Morgan Wallen opens up about racial slur controversy in first interview since scandal

Back in February, the 28-year-old hitmaker and his friends were captured on video arriving at his house after a night out, and Wallen used the N-word to describe one of his companions, reported People magazine.

The clip was obtained by TMZ, prompting Wallen to issue an apology amid the fallout, which included the suspension of his record label contract, removal from radio airplay and disqualification from the 2021 Academy of Country Music Awards.

On Friday's episode of Good Morning America, Wallen sat down with Michael Strahan to talk about the controversy, revealing that he checked into a rehabilitation centre after the incident.

In the interview, his first since the scandal, he also revealed that after the controversy he met with leaders from groups like the Black Music Action Coalition.

"For 30 days, I spent some time out in San Diego, California, you know, just trying to figure it out ... Why am I acting this way? Do I have an alcohol problem?" he said. "Do I have a deeper issue?"

Wallen tried explaining the situation in the controversial video, saying that he and his friends would "say dumb stuff together" and "in our minds, it's playful. That sounds ignorant, but that's really where it came from, and it's wrong."

He further revealed that he didn't use the word frequently, and he "didn't mean it in any derogatory manner at all" when he directed the racial slur at a friend while they were "clearly drunk."

In the GMA interview, Strahan said he has been called the N-word before, adding that the word is used to "dehumanize" Black people.

"It makes you mad. It makes you angry. It doesn't make you feel good at all," the former NFL star explained to Wallen, then asking, "Do you understand why it makes Black people so upset?"

"I don't know how to put myself in their shoes because I'm not, you know," said Wallen. "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.' "

Wallen also explained that since "there was a spike in my sales" for his album after the controversy made headlines, he and his team "tried to calculate ... how much it actually spiked from this incident" and "got to a number somewhere around USD 500,000, and we decided to donate that money to some organisations," including the Black Music Action Coalition (BMAC).

When asked if country music has a race problem as a whole, Wallen said, "It would seem that way, yeah. I haven't really sat and thought about that."

In an apology post shortly after the controversy, Wallen indicated that he'd spoken with Black-led organisations and was committed to working with them on educating himself on racist behaviour.

"I let so many people down. I let my parents down and they're the furthest thing from the person in that video. I let my son down, and I'm not okay with that," he said at the time.

Wallen further posted a letter to his fans addressing the controversy on April 13, saying in one part of the handwritten message, "I've made some mistakes, I'm figuring those out, I apologized because I was truly sorry and have been making my amends."

After the scandal, Wallen was criticised on social media, shunned by CMT, iHeartRadio and the Academy of Country Music Awards and dropped from booking agency WME and Big Loud Records.

However, despite those losses, many of his fans continued to support him and his music has continued to rank high on country music charts.

In May, Wallen won three honours at the 2021 Billboard Music Awards despite being banned from appearing at the show because nominees are chosen based in large part on their performance on Billboard charts.

In June, Variety reported that Wallen's songs recently returned to playlists at most country stations. Later that month, he performed at the Brett Boyer Foundation Invitational charity event's after-party in Georgia. (ANI)