Eric Church is speaking out in support of his friend, Morgan Wallen. In a recent interview with Variety, Church was quick to denounce Wallen’s use of a racial slur earlier this year, but was also willing to extend a bit of grace to the troubled singer.
“That was a heart-breaking thing, but Morgan — I know Morgan knows — that was unacceptable, and that he messed up,” Church said. “He’s working on himself. And I’m glad he’s doing that. Morgan is a good kid, a good artist, and in my opinion, could help lead this conversation if he does the right things. And I believe he will. He can help here. He could bring about real progress and change.”
In the aftermath of Wallen’s hateful words, Church sent Wallen a note telling him he was praying for him, while publicly standing in staunch opposition to Wallen’s word choice.
“That was indefensible,” Church told Billboard. “I was heartbroken when it happened. I think Morgan’s trying to work on that and on himself. And I hope he does.”
Wallen has been largely silent on social media since the video footage of him uttering a harmful racial word surfaced. After posting a lengthy video on social media, apologizing for his words, he remained silent for two months, until he posted a hand-written letter to his fans. More recently, Wallen shared a photo of him fishing with Church, captioning it simply, “Hang a sign on the door of my life.”
Hang a sign on the door of my life pic.twitter.com/bFMc2POPiJ
— morgan wallen (@MorganWallen) April 28, 2021
Church isn’t the only artist who has vowed to support Wallen, while condemning his actions. Jimmie Allen also has been in touch with Wallen, hoping to do all he can to help Wallen mend his ways.
“After it happened, I reached out to him, and we talked every day until he left,” Allen revealed on Bobby Bones’ Bobbycast podcast. “I just kept it at 100. I said, ‘Bro, no matter how drunk, whatever you did, there’s three things we can’t do. We can’t say the n-word if you ain’t black. You can’t say the f-word if you ain’t gay, and you can’t beat women. Three things.”
“Just because I don’t agree with what he said, doesn’t mean I should banish him … If we want to make the world a better place, we have to do the work, and the work is putting ourselves in uncomfortable situations,” he continued. “When Morgan said what he said, I had two choices: I could yell at him and bash at him on social media, or I could take some time and really process the whole thing, and look at who Morgan is, look at Morgan’s state of mind when he said that, look at Morgan’s history, the type of music he listens to.”