Morgan Wallen Wins 2022 ACM Award for Album of the Year After Being Banned From the 2021 Show Amid Controversy
08.03.2022 - 06:39
/ usmagazine.com
Red carpet ready. Morgan Wallen returned to the 2022 ACM Awards after previously being barred from attending in the wake of his N-word scandal.
The songwriter, 28, accepted the statue for album of the year for Dangerous: The Double Album during the 57th annual ACM Awards at the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on Monday, March 7. “When I started this album I was a kid. By the time I put it out, I was a father,” Wallen said, referencing his child, Indigo Wilder, 20 months, who he shares with ex KT Smith.
“That’s become more important to me than anything else. To my son, this album and this award will signify that his daddy was a fighter, that he chased his dreams and worked hard to make them a reality.”
After thanking his collaborators and God, he concluded, “Most imporantly, I have to address my fans personally and directly. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I’m blown away by you guys. God bless.”
Wallen earned nods for Male Artist of the Year, Album of the Year and Song of the Year after previously being excluded from the 2021 event. The “Whiskey Glasses” crooner was declared ineligible after a video of him using a racial slur surfaced online last February.
Two months after the controversy made headlines, the Tennessee native assured his fans that he had grown after taking “a couple months away” from the spotlight. “I’m proud of the work I’ve put in, and in many ways thankful to have had the time to do it. I’ve needed this time off. I moved to Nashville at 22. I never really gave myself a chance to survey the man I became during that time,” he wrote via Instagram in April 2021. ” I can already see a big difference between 22-year-old me and 27-year-old me. I hope there’s a big difference between the 27-year-old me now and the