Morgan Wallen is country music's biggest star — and resident bad boy. Is that a problem?

Yahoo

03-06-2025

At the end of a March episode of Saturday Night Live where he had just performed as a musical guest, Morgan Wallen gathered onstage with the cast as they said their goodbyes. With his trucker hat nearly covering his eyes, the 32-year-old from small-town Tennessee nodded his thanks to host Mikey Madison and darted abruptly from center stage and past the audience.
He seemingly wandered all the way to the airport, where he snapped a photo of a small plane and put it on his Instagram story. 'Get me to God's country,' he captioned it. That sparked a firestorm of responses, memes and eventually merch over the next few days. Was Wallen rude, ungrateful or annoyed with the celebrity worship and lifestyle of New York City? Was he right to be?
The incident, though odd, didn't dull Wallen's shine or put a damper on his massive and ever-increasing popularity. Fresh off the May 16 release of his 37-track record I'm the Problem, Wallen already has both the top song and the top album in the country. In fact, it's the biggest album of the year so far, and every single song landed on the Billboard Hot 100, breaking another record. His latest single, 'What I Want' featuring Tate McRae, has the chance of earning him the honor of 'Song of Summer' for an unprecedented third year in a row.
Wallen faced backlash in 2021 for using a racial slur. In his apology, he asked fans not to defend him, saying it was hour 72 of a 72-hour bender. He pleaded guilty to misdemeanor reckless endangerment charges related to a 2024 incident in which he threw a chair off a roof. Wallen's first attempt at performing on SNL in 2020 was nixed because he violated COVID protocols.
Now, he's not just surviving attempts at cancellation — he's thriving. As it stands, his polarizing status has made him even more of a star.
Marcus K. Dowling, country music reporter at the Tennessean, told Yahoo Entertainment that Wallen wouldn't be such a cultural force if he weren't so talented. He's the most successful country crossover artist since Garth Brooks.
'If the songs were not good, if the songs were not catchy, popular, well-written, all of the things, this would not be an issue. But it is an issue, because every time he puts out an album … there is a population of people that very much do not want Morgan Wallen to succeed,' he said. 'But then he puts out another slate of music, and it's very well-produced and the writing is peerless.'
It helps that Wallen is prolific too. By releasing dozens of singles in the last five years, he isn't just driving cultural conversation. He's dominating it.
'You're not talking about a person at that point. You're talking about something that's far greater than that … an avatar of a genre and a movement and society at large,' Dowling said. 'People gravitate toward a bad boy image, first and foremost. Then there's this social construct of country, western, rural, nightlife, college-age entertainment and the relatability of [him singing about how] 'I'm really bad at relationships because I'm in my 20s!' Add that all together, it's a very real thing.'
'If you're playing his songs in Florida, he sounds like your next-door neighbor, but he's singing Drake songs. That's like discovering plutonium by accident. The ultimate mistake of your life,' he added.
Dowling said Wallen masterfully appeals to swaths of Gen Z-ers and millennials that are young, sad and ready to party. He's a distinctly self-aware and talented writer, and that makes him really good at curating vibes.
Wallen curated the first-ever Sand in My Boots music festival in Gulf Shores, Ala., which took place the same May weekend that he released his latest album. All 40,000 tickets sold out in just two hours.
'Gulf Shores is, indeed, God's country, if on the fourth day, God invented Zyn, the fifth day, Michelob Ultra, and on the sixth day, he declared, 'Let there be scantily clad women walking barefoot in the street!'' Billboard's Meaghan Garvey wrote of her experience at the festival.
But if Wallen is the top artist in the country, he's not just dominating towns where people are known to have a good time. He's the most-played artist on TouchTunes jukeboxes across the entire country so far in 2025, according to data the company shared with Yahoo Entertainment. He's racking up nearly double the plays of the next closest act across 65,000 locations nationwide. Chicago is the city where his music is most popular.
His songs are relatable to the young people who drive culture, explained Nathan Green, CEO and co-founder of in-store music curation company New Level Radio.
'Wallen's raspy, soulful voice evokes emotion, and his songwriting often delves into relatable experiences like toxic relationships and the struggles of navigating modern life. … Songs that discuss drunken screwups, small-town living and life's issues elevate his persona to fans who feel like they are going through the same things in life,' he told Yahoo Entertainment. 'Wallen's fans tend to see him as relatable and authentic, especially his ability to portray the 'sad, bad boy' character.'
Wallen's songwriting and sound transcend genre, which is why it's so appealing to such a wide audience.
'His persona blends old-school country grit with that polished, modern pop-country vibe, which makes him appealing to both younger listeners and more traditional fans,' Americana artist Nate Currin told Yahoo Entertainment. 'Add to that his knack for writing catchy, radio-friendly summer tunes, and it's no surprise he's taken the country scene by storm.'
Blending genres isn't just an art form — it's a strategy. Atlanta Cobb, a music consultant and founder of the artistic development program Music Industry Mentor, told Yahoo Entertainment that the fact that Wallen's able to play on multiple genres of radio stations aided his breakout success.
'When you combine radio airplay domination with TikTok virality, you've got the perfect combination for becoming the artist (or song) of the summer,' she said. 'His team is incredibly smart about release strategy — dropping hooky, emotionally resonant tracks right before summer, tapping into themes like heartbreak and nostalgia that soundtrack long drives and late nights.'
Wallen easily dominates summer every year because his songs play into the things we associate with the season — going out, driving a truck, drinking whiskey and so on. Dowling said these are common themes in country music because, unlike other genres, it 'remembers its history' and taps into that same iconography.
What people don't seem quick to remember, though, is Wallen's history of controversy. It's also possible that they've weighed his talent against it and decided that his music is more important than the things he's done.
'I think his fan base sees him as resilient, worthy of second (or third, or fourth) chances and as a survivor of so-called 'cancel culture' — which all feels to me like it mirrors what's happening in the political sphere,' Amy Crawford, vice president of creative development at branding agency MassiveMusic, told Yahoo Entertainment. 'His new album is titled I'm The Problem — he is marketing, and his fan base is rooting for his … redemption.'
There are a lot of people who would agree with Wallen's album title and wish he'd go away.
'Depending on where you fall on the ideological spectrum … he's somebody who should be gone. But then you hit play, and 'I'm the Problem' comes on, and you're stuck,' Dowling said. 'Fifteen seconds is all the [music streaming services] algorithm needs. You're done.'
You listen to 'Whiskey Glasses,' his first big hit, and then 'Broadway Girls,' a Lil Durk song he's featured on. Maybe you hear his previous songs of summer, 2023's 'Last Night' and 2024's 'I Had Some Help' featuring Post Malone, and you just keep listening.
'If you hit play, no matter what you think about this person, no matter what you think about race … or culture yourself, you're minimally going to give this song a spin,' Dowling said. 'And you're probably going to like it and play it again.'