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Morgan Wallen spoke to Michael Strahan about that racial slur video in a new interview for “Good Morning America”.
The country singer, who was caught on camera using the N-word and other vulgar language in a video shared by TMZ in February, insisted he was “ignorant” and drunk at the time, admitting “it just happened.”
“I was around some of my friends, and we just… we say dumb stuff together. And it was — in our minds, it’s playful… that sounds ignorant, but it — that’s really where it came from… and it’s wrong.”
Wallen told Strahan he didn’t say the racial slur “frequently” in the past but admitted to acting like that around a “certain group of friends.”
However, he said he “didn’t mean it any, in any derogatory manner at all.”
RELATED: Eric Church Addresses Morgan Wallen Using N-Word: ‘That Was Indefensible’
Wallen described the contents of the video: “It’s one of my best friends — he was, we were all clearly drunk — I was asking his girlfriend to take care of him because he was drunk and he was leaving.
“I think I was just ignorant about it. I don’t think I sat down and was, like, ‘Hey, is this right or is this wrong?’”
.@ABC NEWS EXCLUSIVE: “In our minds it’s playful. That sounds ignorant — but that’s really where it came from and it’s wrong.” @MorganWallen speaks with @michaelstrahan about being caught on video using a racial slur. https://t.co/PXMd3zA5En pic.twitter.com/FuJgcfl7vi
— Good Morning America (@GMA) July 23, 2021
Wallen, who was dropped by his record label and talent agency after the scandal, shared how he’s since spoken to organizations such as the Black Music Action Coalition (BMAC), as well as record executive Kevin Liles; Eric Hutcherson, executive vice-president and chief people and inclusion officer at Universal Music Group (UMG); and gospel singer BeBe Winans.
“I’ve heard some stories in the initial conversations that I had after that — just how some people are, you know, treated even still today, and I’m just, like, I haven’t seen that with my eyes — that pain or that insignificant feeling or whatever it is that it makes you feel.”
He said when questioned if he knew why the slur makes Black people so upset, “I don’t know how to put myself in their shoes because I’m not… 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 — he doesn’t understand.’”
.@michaelstrahan: “I’ve been called it…do you understand why it makes Black people so upset?”
Country Music star @MorganWallen sits down for his first interview since he was caught on tape using a racial slur. https://t.co/92TtmATFC6 pic.twitter.com/x1oHq9JNYf
— Good Morning America (@GMA) July 23, 2021
After the video emerged, Wallen checked himself into a rehab facility.
“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? Do I have a deeper issue?”
.@ABC NEWS EXCLUSIVE: @MorganWallen reveals to @michaelstrahan he spent 30 days in rehab following the incident and he says he donated the money from his spike in album sales to Black organizations. https://t.co/PXMd3zA5En pic.twitter.com/BAZI4uFXXf
— Good Morning America (@GMA) July 23, 2021
Wallen also said he’d donated the money from the increase in sales from his album Dangerous: The Double Album, which is still doing incredibly well in the charts.
“Before this incident my album was already doing well,” Wallen admitted. “It was already being well received by critics and by fans. Me and my team noticed that whenever this whole incident happened that there was a spike in my sales. So we tried to calculate what the number of — how much it actually spiked from this incident.”
“We got to a number somewhere around $500,000, and we decided to donate that money to some organizations — BMAC being the first one.”
When asked about people questioning why he’s speaking now, Wallen told Strahan: “I’m not ever gonna make, you know, everyone happy. I can only come tell my truth, and — and that’s all I know to do.”
Wallen shared of whether he thinks the country music industry has a race problem, “It would seem that way, yeah. I haven’t really sat and thought about that.”
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