncovered on TMZ, was filmed by a neighbor of Wallen’s who was apparently annoyed with the noise Wallen and his friends were making late at night after returning from an evening of drinking. Wallen is plainly heard using the n-word when talking loudly with his friends.
This is not Wallen’s first brush with controversy and criticism. His appearance in December on Saturday Night Live was postponed after he was shown on social media drinking with Alabama college students, none of whom were wearing a facemask, days before his appearance, in violation of the show’s coronavirus quarantine requirements.
Last May, he was arrested at a bar owned by Kid Rock for public drunkenness and disorderly conduct; after he was released from jail, he posed with Kid Rock at the same bar, smirking and wearing a t-shirt reading “Fresh Out.”