Maren Morris Says Son Faced Death Threats After She Criticized Morgan Wallen Over Racial Slur
Maren Morris said that her infant son faced death threats after the singer criticized Morgan Wallen over his infamous use of a racial slur in 2021, with Morris opening up about the experience this week on Sophia Bush’s Work in Progress Podcast.
“The death threat portion for me as a young mother was, yeah, obviously scary,” she told Bush. “And it wasn’t death threats against me, it was against my son, too. It’s like ‘oh wow, now we’re involving the kids, the ones you cared so much about.’ It’s incredibly dangerous and scary, you open up a whole can of worms of crazy people and pundits that kickbox the hell out of you.”
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Wallen was caught saying the n-word on video in 2021, causing an avalanche of backlash from the general public as well as the music industry. “It actually IS representative of our town because this isn’t his first ‘scuffle’ and he just demolished a huge streaming record last month regardless,” Morris tweeted at the time. “We all know it wasn’t his first time using that word. We keep them rich and protected at all costs with no recourse.”
It actually IS representative of our town because this isn’t his first “scuffle” and he just demolished a huge streaming record last month regardless. We all know it wasn’t his first time using that word. We keep them rich and protected at all costs with no recourse.
— MAREN MORRIS (@MarenMorris) February 3, 2021
Wallen apologized, but the controversy left a lasting impact on his public perception. Still, it didn’t slow his career down much as he remains one of the biggest country artists in the world today. His albums One Thing At A Time and Dangerous: The Double Album remain two of the best-selling albums of 2024, even with the former being a year old and the latter being three years old.
Three years since her initial comments on the situation, Morris said she stands by her claims.
“I don’t regret it, I don’t apologize,” she said. “I feel the exact same way as I did that day. Would I maybe use the channels of Twitter again, probably not. There’s probably more dignified ways to get my point across, but it is what it is. Don’t be racist, don’t be transphobic, don’t be homophobic. The only thing that made me feel bad was realizing even in this community of music here in Nashville, who will go to bat for you or people of color? Who will go to bat for them?”
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