Nearly a year ago, the country superstar Morgan Wallen was caught on tape using a racial epithet and retreated from the spotlight after a rebuke from the music business. In recent months, he has been inching back toward it, via multiple twisted and potholed roads. Wallen is simultaneously, depending on the lens, a hero or a scourge, an upholder of racist hierarchies or someone who works across racial lines, on a rehabilitation tour or just simply on tour, the most dominant musician of 2021 or the most reviled.

Wallen’s second album, “Dangerous: The Double Album,” was the most commercially successful release of last year, with 3.2 million album equivalent units, outpacing Adele, Olivia Rodrigo and even Drake. After his career was put on pause, he went back on the road, sold out arenas and remained, more or less, the most popular performer in country music.

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Written and narrated by David Gonzalez

Source: New York Times

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