Warning: Discussion of alcohol abuse.
Morgan Wallen is speaking out after his arrest in Nashville, Tennessee.
The 30-year-old country star is an award-winning artist who consistently dominates the charts. However, his music career was overshadowed by his felony arrest amid the 2024 leg of his One Night at a Time World Tour.
According to a statement posted on the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department X (formerly Twitter) account, Morgan was "booked early [April 8] on 3 cts of felony reckless endangerment and 1 ct of misdemeanor disorderly conduct for throwing a chair from the rooftop of Chief's Bar Sun night. The chair landed on Broadway, close to 2 MNPD officers. His bond: $15,250."
According to Nashville's WKRN, authorities reported that a chair landed approximately three feet from two officers standing outside Chief's Bar, a six-story bar and restaurant owned by country singer Eric Church on Broadway, the major thoroughfare in downtown Nashville. Once the officers reviewed the footage, Morgan was shown throwing the chair from the roof.
"I'm not proud of my behavior, and I accept responsibility."
"I was made aware of the video being posted to TMZ with hardly any time to think before it was released to the public," Morgan said. "I was asked if I wanted to apologize, and of course I did. I wrote many detailed thoughts, and only a portion of those got used, which painted me in an even more careless light. I'm here to hopefully show you that that's not the truth."
He went on to explain the incident occurred during the final hour of a 72-hour bender; he regretted his behavior and wanted to make sure that his apology wasn't insincere.
"Obviously, the natural thing to do is to apologize further and just continue to apologize — but because you got caught, and that's not what I wanted to do. I let so many people down… I let my parents down, and they're the furthest thing from the person in that video. And I let my son down, and I'm not OK with that. So this week, I've been waiting to say anything further until I got the chance to apologize to those closest to me that I knew I personally hurt."
The Nashville NAACP, Black leaders, and other organizations reached out to meet with Morgan following the incident, and he accepted their invitations.
"And one thing I've learned already is I'm specifically sorry for is that it matters — my words matter. That words can truly hurt a person, and at my core, that's not what I'm OK with," he continued. "This week, I heard firsthand some personal stories from Black people that honestly shook me. And I know what I'm going through this week doesn't even compare to some of the trials I heard about from them."
"I came away from those discussions with a deep appreciation for them and a clearer understanding of the weight of my words. I wish the circumstances were different for me to learn these things, but I'm also glad it started the process for me to do so."
"I've got many more things to learn, but I already know that I don't want to add to any division," Morgan said. "This week was a big lesson that sometimes we can do just that without even knowing it. Our actions matter, our words matter, and I just want to encourage anyone watching to please learn from my mistakes. There's no reason to downplay what I did. It matters. And please know I'm carefully choosing my next steps."
Before the 2022 incident, Morgan was also arrested in 2020 for public intoxication and disorderly conduct in Nashville at Kid Rock's Big Honky Tonk & Steakhouse.
