[12] He was a pitcher and shortstop for the school's baseball team, and hoped to continue in college, but tore his ulnar collateral ligament his senior year.

[14] Wallen has characterized his early adulthood as adrift; he worked in landscaping after high school and was disappointed by his inability to continue his baseball career.

[14] He had grown to love country music, especially artists like Keith Whitley and Eric Church, and he modeled his sound after that lineage.

[12] While in California to appear on The Voice, Wallen began working with Sergio Sanchez of Atom Smash, a vocal coach on the program.

[15] In 2015, Wallen signed to Panacea Records where he was joined by Dominic Frost on guitar and released the Stand Alone (EP) on August 24, 2015.

[18] Wallen co-wrote A Thousand Horses' single "Preachin' to the Choir",[13] Dallas Smith's "The Fall",[19] as well as Jason Aldean's "You Make It Easy" with Florida Georgia Line's Tyler Hubbard, Brian Kelley, and Jordan Schmidt.

[14] Wallen's debut studio album, If I Know Me, was released on April 27, 2018,[22] with its third single, "Whiskey Glasses", becoming his biggest success yet.

[24] Sanneh characterized "Whiskey Glasses" as his signature song and a "perfectly constructed ode to a woman and a drink, lost and found, respectively".

[25] His next single, "Chasin' You", was serviced to radio in July 2019 and peaked at number two on the Hot Country Songs chart;[26][6] like its predecessor, it captured the top spot on the overall year-end tally for 2020.

Wallen's profile continued to rise, with a growing following on platforms such as TikTok, and he developed into an unwitting sex symbol.

[34][35][36][37][38] Its singles—"More Than My Hometown", "7 Summers", "Sand in My Boots" and "Wasted on You"—were record-breaking hit songs that pushed Wallen farther into the national conversation.

[43] On February 2, 2021, TMZ released a video recorded on January 31 showing Wallen using the racial slur "nigger" to one of his friends after a night out.

In April 2021, Wallen donated $300,000 to the Black Music Action Coalition in the names of 20 people who had counseled him following the incident.

[54] Wallen publicly spoke of his comments on Good Morning America on July 23, where he said that "he was around some of his friends, and they say dumb stuff together" and said that "he was wrong" to express those words.

[60] Over the ensuing years, Dangerous remained a juggernaut; Ben Sisario, writing in The New York Times, dubbed it "an unusually enduring hit".

[74][75] On January 26, 2024, Panacea Records released a deluxe 10th anniversary edition of Morgan Wallen's 2015 EP Stand Alone that included eight previously unreleased songs.

[78] On May 2, 2024, Wallen announced his next single entitled "I Had Some Help" with Post Malone, which was released on May 10; the song later debuted atop the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

In September 2024, Wallen announced his second single from his upcoming fourth studio album, "Love Somebody", which was released on October 18;[80] It debuted at No.

[82] On December 31, 2024, Wallen surprise released a single he previously teased on his Instagram account titled "Smile.

"[83][84] On January 24, 2025, Wallen announced his fourth studio album, I'm the Problem, alongside a tour of the same name, and the release of the title track, which was previously teased on his Instagram as "I Guess".

[87] Wallen has also been romantically linked with influencer Paige Lorenze,[90] and fellow country singer Megan Moroney, who allegedly wrote her breakout song "Tennessee Orange" about him.

As a result of this, Wallen was cancelled as the musical guest on that week's episode of Saturday Night Live; he ultimately performed in an episode two months later hosted by actor Jason Bateman, in which Bateman, Wallen, and several cast members parody the incident and resulting fallout.

[97][98][99][100] On April 7, 2024, Wallen was arrested after allegedly throwing a chair off the roof of Eric Church's newly-opened bar on Broadway in Nashville, Chief's.

[101] In December 2024, Wallen pled guilty to two misdemeanor counts of reckless endangerment, with the other two charges being dismissed, and was sentenced to serve seven days in a DUI education center, and two consecutive years of supervised probation.