Will Heath/NBC
Why Country Singer Morgan Wallen Abruptly Walked Off ‘SNL’ Set: ‘He Wanted to Leave’
Country singer Morgan Wallen had a simple reason for abruptly walking off the Saturday Night Live set before the show’s end credits on March 29, a source exclusively tells Life & Style.
“Morgan is not a people pleaser. I doubt he meant to make a statement by walking off the stage, but he just does what he wants,” the insider says. “And he wanted to leave. Honestly, if he stayed and partied with everyone at the afterparties, it probably would have done a lot worse!”
Morgan, 31, served as the musical guest during the March 29 episode of SNL. While it’s typical for guests on the show to stick around during the end credits and mingle with the other stars, the “Thinkin’ Bout Me’” hitmaker was seen making a quick exit at the end of the episode, which was met with a wave of backlash from many viewers.
“Why would he book the appearance if he doesn’t want to be there?” one fan wrote on social media, while another person called the incident “incredibly odd.”
On the other hand, other fans found the moment humorous, with one person writing, “Morgan Wallen said, ‘I didn’t want to be here either.’ That’s exactly what the show gets for having him in the first place.”
After footage of the “Cowgirls” singer walking off the stage went viral online, lip reader Nicola Hickling analyzed Morgan’s final exchange with SNL’s host for the night, actress Mikey Madison, and shared her findings with Life & Style on behalf of Slingo. Nicola believes Morgan told the Anora star, 26, “Thank you all so much. I had a wonderful time. Thank you all, mwah mwah mwah.”
Mikey then apparently told Morgan, “Chatting to you was really good.”
SNL star Colin Jost also seemingly said about the CMA Award winner, “You gotta remember how he is feeling.”
While Morgan has not directly addressed his abrupt exit, he seemingly hinted at wanting an escape by writing on his Instagram Stories shortly after the show, “Get me to God’s country.”
The same phrase later appeared on merch advertised on the official Club Wallen Instagram page on Tuesday, April 1, including a T-shirt and two hats. Many fans praised the marketing move in the comments of the post.
“Y’all turned it into merch i LOVE it,” one fan wrote, while another called the move “genius.”
“BYE this is funny,” a third fan commented.
While Morgan has yet to speak out about the viral incident, longtime SNL star Kenan Thompson shared his thoughts on the matter in an interview with Entertainment Weekly on Monday, March 31.
“I don’t know what goes through people’s minds when they decide to do stuff like that. I don’t know if he understood the assignment or not, or if he was really feeling a certain kind of way,” Kenan, 46, said.
The comedian wondered if maybe Morgan, who reportedly turned down an opportunity to appear in a sketch during his appearance on SNL, had to “go to the potty or something.”
“You see somebody before you get a chance to say hi or say good job or anything like that, they just dipping,” Kenan recalled. “It’s definitely a spike in the norm. We’re so used to everybody just turning around and high-fiving us, everybody’s saying, ‘Good job, good job, good job.’ So when there’s a departure from that, it’s like, ‘Hmm, I wonder what that’s about?’”
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