Morgan Wallen’s Chair-Throwing Arrest Back in Headlines
By now, most fans know about Morgan Wallen’s infamous chair-throwing incident at Eric Church’s Nashville bar, Chief’s, last year. The country superstar was arrested and charged with three counts of felony reckless endangerment and one count of disorderly conduct after tossing a chair from the rooftop.
He later pled guilty to misdemeanor reckless endangerment in Davidson County court in December, receiving a sentence of two years probation and seven days in jail, to be served at a DUI education center. Fortunately, no one was injured in the incident.
Bodycam Footage Surfaces
Despite Wallen’s hopes to move on, bodycam video released by the Metro Nashville Police Department has once again pushed the arrest back into the spotlight.
In the clip, obtained by the AP, both Morgan and his bodyguard can be heard denying responsibility:
“I ain’t done nothing wrong.”
As officers inside the bar reviewed security footage, Wallen stood outside with police — and decided to make a phone call.
Calling Eric Church for Backup
Someone in Wallen’s entourage suggested: “You gotta call Eric Church.”
Morgan agreed, dialing up the bar’s owner himself:
“Hey, these motherf–kers are trying to take me, they’re trying to take me to jail outside of your f–king bar.”
When Church got on the line, an officer explained the situation. Church reportedly asked if Morgan could be taken somewhere private inside while the investigation continued, but police declined:
“It’s not really something we can do… We’ve got a supervisor coming to the scene. Gotta treat it like we would with anybody else.”
After reviewing security footage, officers confirmed Wallen was the one who threw the chair, and he was handcuffed and taken into custody.
Eric Church Reflects
Church later recalled the call during an interview earlier this year:
“Morgan called me from the street after it happened. I was watching college basketball, and he said, ‘Hey, this just happened.’ I said, ‘Uh-oh.’ I knew it was gonna be noisy, and it was — it was d–n noisy.”
Indeed, the story dominated headlines and social media, sparking memes and widespread chatter.
A Turning Point for Wallen
Church believes the incident served as a wake-up call for Morgan:
“It was actually a good thing for Mo. I think that was a line for him, and he’s done really well since then — it was a thing he’s reacted positively to as a person. I used the old Billy Joe Shaver line on him: ‘I’m just an old chunk of coal, but I’ll be a diamond one day.’ He went down [to Chief’s] and apologized to the staff, shook everybody’s hand. I was proud of him.”
Wallen Says He’s Stayed Out of Bars
For his part, Wallen has admitted the night at Chief’s was his last trip to a bar. In a conversation with Theo Von, he said:
“It’s definitely the best thing for me, you know… I ain’t been in a bar since the last time I was in a bar that everybody knows about. The most public time I was in a bar, that’s the last time I was in a bar.”
From Scandal to Growth
Though the chair-throwing incident was one of the year’s loudest stories, both Church and Wallen see it as a pivotal learning moment. What could’ve been a career-derailing scandal instead became a turning point — one that may have helped Morgan Wallen steer clear of more trouble.