Council Rejects Morgan Wallen’s New Nashville Bar Signing, Citing His Past Behavior

The Nashville, Tennessee, city council rejected a bid to put up a sign for Morgan Wallen’s new bar, with council members citing his past controversies, including him using a racial slur and nearly punching people. police officers with a chair he threw off a Nashville roof. as reasons to reject the measure.

A resolution introduced Tuesday at Nashville’s Metropolitan Council meeting would have authorized 4th Avenue Property LLC, the bar’s ownership group, to hang a large neon sign at the downtown Nashville venue named Morgan Wallen’s This Bar and Tennessee Kitchen.

The resolution failed, with three council members voting yes, 30 no and four abstaining, denying Wallen and the businesses behind his bar the opportunity to hang a neon sign above the Broadway joint, which is expected to open its doors this Memorial Day weekend.

Representatives for Wallen declined a request for comment Wednesday. An attorney who appeared in business searches as a registered agent for 4th Avenue Property did not immediately respond to a phone call and email seeking comment Wednesday evening.

Council member Jacob Kupin, who introduced the resolution, took a moment to say it arrived on his desk around the same time Wallen was accused of throwing a chair off a roof in Nashville last month, nearly hitting first responders on the street.

After the chair-throwing incident, Wallen wrote on X that he was “not proud of my behavior” and that he had “the utmost respect for the officers who work every day to keep us safe.”

Kupin said he realizes the city would “put up a sign with the name of someone who hasn’t, you know, been a good actor downtown.”

Kupin acknowledged Wallen’s efforts to apologize, saying he favored the motion because of those efforts and because the restaurant group that supports the bar — TC Restaurant Group — has been easy to work with and has “worked on efforts to make downtown a safer place.” .”

Referring to Wallen, Kupin said, “Just because someone’s name is posted on a bar doesn’t mean we condone all that behavior. He added that “I don’t think the operator himself should be penalized for what happened.”

TC Restaurant Group did not immediately respond to a call and email seeking comment Wednesday evening.

Kupin ultimately asked his colleagues to support the measure, but said he just wanted to take a moment to talk about the circumstances before moving forward.

Later, under pressure from a colleague, Kupin again said he wanted to give third-party operators a fair chance to open and run the business, “but I also felt like I couldn’t let this individual slip away peacefully” because of the “things he said and did.”

Discussion around the resolution, which reached the floor with committee support, later turned negative, with other council members saying they could not support a massive sign bearing Wallen’s name after his past actions.

After confirming to Kupin that Wallen used a racial slur in 2021, at-large council member Delishia Porterfield said, “I will vote no against that,” citing a law passed earlier in the session “saying we wanted to make sure that Nashville was a supportive place for everyone.

“So I don’t want to see a billboard with the name of a person who is throwing chairs off balconies and saying racial slurs and using the N-word,” Porterfield said.

Two years after the racial slur incident, Wallen told Billboard there was “no excuse” for him to use the word. He said at the time, after speaking with a number of black leaders, that his process “to learn and try to be better” was ongoing.

Council member Brenda Gadd also said she would vote no, citing the same reasons as Porterfield and noting that Wallen “continues to get second chances.”

Council member Joy Smith Kimbrough echoed her colleagues’ sentiments, adding that she could not support the resolution out of respect for the officers who were nearly hit by Wallen’s toppled chair.

Council member Jordan Huffman went so far as to say that Wallen gives all East Tennesseans a “bad name.”

“His comments are hateful; his actions are harmful. And you don’t belong in this town, as far as I’m concerned,” Huffman said, encouraging his colleagues to vote against the resolution.