Nelly says he is able to forgive Morgan Wallen as he is trying to make things right and revealed Wallen is not appearing on his upcoming project.
In a recent interview with Associated Press on the red carpet at the iHeartRadio Music Awards, Nelly revealed the rumors of Wallen being on his upcoming country-inspired album, Heartland, are not true.
“No, he’s not on this album,” Nelly clarified of the rumors that he has a collaboration coming out with Wallen.
Furthermore, the “Lil Bit” singer shared that he is friends with Wallen and admits that while he is “not happy” about him using the n-word but is a firm believer in forgiveness as he is “trying to make it right.”
“Yes, I am friends with Morgan [Wallen] and yes we all make mistakes,” Nelly shared. “The fact we all recognize our mistakes and get a chance to make our mistakes, a none cool instance from what we’re doing moving forward is a process that we all have to do. I’m not happy about what he did but I can forgive a guy that’s trying to make it right.”
Nelly says Morgan Wallen doesn’t appear on his new country-inspired album. The two are still friends, despite Wallen using a racial slur. pic.twitter.com/8LYghqp8Pw
— AP Entertainment (@APEntertainment) May 28, 2021
Previously, during an interview in early February with RADIO.COM, Nelly revealed that he was completely unaware of Wallen’s use of the n-word and after learning of it, he was at a loss for words and admitted that it is “shocking.” However, he continued to explain that he knew Wallen and thought he was a great dude.
“That’s crazy because I didn’t know that,” Nelly previously said. “God, that’s crazy because I know Morgan. Morgan was a great dude. Obviously, I gotta learn a little bit more about what just happened, I’m not trying to vouch for anyone, I’m just saying wow, that’s shocking. That’s really shocking, I will probably have to do my investigation to understand what’s going on, so I can understand what the hell just happened here.”
“Sometimes we gotta know that people do make mistakes and we have to allow people to learn from them too because if we don’t allow people to learn from mistakes, then now we’re saying that everybody has to be perfect and we all know that that’s impossible.” Nelly continued. “And we are all just sitting around waiting for somebody to eff up so we can point the finger and that’s not humanly possible, and that’s not going to lead us anymore but we all have to want to be better, that’s the thing.”
He later added, “When you do make a mistake, let’s recognize it, let’s speak out about it, and let’s understand that you know a lot of people was hurt behind that and learn like ‘yo this is what I did wrong and I want to apologize for that cause I shouldn’t have did that.’ We have to hope that people learn from that and we need to move on but no I didn’t know, I have to investigate that, I really hate that happened, that’s crazy.”
Additionally, Wallen recently shared an acoustic performance of a brand new song entitled “Thought You Should Know” which came just days after he returned to the stage for the first time since early February, popping up at Kid Rock’s Big Honky Tonk & Steakhouse on Wednesday evening (May 19). His surprise appearance included performances of his chart-topping single, “Whiskey Glasses,” and the fan-favorites “Sand In My Boots” and “Wasted On You” from his multi-week No.1 album, Dangerous: The Double Album.
The East Tennessee native celebrated his 28th birthday on May 13 and marked the occasion with a social media post thanking his sister, Ashlyne, and friend, Andrew, for sticking by him during a tumultuous year.
“27 brought a lot of the best and the worst times of my life,” he wrote. “These 2 didn’t flinch. Glad to see 28.”
Wallen previously issued a handwritten letter to fans offering an update about his time away from the public eye, sharing that he’s “really worked on myself” throughout the past few months.
“Not only has this time revealed to me the ways in which I want to improve, but it’s also reminded me that I am still very proud of who I am and the man I am becoming,” he wrote.
Wallen has cancelled all upcoming tour dates but promised fans, “you’ll be seeing me sooner than later.”
