Differing stories have emerged from the City of Pittsburgh and Morgan Wallen’s team regarding the cancellation of the country star’s second Pittsburgh show over the weekend.
Wallen announced the cancellation of the 5:30 p.m. Saturday “Still The Problem Tour” show at Acrisure Stadium due to the threat of inclement weather in an Instagram post just after 1 p.m. on Saturday.
Severe weather ultimately did not surface in the North Shore area, instead missing the city to the south while generating six tornadoes bringing 90-100 mph straight-line winds in Washington, Fayette and Westmoreland Counties.
Some rain did hit the North Shore in the afternoon around 3 p.m., causing the nearby Pittsburgh Pride Festival to shut down early. Additionally, WTAE meteorologist Jill Szwed had told TribLive earlier Saturday morning that scattered thunderstorms were in the cards for the Pittsburgh area.
“After talking with local officials and my team, there is no choice but to cancel tonight’s show due to severe adverse weather conditions expected throughout the rest of the day and night,” Wallen’s initial announcement post read. “Safety for my fans and crew is the highest priority. Refunds available at point of purchase.”
Later, on Saturday night around 10 p.m., Wallen claimed in another post that his “team” had consulted with “local officials” on the issue.
On Tuesday, Molly Onufer, press secretary for Mayor Corey O’Connor’s Office, disputed Wallen’s story.
“We had nothing to do with it,” said Onufer when asked if the Mayor’s Office or any other city entity she knew of had been consulted before the announcement.
“We found out just moments before it was posted on social media.”
Wallen stated in his Instagram story: “All right, y’all. This morning, my team walked on my bus, told me that they had been consulting with local officials, and that I should cancel my show in Pittsburgh (Saturday night). And I said, why? They said that there was gonna be strong winds in the area, and I said OK. So that’s what I did. And that was the information I had in the moment, and I trusted my team. I understand that the wind and whatever else hasn’t gotten to Pittsburgh yet. I know it has touched some of Pennsylvania so my heart goes out to all those affected by it.
“But the truth of the matter is, I have a large stage and in those conditions, it could become fatal to a lot of folks around it. So I did the best I could with the information I had in that moment. I’ve been seeing a lot of nonsense about me that is simply not true, and I just wanted to clear the air. I think my true fans know that that’s not how I operate in general, but I had to say it. Y’all take care.”
Messages left with Acrisure Stadium and Pittsburgh Public Safety officials, as well as Wallen’s publicist, were not immediately returned.
Wallen has seen his share of controversy over the years, including multiple other apparent spur-of-the-moment show cancellations.
In 2016, he was arrested for driving under the influence, though the misdemeanor charge was ultimately dropped.
In May 2020, he was charged with public intoxication and disorderly conduct after reportedly kicking glass items inside Kid Rock’s bar in Nashville and getting into multiple verbal altercations after being told to leave. Again, the charges were dropped.
In October of that same year, Wallen was booted from Saturday Night Live for failing to follow covid-19 guidelines.
In February 2021, TMZ released a video of Wallen using a racial slur towards African Americans after a night out.
In 2024, Wallen was charged with three felony counts of reckless endangerment and one count of disorderly conduct after throwing a chair off the roof of Eric Church’s Nashville bar, the chair reportedly landing near two police officers. Wallen pleaded guilty to two counts of reckless endangerment and was sentenced to seven days in a DUI education center and two years of probation. The other charges were dismissed.
During the first of this past weekend’s Pittsburgh show, Wallen was caught on video throwing a security guard’s phone across the stage.