Why Morgan Wallen, back with new album ‘I'm the Problem,' is a controversy-proof country sensation: ‘A cultural lightning rod'
'I guess I'm the problem … If I'm so awful, then why'd you stick around this long?'
So asks Morgan Wallen on 'I'm the Problem,' the title-track hit of his fourth studio album, which dropped on Friday.
Clearly, the 32-year-old country sensation — who has taken the genre to the top of the pop charts in recent years — is as problematic as he is popular.
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6 Despite all of his controversies, Morgan Wallen is still the hottest thing in country music.
EB Media
But despite all his transgressions — from a video of him using the N-word in 2021 to hurling a chair off a rooftop bar last year to him abruptly bolting at the end of 'Saturday Night Live' in March — Wallen is still the hottest thing in country music.
Or, arguably, music period.
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Wallen's fans — of which there are enough to fill stadiums — are sticking around through all of the controversies that would have killed many a career. Instead, he has racked up three Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hits and 10 country chart-toppers.
Wallen represents a big part of the country that sees themselves in him — flaws, mullet and all.
'I think Morgan is very much a cultural lightning rod,' Holly Gleason — Nashville editor of Hits magazine – told The Post. 'It's the difference between how New York and LA and the flyover [between them] tend to view each other.'
6 Morgan Wallen has already racked up three pop and 10 country chart-toppers.
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Instead of getting canceled after his series of scandals — which began in 2020 with him being arrested after being kicked out of Kid Rock's Nashville bar and partying without a mask at the height of COVID — Wallen has only come back stronger.
And bigger. His new album is a 37-track opus — featuring guest appearances by Eric Church ('Number 3 and Number 7'), Tate McRae ('What I Want') and his 'I Had Some Help' partner Post Malone ('I Ain't Comin' Back') — that has already spawned four hits: 'Lies Lies Lies,' 'Love Somebody,' 'I'm the Problem' and the current single 'Just in Case.'
Yet the Sneedville, Tennessee native hasn't exactly embraced all of the trappings of his superstardom.
'I think Morgan has had one of the strangest relationships with fame,' said Gleason. 'Here is this Southern kid. He's got a mullet, chicks dig him. And then all of a sudden, the world crashed in … He's never been able to really settle into the fact that he is a public figure. Every time he goes out, it's all eyes on him.
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6 Wallen's 'I'm the Problem' is a 37-track LP featuring collaborations with Eric Church, Post Malone and Tate McRae.
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'He feels judged,'' Gleason continued. 'Morgan doesn't get a break, because if he leaves the house, you know, he's got a target on.'
At this point, Wallen is rolling with his rabid fanbase — and perhaps doesn't feel the need to appease the haters.
'He has been so publicly pilloried and judged without anyone trying to understand where he comes from or what his foundation is,' said Gleason. 'He probably does have a little bit of a chip on his shoulder or some anger about no one wanting to hear his side of the story.'
6 Morgan Wallen performed 'I'm the Problem' on 'Saturday Night Live' in March.
Will Heath/NBC via Getty Images
When the two-time musical guest bolted from 'Saturday Night Live' — forgoing the usual hugging and high-five-ing at the end — and posted 'Get me to God's country' as he boarded his private plane, Gleason said that it could just be simply that 'he may not like New York.'
Wallen himself recently said 'I was [just] ready to go home' on the podcast 'Sundae Conversation.'
'I'd been there all week.'
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6 Morgan Wallen abruptly exited from 'Saturday Night Live' at the end of the show in March.
NBC
Wallen has also had a bumpy relationship with awards shows, as the 'Last Night' singer was banned from the CMAs in 2021. This might explain why he didn't even show up when he won Entertainer of the Year in 2024. He also just ditched the ACMs, where he won Entertainer of the Year.
And despite all of his success, Wallen has yet to win any Grammys, only being nominated twice — for 'I Had Some Help,' his duet with Post Malone.
'I think Morgan has come to a place where he doesn't care about those awards anymore,' said Gleason. 'And I think once people know you're not going to show up and you don't care and you don't respect them, they're inclined to give the awards to somebody who does. They're not going to give an award to somebody who isn't breaking bread with them.'
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6 Morgan Wallen performed at the Stagecoach Festival in 2024.
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Still, Wallen clearly connects with a massive audience. And while 37 songs is a lot for anyone to digest on 'I'm the Problem,' there's enough here to keep Wallen's hot streak going. The guy knows his lane.
'He doesn't try to sing songs he doesn't understand,' said Gleason. 'His tone is like that guy you went to high school with who calls you one day because he's got to talk to somebody. He's a young man who is trying to figure it out.'
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As he sings on the introspective 'Superman' — one of the highlights of 'I'm the Problem' — he embraces the human imperfections that have a long history in country music: 'Don't always know my wrong from right/Sometimes I'm my own worst enemy/No, I don't always save the day.'
'When he sings, something about the tone in his voice is truly believable,' said Gleason. 'You can hear the flaws in his voice. You know this isn't a perfect individual.'
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