Morgan Wallen still working on himself following racial slur controversy, cancels summer shows

American country music star Morgan Wallen penned a moving note explaining that he has been working on himself during his time away from the spotlight. He also shared that he will not be playing any concerts or festivals this summer.

This comes after a video featuring him using a racial slur surfaced online earlier this year. The 27-year-old star took to his Instagram handle on Tuesday and shared a handwritten note for his fans.

Wallen began, "First of all I just want to say thank you to everyone who has supported me during this time. I have felt a lot of love lately from many individuals I have met and from so many people I haven't gotten to know yet. I know my corner hasn't been the most popular to stand in recently, but many of you did anyway. So many things have happened since I've had the opportunity to talk to my fans."

He added, "I haven't even had a chance to share my feelings on what has happened with my music and the 'Dangerous' album, and it's important to me that I do that first to y'all. When I made the music, it was important to me that I wrote songs that were authentic and some of them even let you in on my story. Before the music came out, I was proud of it. I felt fulfilled. As a musician that is the best feeling in the world, being happy with your music before fans even hear it. If you feel that way, then you can live with the reaction, I guess."

Wallen's post had a fair amount of pride about recent accomplishments as well as resignation to his time-out needing to continue.

He pointed out that 'Dangerous: The Double Album' stood atop the album chart for 10 consecutive weeks (a stand that hadn't been made for any album right out of the box, be it pop or country, since Whitney Houston's second album did it in the late 1980s).

He wrote that "to release this project and watch y'all make a country album go 10 consecutive weeks #1 all genre is literally unheard of. That's never happened before from what I'm told. I didn't even know that record existed to be honest. It wasn't what I set out to accomplish, but your response has meant so so much to me. I just want you to know how much that means to me, and it always will. I would have been proud of this album had it not done any of those things, but it did."

He added, "I'm so aware that it was you all who have bought it and played it as much as you have, so I truly feel I share this honor with you. I will alway feel the need to show that gratitude, so thank you. I've read stories of what some of these songs mean to some of you, and truth be told that's the best accolade there is."

Wallen continued, "I had to write some of these songs to get them off my heart, so to see them landing in yours makes me feel connected to y'all. A feeling I think we all long for deep down. 2020... man, what a tough year for so many. For me, my tough year carried into 2021. I've made some mistakes, I'm figuring those out and I apologized because I was truly sorry and have been making my amends."

Wallen didn't offer any indication of when he thought his hiatus might end, but he did tell fans that "you'll be seeing me sooner than later."

Wrapping up his statement, Wallen wrote, "I'm back in Nashville getting back in the swing of things and you guys can rest assured that I am looking forward to giving you guys what you deserve, especially after all you've done for me. My story is far from over and getting back out to see y'all is all I can think about. So just know you'll be seeing me sooner than later. Love ya, Morgan."

After the video of using the racial slur surfaced, Wallen was indefinitely suspended from his label and his songs were taken down from the two largest radio station groups iHeartMedia and Cumulus Media, along with SiriusXM, Pandora, and CMT.

Wallen came under fire on February 2 after a video surfaced of him saying the N-word during a night out in Nashville. The actions against the 27-year-old singer were swift, with his booking agency WME dropping him.

Wallen has a history of having used the N-word on social media, quoting rap lyrics. In 2012, he tweeted a lyric by rapper Meek Mill, "I burn bread I ain't talkin toast n---." (That tweet was deleted from Wallen's account on Wednesday morning.)

( With inputs from ANI )