Morgan Wallen is reckless, but Nashville should’ve approved his honky-tonk sign

Nashville’s Metro Council has a right to be perturbed at country music superstar Morgan Wallen.

The artist is reckless, clueless and petulant, and the addition of his new honky-tonk This Bar and Tennessee Kitchen at 107 Fourth Avenue North, which opens on Memorial Day Weekend, will only enhance Lower Broadway’s reputation as unsafe, unhinged and unwieldy.

His arrest in April for allegedly throwing a chair from the rooftop of Chief’s honky-tonk and nearly hitting a police officer only adds to his storied boorish behavior, including famously getting caught using a racial slur on a video camera.

But every citizen in America is protected by the First Amendment, even Morgan Wallen. The council’s decision to reject the sign 30-3 may come back to bite Nashville.

By denying This Bar’s request to place a 20-foot sign protruding from the bar over the sidewalk, council members are risking pushback – both legally and in the court of public opinion, where Wallen’s fame has only soared with every controversy and attempt to silence or marginalize him.

Frankly, the overwhelmingly vote to rebuke Wallen was great publicity for This Bar.

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Tourism is flourishing in Nashville and we can thank the honky-tonks

In 2019, the Metro Council voted 27-3 to allow Kid Rock's Big Ass Honky Tonk Rock N' Roll Steakhouse on 221 Broadway to erect a tasteless 20-foot sign featuring a guitar shaped at the bottom like a woman’s posterior.

This Bar’s sign is boring and tame by comparison.

Broadway is enormously popular with visitors. It’s a golden goose for Nashville, which has seen tourism soar.

According to a Nashville Convention and Visitors Corp. fact sheet proved to The Tennessean, tourism grew from 12.6 million visitors in 2018 to an estimated 16.27 million in 2024 – a 28% growth in just six years. Nashville had the best post-COVID recovery of any American city’s downtown and its visitor numbers are higher than ever.

Broadway, with its bevies of bachelorettes, party buses and live music are certainly key to that success and there are many far less controversial artists who have licensed their name to a Lower Broadway bar, including Garth Brooks, Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton.

The March death of University of Missouri student Riley Strain exposed the excesses of “NashVegas.” He became inebriated, got separated from his friends and his body was found weeks later in the Cumberland River.

Riley Strain should’ve been home safe. Instead he’s another casualty of Nashville’s party scene.

The city is working on efforts to control the party, and Benton McDonough, director of the Mayor’s Office of Nightlife, has highlighted on X, formerly Twitter, some of the efforts to address the problems, such as, distributing Narcan kits at bars to combat drug overdoses.

There is so much more to Nashville than drunken revelry

As a Nashville resident for 10 years, I typically do not go to downtown on weekend nights to avoid the throngs of people and traffic congestion.

However, I enjoy taking visitors to the eateries and museums including the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, the National Museum of African American Music and the Johnny Cash Museum.

My experience in Music City has allowed me to savor performances at The Ryman Auditorium by artists including Dolly Parton, Cindy Lauper and Vince Gill.

I once ate at Kid Rock’s honky-tonk with my friend Grace King, who dinged me for criticizing him regarding the to-do that led to his withdrawing as Nashville Christmas parade grand marshal in 2018.

Last year, I rode a party bus for a friend’s birthday – it was a lot of fun.

But I am concerned about the image of Nashville as a hard-partying town in a state of a permanent drunken stupor.

There is so much more to this city, including, the great parks, cultural attractions and small music venues.

The last time I wrote about Morgan Wallen was after his recent arrest and CBS Mornings invited me to talk about my column.

I said he was like a cat with nine lives, and I suspect he will survive this snub by the Metro Council.

But, boy, do I wish he would make a real effort to leave behind his foolish ways.

David Plazas is the director of opinion and engagement for the USA TODAY Network Tennessee. He is an editorial board member of The Tennessean. He hosts the Tennessee Voices videocast and curates the Tennessee Voices and Latino Tennessee Voices newsletters. Call him at (615) 259-8063, email him at [email protected] or find him on X at @davidplazas.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Morgan Wallen’s honky tonk gets undue pushback, publicity in Nashville