A 20-foot neon sign bearing Morgan Wallen’s name will not be built in downtown Nashville because of the country singer’s controversial past.
Morgan Wallen’s This Bar & Tennessee Kitchen is set to open in downtown Nashville this weekend and permission from the Nashville Metropolitan Council was required before installation on the restaurant’s sign began.
But the council voted overwhelmingly against installing the sign, with many taking offense at the prospect of publishing the name of an individual who has been in trouble with the law and has uttered racist slurs.
The motion was rejected by 30 council members, with only three voting in favor of the sign, according to The Tennessean. Four council members abstained.
“I don’t want to see a billboard with the name of someone throwing chairs off the balcony and saying racist slurs,” council member Delishia Porterfield said, according to the outlet.
A 20-foot sign bearing Morgan Wallen’s name will not be built in downtown Nashville because of the country singer’s controversial past.
A mock-up of the restaurant sign expected to open in Nashville this weekend
Council member Jordan Huffman also agreed with his statements, according to WSMV.com.
“I oppose that,” he said. “Number 1 – Mr. Wallen is an East Tennessean – he gives us all a bad name. His comments are hateful, his comments are harmful, and you have no place in this town, right now. that concerns me. I’m tired of this city bending over to make everyone happy who makes a comment they want. We continue on this path. I encourage my colleagues to vote against this.
Even the resolution’s sponsor, Jacob Kupin of District 19, had reservations about the sign. “It struck me that we were putting a sign with the name of someone who has not been a good actor downtown,” he said.
“I decided to seek approval for this because I support the efforts to move this bar forward…the restaurant group that runs this establishment, TC Restaurant Group, has been a really good partner in everything that is happening downtown,” he added.
TC Restaurant Group, the company that opened the restaurant, also operates other restaurants named after iconic country singers, including Jason Aldean’s Kitchen & Rooftop Bar and Casa Rosa Miranda Lambert.
Morgan Wallen’s This Bar & Tennessee Kitchen is set to open Memorial Day weekend.
Last month, Wallen was arrested after throwing a chair at a rooftop bar in downtown Nashville.
Wallen was charged with three counts of reckless endangerment and one misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct, with officers alleging the chair landed three feet away from them.
Wallen faced huge backlash in 2021 when TMZ posted a video of the singer saying the N-word to one of his friends after a night out.
The restaurant is operated by a third party establishment, TC Restaurant Group
After footage of Wallen using the racial slur went viral, many radio stations stopped playing his music and the Country Music Association removed Wallen’s appearances from their platforms.
Her songs were removed from Apple Music, Pandora and Spotify playlists because of the sandal.
Wallen’s label, Big Loud, has suspended its recording contract with him indefinitely.
The Academy of Country Music announced that Wallen and his most recent album at the time, Dangerous: The Double Album, would not be eligible for the 56th annual Academy of Country Music Awards.
Last month, Wallen made headlines after throwing a chair at cops from a downtown Nashville rooftop bar; photo from November 2023
In the week following the racism, Dangerous’ album sales jumped and digital sales increased by more than 100 percent.
It even stayed at the top of the Billboard charts for seven more weeks.
In April 2021, Wallen donated $300,000 to the Black Music Action Coalition on behalf of 20 people who had advised him after he used racial slurs.
Wallen spoke publicly about his comments on Good Morning America on July 23, where he said that “he was with some of his friends, and they say stupid stuff together” and said that “he was wrong” to express these words.
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