“People Came To Their Senses”: HARDY on How the Country World Changed Its Stance on Morgan Wallen

HARDY has opened up about how he feels the country music community changed its approach to Morgan Wallen in the years following his 2021 racial slur incident.

While chatting to Rolling Stone, HARDY shares that, in his mind, the “big companies” and outlets that had blacklisted Wallen following the incident later “came to their senses”.

The ‘wait in the truck’ hitmaker begins, “I mean...I can tell you tell you what I honestly think. Big companies were really hard on him early on. A lot of it is that people feel like they owe him because he made a mistake, especially the big one that we all know”.

It seems HARDY is referring to Wallen's 2021 controversy, where he was filmed calling one of his friends a racial slur via a neighbour's front-porch camera following a night of drinking. It led to Wallen's music being banned from an array of Country Radio stations, as well as being removed from Apple Music and Spotify's top country playlists. His label, Big Loud Records, suspended him, and he was blocked from participation in country awards shows such as the CMAs and ACMs.

HARDY highlights how, when a number of these platforms realised just how great Wallen's music was and how popular he was becoming, they had to change their outlook.

The Mississippi native, who has penned an array of hits with Wallen such as ‘Up Down’, ‘More Than My Hometown’ and ‘Sand in My Boots’, outlines, “They banned him for a while. They literally banned him from the radio. I just think people came to their senses and they were like, we made a mistake, this guy is really good and maybe we should give him a chance. And I think the floodgates just opened”.

When the host of Rolling Stone's Nashville Now podcast, Joseph Hudak, asks HARDY, “Did that buoy some of [Wallen's] success?”, he emphasises, “Some of it, not all of it”.

The ‘A ROCK’ singer-songwriter concludes, “First and foremost, he's incredibly talented. He's an amazing singer, he's an amazing songwriter and if he doesn't write the song, he cuts amazing songs. He's a great performer. But I think a lot of it was a lot of platforms and people that were like, man, we were a little too hard on this guy. I think we should show him some love, and yeah, that's just what I think”.

HARDY has been a champion of Wallen's throughout his numerous controversies, from the racial slur to the chair-throwing, with HARDY still one of Wallen's closest friends within the country sphere, along with their frequent co-writer, ERNEST.

It's interesting to consider HARDY's comments - which were made last year - in light of Wallen being largely absent from the 2026 CMA Awards nominations roster. He appears just once, courtesy of his Ella Langley collaboration, ‘I Can't Love You Anymore’.

It seems there is some truth in HARDY's argument that, after ‘missing out’ on Wallen airplay for so long, numerous platforms could be accused of overcompensating - perhaps even as a way of currying favour with the biggest artist in the genre - as they realised Wallen wasn't just going to disappear if they stopped playing him.

But also, as HARDY aptly points out, the key factor in it all has to be put down to Wallen's talent. This is the reason that even when it seemed the entire country music infrastructure was being wielded against him, he was still pulling in colossal streams. His 2021 album, Dangerous, was the Top Billboard 200 Album of the 21st century.

It's undoubtedly important to acknowledge the role of the volte-face many platforms and outlets performed later in 2021, as well as the heightened notoriety Wallen gained through the controversy. All publicity is good publicity, as the old adage goes.

But we must always add the caveat that, if a mediocre artist was being given this same spotlight and infamy, they wouldn't have been able to break through the walls put up around them. Wallen, on the other hand, had built - and continues to build - a staunchly loyal fanbase that was willing to propel him back onto radio.

Now, he's one of Country Radio's most successful artists, with each new single a surefire No. 1. It remains to be seen whether Nashville's awards show circuit will catch up, too.