Kenan Thompson (left) and Morgan Wallen. Photo:
Roy Rochlin/Getty; Will Heath/NBC via Getty
- Morgan Wallen sparked controversy on Saturday, March 29, after he abruptly walked off the Saturday Night Live stage during the closing credits, breaking an ongoing show tradition for the cast and its guests
- Following the incident, the country singer shared a post on Instagram, which read, “Get me to God’s country,” but a source later said he didn’t mean to offend anyone with his exit or post
- Cast member Kenan Thompson is now weighing on Wallen’s exit, calling it a “pretty visible thing” and “a spike in the norm” of the show’s tradition
Kenan Thompson is speaking out after Morgan Wallen’s controversial Saturday Night Live departure.
The country singer, 31, sparked conversation when he abruptly walked off stage at the end of the March 29 episode, which he appeared on as the musical guest.
Thompson, 46, reacted to the moment in an interview with Entertainment Weekly shortly after, revealing he “definitely saw it” and was surprised by the decision.
“I don’t know what goes through people’s minds when they decide to do stuff like that,” he said. “I don’t know if he understood the assignment or not, or if he was really feeling a certain kind of way.”
Morgan Wallen walking off the ‘SNL’ stage. NBC
The iconic sketch comedy series has a tradition of everyone gathering on stage during closing credits, but Wallen instead whispered something in host Mikey Madison’s ear and then passed in front of the still-rolling cameras to exit without speaking to anyone else.
“You see somebody before you get a chance to say hi or say good job or anything like that, they just dipping,” Thompson remembered thinking. “I thought maybe he had to go to the potty or something.”
“It’s definitely a spike in the norm,” he added. “We’re so used to everybody just turning around and high-fiving us, everybody’s saying, ‘Good job, good job, good job.’ So when there’s a departure from that, it’s like, hmm, I wonder what that’s about.”
The comedian shared that he has “never met” Wallen — who was disinvited from his debut musical guest gig in 2020 after he was photographed kissing multiple college women and partying maskless in Alabama amid COVID-19 protocols — despite his two appearances on the show.
“Seems like a complicated individual, I guess,” Thompson said, noting, “Prince did the same thing. I’m not saying Morgan Wallen is Prince, but we weren’t surprised because Prince was notoriously kind of standoffish. It’s just how he was. So we just thought like, ‘Okay, now he’s gone back into fantasyland.’ “
“But Saturday I guess it was just different because it just felt so abrupt,” he continued. “And it was already such a small grouping on the stage anyway. So it was just like, oh wow, that was pretty visible. You know what I’m saying? It was a pretty visible thing.”
Kenan Thompson. Andrew Lipovsky/NBC
Hours later, Wallen posted a photo of a private jet with “Get me to God’s country” written in white text over it on his social media. A source later told Variety that the star didn’t mean to offend anyone with his post or quick exit, but fans still had a lot to say about the incident.
“Wow, Morgan Wallen just walking off the stage during the @nbcsnl credits? In decades of watching SNL, I don’t think I’ve ever seen that.” one person wrote on X. “For so many of us, that is sacred ground. What an a——.”
Another said Wallen’s actions “couldn’t be more lame & undercutting coming from a country star.”
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Meanwhile, others supported the “Last Night” musician, with one user writing: “If you go back and watch the clips of Mikey with Morgan and Chloe from midweek (the hi I’m Mikey Madison and I’m hosting SNL this week with Morgan Wallen clips) you’ll see he didn’t want to shoot those either, and probably only did SNL cause his manager and agent made him.”
