“Once you exhibit certain behaviors, there are certain things you no longer deserve,” says Holly G, the founder of the Black Opry, a grassroots organization that promotes the music of Black performers in country and roots music. “That doesn’t mean you don’t have a career. Him not playing at the Opry doesn’t mean his career is over. It just means he blew an opportunity because he didn’t have the integrity to do it.
Walking onstage, the country singer was met not with approving cheers or outraged boos, but with bemusement. “I think there’s some social distancing going on there,” says RJ Curtis, executive director of Country Radio Broadcasters, “where playing the music is one thing, but radio’s traditional tactic of closely aligning themselves with a huge artist via on-air station imaging, or even more so, marketing efforts like billboards and wrapping a station vehicle, aren’t happening in this case.
Wallen is also once again in the awards hunt. After being barred from last year’s ACM Awards, he’s eligible to be nominated when the 2022 ACM nominees are announced this month.
There is no race problem. It is not the genre's fault that black people don't WANT to sing it.
A country boy can survive. 👌