Morgan Wallen's Phoenix concert was a hot, sweaty, sold-out celebration of hits

Ed Masley, Arizona Republic

July 22, 2023 at 3:25 AM·6 min read

Morgan Wallen is clearly enjoying his moment as the biggest country singer on the planet.

The two sold-out concerts that brought him to Chase Field in Phoenix on July 19-20 are part of a tour in support of this year’s biggest album, "One Thing at a Time,” which has spent a record-breaking 15 weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s album chart, the most any album has managed in this entire decade.

And as Wallen took great joy in sharing with the fans who crowded into Chase Field on July 20, he was told he’d broken the attendance record for back-to-back nights in that venue, which seats more than 48,000.

What was up with the Chase Field air conditioning?

He also noted that he’d never done a concert wearing shorts before.

“It feels like they might actually have the AC on here tonight, so y’all are luckier than the people last night,” he said, with a grin. “This is my first time I ever wore shorts on stage because last night I was soaking wet when I got done and I didn’t like it too much.”

Morgan Wallen on stage at Chase Field wearing a Pat Tillman jersey

As the audience cheered, Wallen added that it was “still pretty damn hot,” a statement that could not have been more accurate, especially with all those flames shooting out of the stage.

And yet, for all the fireworks and flames, what ultimately filled the room was Wallen’s self-assured delivery of his songs in that whiskey-soaked Tennessee twang that made it feel like he was singing just for you.

Half the songs in Morgan Wallen's set were from 'One Thing at a Time'

He wasn’t shy about shining a spotlight on his latest album, which accounted for 12 of the 24 songs in his performance, holding back on "Last Night," his first No. 1 on Billboard's Hot 100, for the encore.

He opened with a pyro-laden “Up Down,” the first of four songs from his first full-length release, 2018’s “If I Know Me,” and sprinkled in seven selections from “Dangerous: The Double Album.”

Morgan Wallen onstage at Chase Field in Phoenix on Thursday, July 20.

He also brought two of his openers — Hardy and Ernest — back on stage to join him on “He Went to Jared” and “Cowgirls” respectively.

And after bringing his encore to a spirited conclusion with the biggest country single of 2019, "Whiskey Glasses," while wearing a Pat Tillman jersey, Wallen stayed behind a good five minutes longer than his bandmates, signing autographs for fans down in front as people filed out of the ballpark.

As he told the crowd before "'98 Braves," "I thought I'd be playing ball in one of these things, not singing music, but I think I like this even more."

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Morgan Wallen's highlights included 'Sand in My Boots' and 'Thought You Should Know'

I would argue that he could’ve done a few more songs from “Dangerous,” a 2021 release that holds the record for most weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s Country Album charts.

But at least he cherry-picked a handful of the album’s most enduring songs, from “More Than My Hometown” and “Wasted on You” to the mournful rendition of “Sand in My Boots” that closes the bonus edition of that album, with Wallen accompanying himself on an upright piano that had his name emblazoned on the back.

“Sand in My Boots” was arguably the concert’s emotional centerpiece, but a solid case could be made for the new album’s “Thought You Should Know,” a Miranda Lambert co-write that he said he’d written for his mama.

That heartfelt ballad clearly hit home for the singer with its chorus “I thought you should know/ That all those prayers you thought you wasted on me/ Must've finally made their way on through.”

The evolution of Morgan Wallen

It’s no secret that Wallen has lived a life that would’ve tried the patience of most mamas.

His career was temporarily derailed in early 2021 by his drunken shouting of a racial slur, captured on video outside his Nashville home.

Wallen’s label suspended his contract while Spotify, SiriusXM, Pandora, Apple Music, CMT and the nation's most powerful radio chains — Cumulus Media, Entercom and iHeartMedia, the largest U.S network — pulled his music.

Wallen responded by retreating from the spotlight; entering rehab; donating money to assorted charities, including the Black Music Action Coalition and the National Museum of African American Music; urging fans not to defend him; and apologizing for his actions.

Two years later, he’s more popular than ever. But the asterisk remains.

Not that it seemed to make the slightest bit of difference to the folks who came out Thursday night in Phoenix as he led the crowd in one spirited singalong after another in a set that kept the focus squarely on drinking songs, love songs and songs about trying to make your mama proud while also wishing you could have another drink.

The performative small-town resentment you get with the likes of Jason Aldean — the ham-fisted gospel of "us" against "them" — was nowhere to be found in Wallen’s set. His depictions of life in a small town are closer in spirit to John Cougar Mellencamp’s “Small Town” than Aldean's belligerent “Try That in a Small Town.”

Did he say a word that never should’ve left a white man’s mouth? He did. And there is no excuse for that.

But Wallen wasn’t fanning any flames in Phoenix. He could not have been more apolitical as he kept the concert squarely focused on the universal themes of country music that predate the absurdly divisive political flags they sell at Country Thunder Arizona.

This was a guy who just wanted to sing about drinking and heartache — and drinking and heartache — and trying as best he can to be a better Morgan Wallen.

It’s something he does really well. In a way that could not feel more human. Or more honest. Which is how he got to be the biggest country singer on the planet.

There are those who swear his popularity was somehow fueled by what he said that night. But there was nothing in Wallen’s performance — or the crowd’s reaction — to suggest that that had anything to do with what brought all those people out to Chase Field.

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