On Saturday, March 29, 2025, country singer Morgan Wallen “abruptly” walked off the Saturday Night Live (SNL) stage during the goodbyes.
Wallen is 31 years old and from Sneedville, Tennessee. Wallen stepped into the public eye in 2013 while on The Voice. After he was eliminated from the show, he began releasing his own music. In 2023, he released his third album, One Thing at a Time, which was number one on the Billboard 200 chart.
This was Wallen’s second time as the music guest on SNL. On the March 29, 2025, episode, Wallen shared the stage with guest host Mikey Madison.
Actress Mikey Madison is 26 years old and from Los Angeles, California. Madison has been professionally acting since 2013. More recently, Madison starred in the film Anora, which won her the Academy Award for Best Actress in 2025.
Over the years, Wallens’ personal life has also been in the media for several arrests, as well as other controversies. One of the incidents was two misdemeanors regarding reckless endangerment after he allegedly threw a chair off a bar in Tennessee. In court, Wallen pleaded guilty to said charges.
In Oct. 2020, footage of Wallen surfaced of him partying, leading to allegations of breaking COVID-19 protocols. This caused a cancellation in his SNL performance that was scripted to air around this time.
Wallen has also been previously exposed online for the use of racial slurs, one of which was posted on Wallen’s social media in Feb. 2021.
“Obviously the natural thing to do is to apologize further, and continue to apologize, but because you got caught, and that’s not what I wanted to do,” said Wallen in an Instagram video. “I let so many people down who mean a lot to me and have given so much to me, and it’s just not fair.”
“I let my parents down, and they’re the furthest thing from the person in that video,” said Wallen. “I let my son down. And I’m not OK with that.”
In the latest backlash regarding rushing off the SNL stage, several cast members have spoken out about the situation.
Kenan Thompson, a SNL cast member since 2003, spoke to Entertainment Weekly about the incident.
“I don’t know if he understood the assignment or not, or if he was really feeling a certain kind of way,” said Thompson. “You see somebody before you get a chance to say hi or say good job or anything like that, they just dipping. I thought maybe he had to go to the potty or something.”
“But Saturday I guess it was just different because it just felt so abrupt,” Thompson said.
After the show, Wallen posted an Instagram story of a plane on a tarmac with text that said, “get me to God’s country.”
Soon after the post, the internet was swarmed with memes poking fun at Wallen. The Daily Beast posted some of the various mockings, such as an X post with a picture of the gas station Wawa with the same caption that Wallen used.
SNL writer Josh Patten, a fan of Wallen, went on to create his own spin, posting a picture of a Krispy Kreme truck with the caption, “get me to God’s country.” When questioned by the public if Patten was a fan of Wallen, he responded with a screenshot of his top Apple Music songs from 2023, which consisted of several tracks from the singer’s third studio album, One Thing at a Time.
The Independent said, “Sources close to Wallen told Variety there was no ill intent behind Wallen’s immediate departure or subsequent social media post, and he enjoyed himself on the SNL stage.”
Morgan Wallen remains in the public eye and continues to be embedded in the media, whether due to scrutiny, his music, or his strong fan base.
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Morgan Wallen walked off the Saturday Night Live stage on March 29. Photo courtesy of NBC.