Closing out a massive 2024. Over the weekend, Morgan Wallen shared a lengthy video on Instagram, thanking fans for helping him achieve a milestone in having the highest-selling country tour of all-time with his One Night At A Time tour that hit stadiums all over the country, and even some very large venues overseas. Of course, the video comes on the heels of Morgan being sentenced last week by Judge Cynthia Chappell to 11 months and 29 days in jail on each count, with all but seven days suspended. Those seven days are to be served in a DUI education center. The remainder of his sentence will be served on supervised probation, and will be served consecutively for a total of two years on probation. The plea agreement is subject to judicial diversion, which means that Morgan will be able to petition the court to have his record expunged if he successfully completes probation. Morgan spoke at the hearing only to confirm that he was pleading guilty, and to confirm that he understood the plea agreement and his rights as a defendant. Morgan shared in the video that he went through a period of doubting his voice, and even "God's plan," before finding huge success and becoming the biggest thing in country music (those are my words, not his): "As I sit here, just a few weeks removed from one of the largest country music tours in history, I still can't really find the words to say how much me being able to say that means, so thank you. You know, it doesn't seem all that long ago that I was meeting my band in the basement of a house, playing music way too loud, pissing everybody off, you know, just trying to figure out if I had a voice. You know, over the span of almost ten years now, there was times in that period where I doubted myself, I doubted my voice, I doubted God's plan. You guys, my fans, have made it abundantly clear that you want to hear my voice and you do care about it. So I just wanted you guys to know how much I appreciate that, and how much your support and the passion for me and my music, for me as a person, how much it truly means." Morgan obviously didn't address the elephant in the room, so to speak, but it's clear that he's thankful for a lot of good that happened for him in 2024... even if it was mixed with some bad: https://www.instagram.com/p/DDie2PpvGA-/ Wallen also took home four Billboard Music Awards on the same day as his sentencing, winning in the categories of Top Male Artist, Top Country Artist, Top Country Male Artist and Top Collaboration (for his Post Malone collaboration “I Had Some Help”). He gave a speech that was prerecorded, thanking fans for always supporting him and giving him “so much freedom” to make music that he wants to and always “giving it a chance.” Notably, Morgan won the coveted CMA award for Entertainer of the Year a few weeks ago, and he still has yet to publicly comment on it, which says a lot about the state of award shows in general, which I find particularly interesting. You can watch his BBMAs speech here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uv8zl5HoFTs&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.whiskeyriff.com%2F&source_ve_path=MjM4NTE You can watch Morgan’s court appearance and sentencing below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDXVScEXO3M&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.whiskeyriff.com%2F&source_ve_path=MjM4NTE