Morgan Wallen Speaks Out In First Interview Since Being Filmed Using Racial Slur

On Friday morning, country music star Morgan Wallen sat down with “Good Morning America” host Michael Strahan for his first interview since he was caught on camera using the N-word in February. He even revealed that he checked himself into rehab in the wake of the scandal.

Wallen Speaks Out For First Time Since N-Word Scandal

“I was around some of my friends and we say dumb stuff together. In our minds it’s playful, you know?” Wallen, 28, said of his scandal. “That sounds ignorant, but that’s really where it came from. And it’s wrong.”

While Wallen said that he did not use the N-word “frequently,” he added that he did use it many times around this “certain group of friends.”

Strahan then asked the singer if he understands why this racial slur “makes Black people so upset.”

“I don’t know how to put myself in their shoes because I’m not,” Wallen replied. “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.'”

BACK STORY: Racial Slur Gets Chart-Topping Country Music Star Morgan Wallen Banned From Radio

Wallen Checked Himself Into Rehab

In this same interview, Wallen confessed that he checked himself into rehab in the wake of this scandal.

“I went and checked myself into rehab for 30 days,” he said. “I spent some time out in San Diego, California, just trying to figure it out. Why am I acting this way?”  

Wallen also said that he has met with the BMAC (Black Music Action Coalition) as well as with various Black people in the music industry. 

“I heard some stories in the initial conversations that I had after that [incident], just about how people are treated even still today,” he said. “I haven’t seen that with my eyes, that pain or that insignificant feeling, whatever it is that makes you feel.”

BACK STORY: Country Music Star Morgan Wallen Breaks 64-Year Billboard Chart Record After N-Word Scandal

Wallen Donates Money To Civil Rights Groups

Despite the fact that Wallen was effectively blacklisted by the country music world immediately after this scandal broke, his sales skyrocketed as fans continued to rally behind him and show their support.

He told Strahan that he took the money that he made from the increased sales, which he claimed was around $500,000, and donated it to civil rights organizations. 

“I’m not ever gonna make, you know, everyone happy,” Wallen said. “I can only come tell my truth, and — and that’s all I know to do.”

As for whether he feels the country music world has a racism problem, Wallen said, “It would seem that way, yeah. I haven’t really sat and thought about that.”

While it was certainly wrong for Wallen to ever say the N-word, one can’t help but feel that this young man has been punished more than enough.

Here’s hoping that the liberal cancel culture will finally leave him alone now, and will allow him to move on with his career in peace.