Morgan Wallen subtly responded to the Nashville Metro Council’s decision to reject his proposal for a 20-foot sign advertising his new bar on the downtown Nashville strip.
Following the council’s 30-3 vote to deny the sign’s placement on Tuesday, due to his past controversies, including allegedly throwing a chair off a Nashville rooftop last month and use of a racial slur in 2021, the singer, 31, seemingly reacted to politicians saying he gave other Tennesseans ‘a bad name’ on his Instagram Story.
While Metro Council overwhelmingly rejected his sign, the country music phenom uploaded an aerial image of the crowd at one of his three sold-out shows at Nissan Stadium in Music City from earlier this month.
Although he didn’t write anything on the photo, his choice to tag the location, Nashville, Tennessee, did not go unnoticed.
A number of the star’s fans have taken his post as a way of Wallen acknowledging that, regardless of the council’s judgment of his past, his actions have not affected his ticket sales, popularity, or the public’s support of his professional endeavors.
Morgan Wallen subtly responded to the Nashville Metro Council’s decision to reject his proposal for a 20-foot sign advertising his new bar on the downtown Nashville strip
During the vote, District 14 Council member Jordan Huffman called the Heartless hitmaker’s actions ‘harmful’ and past use of the N-word ‘hateful.’
Councilmember Delishia Porterfield agreed as she gave an impassioned speech about wanting to ‘make sure Nashville is a supportive place for everyone.’
‘I don’t want to see a billboard up with the name of a person who’s throwing chairs off of balconies and who is saying racial slurs,’ Porterfield explained of her decision to vote no.
Some found Porterfield’s words ironic as one X user wrote that it was ‘funny to hear inclusion language used to exclude someone for BS [bulls**t]’ as they accused the councilwoman of trying to shut out Wallen and his fans.
‘If I were Morgan I’d hold all my future Tennessee tour dates outside of Nashville. Screw them. If they don’t want him they don’t deserve to benefit from the money he’s bringing their city,’ one social media user suggested.
Another wrote: ‘He should put his bar just outside Nashville city limits. I bet it would be packed.’
Others noted that Wallen’s bar, This Bar and Tennessee Restaurant, was still opening this weekend, and like a number of celebrity-owned bars in downtown Nashville, a sign with his name will ‘eventually’ go up.
Still, some haters questioned ‘how many chances does’ Wallen get before something doesn’t ‘go his way.’
Following the council’s 30-3 vote to deny the sign’s placement on Tuesday, due to his past controversies, including allegedly throwing a chair off a Nashville rooftop earlier this year and getting caught using a racial slur in 2021, the country music phenom, 31, reacted to the politicians that said he gave other Tennesseans ‘a bad name’ on his Instagram Story
While Metro Council overwhelmingly rejected his sign, he uploaded an image of the crowd at one of his three sold-out shows at Nissan Stadium in Music City from earlier this month
One Twitter user called out a politician for using ‘inclusion language used to exclude someone for BS [bulls**t]’ as they accused one councilwoman of trying to shut out Wallen and his fans
‘If I were Morgan I’d hold all my future Tennessee tour dates outside of Nashville. Screw them. If they don’t want him they don’t deserve to benefit from the money he’s bringing their city,’ one social media user suggested
Another wrote: ‘He should put his bar just outside Nashville city limits. I bet it would be packed’
Others noted that Wallen’s bar, This Bar and Tennessee Restaurant, was still opening this weekend, and like a number of celebrity-owned bars in downtown Nashville, a sign with his name will ‘eventually’ go up
Still, some haters questioned ‘how many chances does’ Wallen get before something doesn’t ‘go his way’
Wallen’s This Bar & Tennessee Kitchen is set to open in downtown Nashville this weekend.
On Tuesday, the motion over whether he could install his 20-foot neon sign on his restaurant’s sign was rejected by 30 council members, with only three voting in favor of the sign, according to The Tennessean. Four council members abstained.
Jacob Kupin from District 19, was among the council members that vocalized his reservations about the sign.
‘It struck me that we’re putting up a sign with someone’s name on it that hasn’t been a good actor downtown,’ he said. ‘I decided to move approval for this because I do support the efforts to move this bar forward…the restaurant group that’s managing this facility, TC Restaurant Group, has been really a good partner in everything going on downtown.’
TC Restaurant Group, the company opening the eatery, also operates other restaurants named after iconic country singers, including Jason Aldean’s Kitchen & Rooftop Bar and Casa Rosa Miranda Lambert’s.
Wallen’s This Bar & Tennessee Kitchen is set to open in downtown Nashville this weekend
On Tuesday, the motion over whether he could install his 20-foot neon sign on his restaurant’s sign was rejected by 30 council members, with only three voting in favor of the sign, according to The Tennessean. Four council members abstained
Last month, Wallen was arrested after he allegedly chucked a chair off a rooftop bar in downtown Nashville.
Wallen was charged with three counts of felony reckless endangerment and one count of misdemeanor disorderly conduct, with officers alleging the chair landed three feet from them.
Wallen previously faced substantial backlash in 2021 when TMZ released a video of the singer saying the N-word to one of his friends after a night out.
After the footage of Wallen using the racial slur went viral, many radio stations stopped playing his music and the Country Music Association removed Wallen’s appearances from their platforms.
His songs were removed from Apple Music, Pandora and Spotify featured playlists because of the sandal.
Last month, Wallen was arrested after he allegedly chucked a chair off a rooftop bar in downtown Nashville (seen on May 2, 2024 performing in Nashville)
Wallen’s record label, Big Loud, suspended its recording contract with him indefinitely.
The Academy of Country Music announced that Wallen and his most recent album at the time, Dangerous: The Double Album, would be ineligible for the 56th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards.
In the week after the racism, album sales for Dangerous surged and the digital sales went up over 100 per cent.
He even remained on top of the Billboard charts for seven more weeks.
In April, 2021, Wallen donated $300,000 to the Black Music Action Coalition in the names of 20 people who had counseled him after he used the racial slur.
Wallen publicly spoke of his comments on Good Morning America on July 23, where he said that ‘he was around some of his friends, and they say dumb stuff together’ and said that ‘he was wrong’ to express those words.