Morgan Wallen pleads ignorance and contrition in racial slurs incident – Deadline

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Country singer Morgan Wallen, who saw his album sales skyrocket after being filmed using a racial epithet in a boisterous conversation with friends, says he donated $ 500,000 from that increased sales to the Black Music Action Coalition and other advocacy organizations.

In an exclusive interview with Hello americaMichael Strahan Today, a grim Wallen, in his first major interview since the February incident, expressed remorse and contrition for his use of the N word, and said his actions that night followed several days of heavy drinking.

“I had some of my longtime friends in town and we had partied this weekend and thought we were just going to go strong for the two or three days they were there,” Wallen told Strahan. from ABC.

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Watch the full interview below.

“We say stupid things together,” the singer added. “In our mind, it was just fun. It sounds ignorant, but that’s really where it comes from. It was wrong. “Wallen used the word in reference to a drunk friend (who is white).” We were all clearly drunk. I was asking his girlfriend to take care of him.

Pressed repeatedly by Strahan to see if he understands the full impact of the insult, Wallen said at one point: “When I say I used it playfully, I understand that gives the impression I do not understand. “

“I think I was just ignorant about it,” the singer said. “I don’t think I’ve ever sat down and said it was right or wrong.”

Wallen said he was first made aware of the existence of the video (a neighbor apparently recorded the incident) when his manager phoned him to alert him of an upcoming TMZ segment. “My manager called me two hours before the video was released and said, ‘Are you sitting down? No one has ever called me to tell me this before.

Although the TMZ segment got a quick reaction – Wallen was dropped by WME, his records were banned by radio stations and streaming services, and the awards show left him off their candidate lists – the sound sales Dangerous: the double album skyrocketed, spending 24 weeks at # 1.

Wallen told Strahan that although the album was selling long before the scandal, “my team and I noticed that when the incident happened, my sales increased. We tried to calculate how much it actually increased from this incident and we came up with a figure of about $ 500,000 and we decided to donate that money to some organizations, BMAC being one. (GMA noted that the Black Music Action Coalition did not respond to a request for comment.)

Wallen also noted that he “went to rehab in San Diego for 30 days, just to try and figure out why I’m acting this way, do I have a drinking problem, do I have a problem worse”.

Asked by Strahan whether the increase in album sales indicates that country music has a racial problem, Wallen replied, “It would appear to be. I haven’t really thought about it.

Today’s interview by Strahan recalled a similar faith-based segment from March of this year, when, as Deadline pointed out yesterday, the former The single person Host Chris Harrison attempted to explain his initial reaction to bachelor candidate Rachel Kirkconnell’s involvement in a pre-war plantation-themed fraternity ceremony in 2018. Harrison and the franchise ultimately went their separate ways. .

It remains to be seen whether today’s interview brings Wallen back to country radio playlists or award nominations lists, even if his record-buying fans don’t seem particularly worried in one way or another. another.

Strahan said: “There’s going to be a lot of people who are going to look at this and say, ‘he only sits down because he wants to clean up his image. It’s quite a spectacle. So what do you say about it? “

Wallen replied, “I understand that. I will never make everyone happy. I can only come and tell my truth and that’s all I can do.

After the taped interview aired, Strahan said that Wallen’s big record sales “say a lot about country music and the racial situation in country music,” and the response from black organizations that contacted Wallen ” showed grace ”.

Responded GMA co-host George Stephanopoulos, “Hope he learned a lesson.”



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