Morgan Wallen Addresses N-Word Incident on ‘Good Morning America’
“I was around some of my friends, and we just … we say dumb stuff together."
Months after country singer Morgan Wallen was exiled from the music world over footage of him drunkenly using the “n-word” with friends, the embattled hit maker has broken his silence.
Making his first public appearance since the incident with Good Morning America’s Michael Strahan, Wallen opened up about everything from why he used the word at all, to how he has sought to make things right.
Airing Friday morning (July 23), the segment first rehashed the ugly moment, which was captured by a neighbor’s doorbell camera outside Wallen’s Nashville home. Taking place in January, it found Wallen and a group of friends being loud and disruptive in the early morning hours, then using the racial slur to refer to a friend — who is white — asking another friend to take care of his “drunk ass.”
When asked by Strahan why he used the word, Wallen said he was intoxicated, and it wasn’t meant to be derogatory. But it also wasn’t the first time he’d used it with this group of friends.
“I was around some of my friends, and we just … we say dumb stuff together,” Wallen said. “And it was — in our minds, it’s playful. I don’t know, that sounds ignorant, but that’s really where it came from. And it’s wrong.”
Strahan went on to press Wallen on whether he knew the impact the word has had, with Wallen replying, “I don’t know how to put myself in their shoes because I’m not. But I do understand, especially when I say I’m using it playfully or whatever, ignorantly, I understand that that must sound, you know, like, ‘He doesn’t understand.’”
The GMA segment also discussed how despite Wallen’s removal from radio and streaming playlists, suspension from his record label and ineligibility at some awards shows, his Dangerous: The Double Album is still the best streaming and selling U.S. album of any genre in 2021. Wallen said that his team noticed a spike in sales following the incident as fans sought to show their support, and he decided to donate that extra money to black-focused charities like the Black Music Action Coalition. The amount was somewhere near $500,000.
Meanwhile, Morgan Wallen also said he spent time talking with African American community leaders and fellow artists to better understand his actions in context. According to Rolling Stone, those people included members of the BMAC, record executive Kevin Liles, gospel singer BeBe Winans and Universal Music Group’s executive Vice President and inclusion officer, Eric Hutcherson. He also checked in to a rehab center in San Diego for 30 days, “trying to figure out why am I acting this way? Do I have an alcohol problem? Do I have a deeper issue?”
