The country singer also made a donation to Ethan’s Smile Foundation in honor of Ethan Chapin, one of four University of Idaho students killed last year
Morgan Wallen invited the family and friends of one of the University of Idaho murder victims to his concert in San Diego this past weekend, welcoming the parents of Ethan Chapin and their guests backstage. Chapin was one of four students killed on Nov. 23, 2022, in their off-campus rental home.
According to an Instagram post by Chapin’s mother, Stacy, “a very kind person” connected the family to Wallen after learning the country singer’s song “I Thought You Should Know,” written for his own mother, was a favorite of Stacy and Ethan.
“Last night, we met Morgan Wallen! He kindly gifted our family and friends tickets to his show in San Diego. Morgan’s mom, Lesli, even flew in! It was an incredibly bittersweet full-circle moment,” Stacy wrote, adding that Wallen also made a donation from his Morgan Wallen Foundation to the Ethan Smiles Foundation, a charity organization set up to preserve the memory of Chapin.
“Truthfully, the show would have been enough. We were all over the moon, and then Morgan handed us a donation check to the @ethanssmilefoundation. It was one of the kindest gestures in my life,” she wrote. “I still cannot believe it happened, and it isn’t easy to recognize it all came at a massive cost to our family.”
Chapin was just 20 years old when he was murdered. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for the suspect in the killings, Bryan Kohberger, a former Washington State University graduate student studying criminology.
Wallen is currently on his One Night at a Time Tour, which he resumed in May after postponing several shows to go on vocal rest. After two nights at Petco Park this past weekend, he’ll play a pair of shows at Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona, on Thursday and Friday.