Country star Morgan Wallen, at Luke Bryan's Friday concert in Nashville, made his first major concert appearance since being filmed using a racial slur in February.
According to USA Today, Wallen joined Bryan, Jason Aldean and Tyler Hubbard of Florida Georgia Line during the show's acoustic portion. The 28-year-old sang his 'Whiskey Glasses' and 'More Than My Hometown', and stayed onstage for Aldean's 'She's Country'.
Wallen's performance also appeared to come as a surprise to Bryan. "A really good friend of mine is here backstage tonight. I don't know if you know this," Aldean told him onstage. "Do I need another tequila shot to get through this?" Bryan asked.
The crowd cheered for a full minute as Wallen came down the catwalk, gave high fives to fans and handed shot glasses to Bryan, Hubbard and Aldean. "Only in Nashville," Aldean said.
"This is a song about staying true to yourself. And that's been a really hard thing for me to do lately, but here I am," Wallen said before playing 'Hometown'.
On February 2, TMZ had posted a video taken by one of Wallen's neighbours in front of the singer's Nashville home. In it, Wallen could be heard telling someone to "take care of this... (slur)," while being dropped off.
This incident then resulted in his removal from radio rotation, awards show ballots and streaming playlists, and ignited conversations on diversity and inclusion in the country music industry.
Wallen bowed out of all concerts in the wake of the incident, in fact, he was originally booked to join Bryan on his summer tour, including Friday's concert. But the singer has been steadily returning to the public eye in recent months.
As per USA Today, on July 23, he gave his first interview since the incident to a news outlet and said he "was just ignorant" about his use of the slur.
( With inputs from ANI )
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