Some non-country listeners first heard about Wallen in the beginning of October, when “Saturday Night Live” announced that he would be the musical guest on an upcoming episode. A new single helped him maintain his radio ubiquity, and his homebound fans made him a TikTok favorite, reacting to snippets of songs and recording their own versions. Wallen was alarmed when the live-music industry shut down in March, but 2020 has turned out to be the best year of his career. An innocuous photograph of him leaning against a truck recently drew nearly half a million likes on Instagram, and almost ten thousand comments, including a prayerful declaration from a young mother in South Carolina: “Lord have mercy im bout to bust.” Through this process, Wallen became not just a singer but a character-and, in a development that seems to have surprised many Nashville professionals, a sex symbol, beloved by an army of fans who appear to be disproportionately female and thirsty. The music video depicts a fictionalized version of the makeover that Wallen underwent after “The Voice.” He rips off the sleeves of a plaid flannel shirt and shaves the sides of his long hair, transforming himself into an Everyman rock star: Bruce Springsteen meets Larry the Cable Guy, crowned with a glorious mullet. His signature hit, “Whiskey Glasses,” is a perfectly constructed ode to a woman and a drink, lost and found, respectively: “I’m a need some whiskey glasses / ’Cause I don’t wanna see the truth.” According to Billboard, it was the top country-radio song of 2019. These days, Wallen is a country-music star. He began thinking about that question, too. “They’d be, like, Where are you from?” he recalls. “It’s as manly as it gets.” Even so, Wallen was eliminated a month later, and he returned to Tennessee with a slightly higher profile, a few industry connections, and a newfound awareness that he had what many Californians considered a thick Southern accent. “Your voice is unique-it has this raspy tone, gritty sound to it,” she said. He auditioned with a husky version of “Collide,” an earnest ballad from the two-thousands, which impressed Shakira, one of the celebrity judges. for the taping, and he was unsure what kind of singer he wanted to be. Wallen had never been on an airplane until he flew to L.A. “I’m just a normal small-town kid, and I really don’t have a clue how to get into music-other than this,” he said. He was wearing a tie and a cardigan, with shoulder-length hair and most of a beard, and he explained that his promising baseball career had been ended, during his senior year in high school, by a debilitating injury to his ulnar collateral ligament. He was standing on a stage in Los Angeles, competing for a spot on “The Voice,” one of those reality shows in which established stars offer aspiring ones a chance to discover, first hand, just how heartbreaking the music industry can be. “My name is Morgan Wallen, I’m twenty years old, I’m from Knoxville, Tennessee, and I’m currently a landscaper,” he said. Nearly seven years ago, a shaggy singer with a shy smile introduced himself to America. Photograph by Kristine Potter for The New Yorker Wallen is scheduled to perform next on April 27 in Grand Rapids, Michigan.Wallen has become a singer, a character, and, to the surprise of many Nashville professionals, an online sex symbol. Refunds for tonight’s event will be available at point of purchase.” Please make your way safely to the stadium exits. Instead, ticketholders were greeted with an announcement on a screen near the stage reading: “Ladies & Gentlemen, Unfortunately Morgan has lost his voice and is unable to perform tonight – therefore tonight’s show has been cancelled. He was set to take the stage at the University of Mississippi Rebels’ Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in Oxford, Mississippi. I am so sorry, I promise you guys I tried everything I could.” I really thought I’d be able to take the stage and it kills me to deliver this so close to showtime, but my voice is shot and I am unable to sing,” he wrote on social media, adding, “All tickets will be refunded at point of purchase. “After last night’s show I started losing my voice so I spent the day resting up, talking to my doctor and working through my vocal exercises trying to get better. The country star, who is just 11 dates into his seven-month global tour, told fans that he spoke to his doctor and has been told he is unable to sing. Morgan Wallen is taking vocal rest and canceling tour dates after losing his voice.
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