Morgan Wallen has a terrible reputation with the Nashville city council, and his mom is not happy about it. Last month, Nashville Metro Council members denied a request for installing a sign for Wallen’s new establishment, This Bar and Tennessee Kitchen, due to his past controversies, and their decision is not sitting right with his mother, Lesli.
According to PEOPLE, the “Last Night” singer’s mom took to Instagram to share a photo of the crowd from one of Wallen’s sold-out shows at Nashville’s Nissan Stadium, and she tagged the city in the post. In a separate shared post by music outlet Country Chord, Lesli weighed in, down in the comments, writing, “Way to go Morgan, the city of Nashville says ‘Thank you for all of your help bringing in millions of revenue.’”
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Notably, Lesli is correct that the city has partially benefited from Wallen’s concerts, as Nashville’s tourism department recently noted: “The city’s popularity as a leisure destination was underscored earlier this month with a record-breaking weekend for hotels on May 3-4, which included Morgan Wallen concerts at Nissan Stadium, numerous college and university graduations, and a Nashville Predators playoff game.” But still, Nashville tourists already spend “an average of $29 million a day,” so Wallen’s individual impact on on the city’s tourism revenue is not particularly vital.
Wallen has had a string of controversies surrounding his nights out in Nashville, but the most recent came in mid-April when he was arrested after throwing a chair off the rooftop of Eric Church’s bar, Chiefs. Wallen was taken into police custody and booked into Nashville Metro Jail, according to WKRN. He was released from jail sometime later, with the Metro Nashville Police Department announcing that his bond was $15,520.
During a Metro Nashville council meeting on May 21, more than two dozen members voted “no” on development company 4th Avenue Property LLC’s application to install an “aerial encroachment” at Wallen’s This Bar and Tennessee Kitchen, located at 107 4th Ave North.
At the time, Councilwoman At Large Delishia Porterfield explained why she voted “no” by referencing Wallen’s past behavior. “We want 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’s throwing chairs off of balconies and who is saying racial slurs, using the n-word, so I’m voting no,” she said.
