Photo Credit: Brice Cooper
Morgan Wallen’s chair-chunking stunt has come back to bite him as his This Bar & Tennessee Kitchen is denied a hanging sign to advertise the new venue.
Nashville councilmembers rejected plans for the sign to be hung above the new bar along the city’s Broadway strip of honky tonks. Reasons cited included his use of a racial slur in 2021 and the recent criminal charges of throwing a chair from a nearby rooftop near two police officers. The Nashville Metro Council voted 30-3 against the proposed sign requiring government approval—something that is usually a mundane process.
Councilmembers called Wallen’s actions harmful and his comments hateful, saying the performer received multiple second changes and misbehaved at every turn. “I don’t want to see a billboard up with the name of a person who is throwing chairs off of balconies and who is saying racial slurs,” adds Councilwoman Delishia Porterfield. Other councilmembers praised restaurant partner TC Restaurant Group—but ultimately made the decision based solely on Wallen’s behavior.
“The fact that someone’s name is going up on a bar doesn’t mean that we condone all the behavior, but again I appreciate the efforts to make amends, the positive response, and again, the operator themselves I don’t think should be penalized for what happened,” says councilmember Jacob Kupin, who voted to allow the sign.
Wallen’s criminal case for his chair-throwing incident was postponed until August 15. He is accused of throwing a chair from the six-story Chief’s bar in downtown Nashville. The chair hit the ground a few feet from where two Nashville police officers were standing, with witnesses saying they saw Wallen pick up the chair, hurl it, and then laugh about throwing it. Wallen faces three felony counts of reckless endangerment and one misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct. Wallen apologized for the incident at the time it occurred.
