Nashville Council Overturns Morgan Wallen Bar Ruling

Morgan Wallen just scored a bit of a legal victory. The country singer, who was recently sentenced to seven days of incarceration following his April chair-throwing arrest, has been granted approval to place a large sign at the front of his downtown Nashville bar, Morgan Wallen’s This Bar and Tennessee Kitchen. Seven months after a permit application to install the 20-foot-tall sign was rejected, the Nashville Metro Council last month overturned the ruling, according to WSMV4.

Wallen, who opened his Broadway bar on June 1, first filed a permit application seeking permission to install the sign above This Bar and Tennessee Kitchen in May. However, the council voted 30-3 to deny the application, with four council members abstaining from the vote. In their rejection of the permit, council members cited Wallen’s controversial past, including his past use of a racial slur and his April 2024 arrest, which stemmed from an incident in which Wallen threw a chair from the rooftop of Eric Church’s Chief’s Bar on Broadway.

“I don’t want to see a billboard up with the name of a person who’s throwing chairs off of balconies and who is saying racial slurs,” council member Delishia Porterfield said, The Tennessean reported at the time.

Wallen has been something of a controversial figure in the country music industry. He was first swept up in controversy back in 2021 when TMZ posted a video of Wallen saying a racial slur. In the aftermath of the video’s release, Wallen’s music was pulled from numerous radio stations and streaming services, and his label, Big Loud, suspended his recording contract. Later addressing the incident on Good Morning America, the singer said he “didn’t mean it in any, in any derogatory manner at all” and was “not sure” what made him feel that he could use the word.

Just a few years later, Wallen again found himself surrounded by controversy, and in handcuffs, after his April chair-throwing incident. The singer was arrested and charged with three counts of reckless endangerment and disorderly conduct in connection to the incident. He ultimately pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of reckless endangerment, reduced from the three felonies he initially faced, and in December was sentenced to seven days of incarceration at a DUI education. He was also sentenced to two years of probation and must pay a $350 fine and court fees. If he completes the terms of his probation, his charges will be eligible for dismissal and expungement.