How Morgan Wallen became a country superstar

From rib joints to stadiums, so Morgan Wallen has gone.

And it only took seven years.

In March 2017, the country star played his first Vegas gig at Virgil’s Real BBQ at the Linq Promenade as part of the After Party for a Cause benefit series, held in conjunction with the Academy of Country Music Awards.

He returned to town a few months later, performing at the Next From Nashville stage for up-and-comers at the Route 91 Harvest festival — the night before the Oct. 1 tragedy.

Wallen closed out the year with a pair of gigs at Stoney’s Rockin’ Country, then returned to that talent incubator the following spring before playing the House of Blues in 2019.

That was Wallen’s last Vegas headlining show.

Five years later, he’s taking over Allegiant Stadium, with two nearly sold out shows.

It’s been a remarkable rise for a singer who was competing — and coming up short — on “The Voice” a decade ago.

How did the 31-year-old Wallen get here?

And what is his place in the country music ranks?

You’ve got questions.

We’ve got the answers.

What does Morgan Wallen sound like?

Modern country personified, i.e., the musical equivalent of a beat-up old pickup truck with subwoofers booming in the back.

Lyrically, Wallen clenches all the classic Nashville tropes as tightly as he does a cold beer.

Songs about ditching work to go fishing?

Check.

About full cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon and empty cans of long-cut chaw?

Check.

About those aforementioned pickup trucks, complete with a confession about how Wallen is “losin’ my Dodge Ram mind”?

Check.

Oh, and that’s all in one tune — and a good one at that — whose title we can’t print in a family newspaper.

While Wallen presents himself as a country Everyman — dig that sweet mullet tucked into a backward baseball cap — he’s also a bit of a genre renaissance man.

Like plenty of his contemporary country peers, Wallen grew up on rock and rap as much as honky-tonky — and you hear it loud and proud in his loud and proud songbook, underscored in places with digital hip-hop rhythms and seismic bass levels as well as an amped-up guitar bluster.

Just look at some of the artists Wallen has covered live over the years to get a taste of his wide-ranging influences: Sure, there are country favorites such as Brooks & Dunn and Tim McGraw, but there are also rappers Post Malone and Lil Durk, and, yes, Justin Bieber back in the day.

The Biebs and cowboy boots?

You’re welcome, world.

Just how big is Morgan Wallen?

In country music terms, the only things bigger are the belt buckles and the chips on the shoulders of Nashville millionaires defending life in the small towns they hail from — and then left as soon as they could for the big city. (Hey, when John Cougar Mellencamp wrote songs about rural life, at least he still lived there.)

Now, Wallen’s superstardom isn’t unprecedented — but it’s getting there.

To wit, his most recent album and third overall, “One Thing at a Time,” set the mark for most songs on the Billboard Hot 100 by an artist at one time, with all 36 of its tracks charting and smash single “Last Night” hitting No. 1, making Wallen the first male solo artist to accomplish this feat since Eddie Rabbitt in 1981.

The album itself spent a whopping 19 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Top 200.

Wallen’s previous record, 2021’s “Dangerous: The Double Album,” became the only country album to spend its first seven weeks atop the charts, staying there for 10 weeks, the longest run since Whitney Houston’s “Whitney” in 1987.

Has Morgan Wallen ever gotten in hot water?

Well, this is beginning to qualify as a rhetorical question.

Things that Wallen is no stranger to: hangovers, songs with “Tennessee” or “whiskey” in their title, enough ex-lady friends to staff the Mall of America and, last but not least, controversy.

Where to start?

In October 2020 during the pandemic, Wallen was caught on social media ignoring COVID protocols while partying in Tuscaloosa after a University of Alabama football game. He was axed as the musical guest on “Saturday Night Live” that week, though he was rebooked two months later and starred in an “SNL” skit poking fun at the incident alongside show host Jason Bateman and others.

Four months later, TMZ released a video of Wallen using a racial slur after a night out with friends, leading multiple radio stations and streaming platforms to suspend his music from their airwaves and playlists while his record company put his contract on hold.

Wallen publicly apologized for his actions and donated $300,000 to the Black Music Action Coalition.

More recently, he was arrested in April after allegedly hurling a chair from the roof of Eric Church’s Nashville bar.

5 Morgan Wallen songs to know

“Born with a Beer in My Hand”: “I can turn any day to Saturday night, if I want to / And most of the time, I want to,” Wallen sings at the beginning of one of the greatest-titled songs in the history of songs with titles.

“Wasted on You”: A song that stings like bourbon poured on the open wound that is Wallen’s lacerated heart as the memory of a former flame burns on. With its skittering hip-hop beat, it’s a tear-in-my-beer ballad for the 21st century.

“Whiskey Glass”: A country singer without a good whiskey reference or two — or 105 — is no country singer at all. Meeting this standard and then some, Wallen delivers here. One of his signature tunes, “Whiskey” is a live favorite.

“’98 Braves”: OK, we’re a sucker for a song that uses the 1998 Atlanta Braves — a team that boasted one of the greatest pitching staffs ever, had the best record in the National League and still failed to reach the World Series — as a metaphor for a relationship that just couldn’t make it across home plate.

“The Way I Talk”: Wallen excavates his Tennessee roots on this early single, embracing his Southern drawl that “gets slower after three or four cold beers / And gets louder when I’m cheering on the Volunteers.” It’s an anthem about staying true to who you are even if doing so elicits chuckles from some. But if the song’s success is any indication, Wallen gets the last laugh.

Contact Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476. Follow @jbracelin76 on Instagram.