Morgan Wallen was born in Sneedville, Tennessee, outside of Knoxville. His father was a Southern Baptist pastor and Morgan got his first taste of music as a 3-year-old, singing during church services for his father's congregation.
As a child, Wallen took piano and violin lessons, and he grew up enjoying music. However, sports were his first love, and he had aspirations of making it a career. "As soon as I was old enough to move and walk, I went straight to sports," he said. "My mom said I never even played with toys. I remember playing with little army men for a second, but as soon as that was over it was just basketball, baseball, football - any kind of ball."
Wallen was offered a scholarship to play baseball in college but an elbow injury during his senior year of high school put paid to his plans.
After his baseball college aspirations had been derailed, Wallen was unsure what to do with his life, but once he picked up a guitar and started singing around his home, he found his calling.
"I was kind of mad at the world, mad at God even because I had put my whole life into baseball and it just got taken away," Wallen recalled. "So I went through a little period of trying to figure it out and ask myself questions, ask everybody questions, and I just prayed and said I need a sign to what I need to do. I started playing guitar and started writing my own songs - just country songs, just G, C and D pretty much. Just singing them around my mom and she signed me up for The Voice."
During his audition for the 2014 season of
The Voice, Wallen performed Howie Day's song "
Collide," which caught the attention of celebrity judge Usher. He competed as part of Usher's team,
performing "Story Of My Life". Later, Wallen was part of Adam Levine's team, and although he was eliminated during the playoffs round, his fate was sealed. Wallen took the fact that he ended up making it onto the show to be a sign that his future lay in music.
After moving to Nashville in 2015, Wallen inked a deal with Big Loud Records, a label owned by record producer Joey Moi. He released his debut single, "The Way I Talk," soon afterward, which peaked at #35 on the Country chart.
Wallen's second single, "
Up Down," was co-written by his close friend
Michael Hardy. Two more of his pals, Florida Georgia Line's Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley, lent their voices to the track and it gave him his first Hot 100 hit.
"
More Than My Hometown" and "
7 Summers" both reached the Top 20 of the Hot 100, but by 2020 Wallen was struggling with the effects of stardom. He was arrested for public intoxication and disorderly conduct in May, then booted from
Saturday Night Live five months later for breaking coronavirus protocols. Wallen took time out from the spotlight to do some soul searching, and after showing contrition, he was re-invited onto
SNL. Wallen later reflected on the caustic nature of fame on his song "
Livin' the Dream."
Wallen became a father for the first time when his son Indigo "Indie" Wilder was born on July 10, 2020. The baby boy's mother is Katie Smith, Wallen's ex-fiancée.
In January 2021 a drunken Morgan Wallen was filmed by a neighbor using a racial slur to playfully insult a friend after a rowdy night out. After the video surfaced on TMZ, his label, Big Loud Records, suspended Wallen's recording contract. Far from derailing his career, the punishment energized Wallen's fanbase. When it became clear the controversy would blow over, Big Loud quietly reinstated him and Wallen soon became one of their top-selling artists.
Morgan Wallen clocked up a record 36 songs on the Hot 100 dated March 18, 2023, surpassing Drake's 27 songs on the July 14, 2018 chart. Wallen's record-breaking achievement occurred in the week of the release of
One Thing at a Time, which debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 tally. Every track entered or climbed the chart, including his first #1 Hot 100 song, "
Last Night."
Wallen broke his own record when 37 of his tracks charted on the Hot 100, dated May 24, 2025, following the release of
I'm The Problem.
On May 31, 2018, Morgan Wallen stepped onto the stage for his debut stadium performance, supporting Luke Bryan at Toronto's Rogers Centre. It was not only Wallen's first time performing at a stadium, but it was also his maiden experience attending such a huge show. Bryan had heard Wallen's 2017 hit "
Up Down" and thought it would resonate with a big crowd, so he asked Wallen on tour with him.
"I remember going out there and it was like, 'Gawwwwd!' It just felt so massive,"
Wallen recalled to Billboard.
Wallen is surprisingly popular in the UK, where his shows often sell out. His concert in Hyde Park on July 4, 2024 drew 50,000 fans, breaking the record for the biggest crowd at a country concert in the UK.
Despite Morgan Wallen's deep roots in country music, he has a surprising musical influence: In his teenage years he was drawn to the sounds of rock bands like Breaking Benjamin and Nickelback, as well as the lyrics of rappers like Lil Wayne. This eclectic mix of genres helped shape Wallen's unique style, blending traditional country with elements of rock and even hip-hop rhythms.
Toby Keith had the I Love This Bar & Grill, named after his song "
I Love This Bar," and in 2024 Wallen opened a Nashville eatery called This Bar And Tennessee Kitchen, named after his song "
This Bar." On the menu: Mamaw Boots' Biscuits & Gravy and Morgan's Hot Bacon Burger.
