Darius Rucker is wrong that country music hasn't forgiven Morgan Wallen

While promoting his new book “Life’s Too Short,” country artist Darius Rucker made a recent appearance on Rolling Stone’s “Music Now” podcast, hosted by Rolling Stone senior writer Brian Hiatt.

The conversation was wide-ranging, from Rucker’s early career to politics, but the part of the interview that’s caught internet attention is his staunch support of Morgan Wallen. When asked by Hiatt whether Wallen had been forgiven for using the n-word in February 2021 — an incident that was caught on tape and went quickly viral — Rucker was unequivocal.

“You know, he’s not forgiven,” he said. “Morgan’s still not out for CMAs and ACMs, when, they can say what they want, but the fact that Morgan Wallen’s not up for entertainer of the year and those things is crazy … But that’s society.”

Now, inaccuracy aside (Wallen was nominated for CMA Entertainer of the Year in both 2022 and 2023, losing to Luke Combs and Lainey Wilson, respectively), it’s important to remember Rucker’s privilege in country music, a privilege he’s been granted in spite of his Blackness.

Rucker's privilege blinds him to reality of the country music industry

Rucker had already won legions of white fans as the front man of Southern rock band Hootie and the Blowfish before ever stepping foot in Nashville; moreover, he’s a man. Across the music industry, gender is still an issue that determines opportunities and pay, but it is perhaps most pronounced in country.

On the whole, Black men still lag white women in every measurable statistic, from radio spins to representation among label and publisher staff, but history proves that if there is to be a departure from whiteness on country music charts and among industry award recipients — two of the primary indicators of mainstream success — it will most certainly be with a man. And if that man has already proven himself likeable and safe to the same white audience country music courts? Even better.

Perhaps it is this privilege that blinds Rucker to the realities of the industry in which he, like Wallen, is a certified star. He knows racism as slurs to ignore en route to the top of the charts, or as Dixie flags waving wildly in the audiences of festivals he headlines. He doesn’t know it as closed doors that were never going to open. He doesn’t even consider the Black musicians and songwriters and producers who never had the chance to work with him, or the Black artists whom he never called to be supporting acts on his tours.

And perhaps it is why he doesn’t understand that, for many people, myself included, Morgan Wallen’s n-word was less about Morgan Wallen than the industry that allowed it — temporary wrist slap aside.

Despite receiving a suspension from his label and having his songs pulled from country radio and streaming playlists, the post-slur Wallen was far more popular than the previous iteration, quickly becoming an avatar for the straight, white Man’s Man increasingly “canceled” by a society gone irredeemably woke.

But this soaring popularity meant that canceling Wallen was impossible, and not just because eager supporters downloaded and streamed his songs into oblivion, sending his “Dangerous: The Double Album” to the top of Billboard’s all-genre charts and holding it there for months. Wallen’s wayward star was so bright it pulled in a motley crew of supporters, from Rucker to alt-country icon Eric Church, NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning to a handful of Black men either outside the industry or operating on its periphery, all willing to vouch for Wallen’s Not Racism — and maybe hitch their career train to his along the way.

Morgan Wallen's industry acceptance is undeniable

By the time Black rapper Lil Durk brought Wallen on stage at Bridgestone Arena for Nashville’s MLK Freedom Fest on January 15, 2022 (less than one year after video of his slur went viral), country music vis-à-vis Morgan Wallen had been safely returned to its status quo.

Significantly, the Academy of Country Music gave Wallen the ACM Milestone Award during the 15th Annual ACM Honors ceremony, which aired on August 24, 2022. According to the Academy, the award is given for “specific, unprecedented, or outstanding achievement in the field of Country Music during the preceding calendar year,” a notable detail given that the preceding calendar year was 2021, the year Wallen’s slur was caught on tape.

The decision to give Wallen the award was so controversial that it led to the departure of several members of the ACM's diversity task force and its inaugural “LEVel Up: Lift Every Voice” program, “a two-year professional development and enrichment curriculum for rising leaders in Country Music.”

Call it forgiveness of Wallen, or simply an unwillingness to ignore the industry behemoth (and cash cow) that Wallen had become, but the Academy pressed forward anyway, ignoring the concerns of the very people it had entrusted to help lead the purportedly progressive organization into a more diverse future.

Rucker's comments on Wallen are a slap in the face to Black creatives

Yet none of this seems to matter to Rucker, who also made no mention of the rumors surrounding Wallen’s continued substance abuse. It’s an issue that Wallen himself said was at the root of his viral slur — and which unnamed sources say contributed to him throwing a chair from the roof of Eric Church’s Broadway bar Chief’s in April.

Rucker said only that, in the years since the n-word video hit the internet, Wallen has “tried to really better himself.” That could very well be true. In 2021, following Wallen’s redemption tour stop on ABC’s Good Morning America (during which he told Michael Strahan that he hadn’t really thought much about racism in country music), I wrote that “[n]o one can claim to be Wallen’s judge, jury, or Jesus.”

I still stand by that statement. I also understand Rucker’s willingness to extend Wallen grace, given his own history of substance abuse. But I can’t reconcile Rucker’s suggestion that a lack of Entertainer of the Year wins is somehow indicative of an industry unwilling to forgive Morgan Wallen, a man whose “One Thing at a Time” album moved the equivalent of 5.4 million units just last year.

I also can't abide what amounts to a slap in the face of countless Black creatives who’ve never had a fraction of Wallen’s acceptance or opportunity.

Industry worries that leaning into diversity may hurt country music base

In the interview, Rucker did mention a handful of Black country artists he enjoys. Among them: Shaboozey — who appears fully prepared to ride his "Cowboy Carter" attention until the wheels fall off, deftly switching from an artist who features a group of white extras dancing in front of a truck in his music video to one who performs with rapper J’Kwon on a Black honky tonk set at the BET Awards — and Chapel Hart.

You might remember Chapel Hart as the familial trio who took scored a coveted Golden Buzzer on “America’s Got Talent” in 2022 and amassed millions of fans. But you might not know that, despite their wild success on the show, they’ve been virtually ignored by the mainstream industry. There is no record deal for them, no publishing deal or regular invitations to perform on industry award shows.

In a line of thinking similar to Tractor Supply’s recent abandonment of DEI initiatives, there has always been concern among industry executives that leaning too far into diversity — or, really, to lean at all — would anger or abandon country music’s core base, which is, of course, the base upon which Wallen’s superstardom has been built.

For Rucker, this was never an issue. In the interview with Hiatt, he mentioned being unconcerned about these barriers, that he never wanted to pay attention to the lack of Black faces or the gatekeepers who would “not let you in.”

“Even in country, I wasn’t thinking this success,” he said, “I really wasn’t, because we looked at [it] on paper, [and] I wasn’t gonna have this success.”

Ultimately, however, success is what he got.

If only other Black creatives could be so fortunate.

Andrea Williams is an opinion columnist for The Tennessean and curator of the Black Tennessee Voices initiative. She has an extensive background covering country music, sports, race and society. Email her at [email protected] or follow her on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @AndreaWillWrite.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Darius Rucker incorrectly thinks Morgan Wallen hasn't been forgiven