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Darius Rucker Believes It’s Time To Forgive Morgan Wallen

Darius Rucker thinks it is time for the music industry to forgive Morgan Wallen for his racial slur in early 2021. He said just that on a recent Rolling Stone…

Darius Rucker performed in a black sweater, and Morgan Wallen performed in a ball cap and black jacket.
kevin Winter, Michael Locassiano/Getty Images

Darius Rucker thinks it is time for the music industry to forgive Morgan Wallen for his racial slur in early 2021. He said just that on a recent Rolling Stone podcast.

Morgan was caught on camera saying a string of profanities, including the N-word. After the footage came out, the country star immediately apologized, saying in a statement, "I used an unacceptable and inappropriate racial slur that I wish I could take back. There are no excuses to use this type of language, ever. I want to sincerely apologize for using the word. I promise to do better."

Fast-forward three years, and Rucker told the podcast while promoting his new book that he believes Morgan has "become a better person" since 2021. He has known Wallen for a long time, and he has "tried to really better himself."

Darius went on to say, "He's still not out for CMAs and ACMs. They can say what they want, but the fact that Morgan Wallen is not up for Entertainer of the Year and those things is crazy. No one's selling more tickets than Morgan."

Rucker added that the racial slur is something that lot of people use "flippantly." And even if they say they don't mean it in a "derogatory way." He noted that it is "shocking how prevalent it is" and that "racism still lives strong in some people."

The singer released his memoir Life's Too Short in May, and fans wanting to know about his life in the music business and beyond will get the real stories straight from the source.

Darius told us that he wanted the book to be 100% legit. He said, "For me, I don't know how other people do it, but I always said that if I ever write a book, I was going to be as honest as I could be."

He confessed, "There's some over-the-top stuff, but I just wanted to tell the story. I wanted people to understand the hard stuff and the good stuff."

"So when I was writing the book, I wanted you to read it like you were sitting at a bar, and I was telling you my life story. That's how we wrote, and that's how we wanted it to be."

He offered some advice to other artists who want to write a book: "Now that it's done, I would tell other artists to just be honest with themselves and write it like they are telling the story."

Nancy Brooks has been working in the country music industry for almost 30 years. She has interviewed pretty much any country star you can think of. In the late 1990s, she started working with Dolly Parton. And yes, Nancy reports that Parton is as sweet as you would think. She loves her life in country music and has been backstage at every CMA Awards show since the late 1990s. Many of her stories are from her one-on-one interviews. She was there at the beginning of the incredible careers of many music superstars today, including Taylor Swift, Shania Twain, and Blake Shelton, and has interviewed them multiple times throughout the years.