Taking it too far.
Morgan Wallen fans are upset after the Metro Nashville City Council voted this week to reject an application from Morgan’s new bar, Morgan Wallen’s This Bar & Tennessee Kitchen, for a proposed sign over the entry to the bar.
TC Restaurant Group, the hospitality company that partnered with Wallen for the bar (and also operates bars like Jason Aldean’s Kitchen & Rooftop Bar, Luke’s 32 Bridge, Miranda Lambert’s Casa Rosa and Lainey Wilson’s upcoming Bell Bottoms Up), had requested permission for an “aerial encroachment” for the sign to hang over the new bar, located at 107 4th Avenue North, just beside the Ryman Auditorium.
The sign would have hung above the entrance to the bar, but because it encroached on a city right of way, owners needed to get permission from the council to install it.
But the council made it clear that they weren’t exactly happy with Wallen right now – with many members speaking out against the singer and his behavior during a meeting last night.
One of those councilmen who spoke against the sign, and against Wallen, was Jordan Huffman, who said that Morgan “give all of us a bad name.”
“Number one, Mr. Wallen is a fellow East Tennessean. He gives all of us a bad name. His comments are hateful, his actions are harmful, and you don’t belong in this town as far as I’m concerned. I’m tired of this city bending over to just make anybody happy that makes a comment that they want to. We continue to go down this road. I encourage my colleagues to vote against this.”
Now, were his comments ridiculous? Sure. The whole thing is stupid, and nothing more than political grandstanding from the city council because they don’t like Morgan Wallen. Rejecting the sign does nothing to keep downtown any safer, does nothing to harm anyone other than TC Restaurant Group, and only makes Morgan’s fans want to support his bar even more.
But whatever, have your political moment. (I’ve lived in Nashville for a decade and I’ve never heard of this guy, so I guess it worked).
Sending him threats over the comments, though, obviously crosses a line.
Huffman took to Twitter in a since-deleted post and claimed that he’s received threats from fans since his vote and comments:
“It’s one thing to attack me for a vote, but coming for my family is a bridge too far.
In the past 24 hours, we have been threatened in multiple ways. One message indicated that my wife was going to get raped while I was forced to watch. Another posted pictures of the inside of our home. Over a damn sign.
Enough is enough Morgan Wallen. This is disgusting.”
Now obviously blaming Morgan for the threats isn’t fair either. I feel pretty certain that Morgan didn’t send Huffman any threats, nor tell anybody else to.
But sending somebody threats over their vote in a city council is obviously way out of line and pretty disgusting.
Then again, that seems to be where we are in politics today.