Rascal Flatts’ Gary LeVox Blames Unfair “Show Business” For Morgan Wallen’s Lack of Awards

After spending a decade in country music, Morgan Wallen is seemingly breaking records everywhere he turns. His Post Malone collab, “I Had Some Help,” was crowned 2024’s Song of the Summer, giving Wallen that distinction for the second year in a row. Despite his staggering commercial success, the Entertainer of the Year nominee’s trophy case is suspiciously bare. And former Rascal Flatts frontman Gary LeVox believes he knows why that is.

Rascal Flatts Singer: “It’s “So Unfair”

Over the past few years, Morgan Wallen has made headlines for more than just his music. It’s fair to say that the “Whiskey Glasses” singer’s offstage antics frequently overshadow his enormously successful career.

Wallen leads this year’s CMA nominations with seven. The Country Music Association named him Best New Artist in 2020. However, the East Tennessee-born artist, 31, has come up empty-handed ever since. In 2021, the CMA banned him from attending the ceremony at all, despite an Album of the Year nomination for Dangerous: The Double Album. And the “Cowgirls” singer came up short in that category, despite Dangerous breaking the record for most weeks spent at No. 1 on Billboard’s Country Albums chart.

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Wallen’s mismatched track records haven’t escaped Gary LeVox, who appeared last month on the Try That in a Small Town podcast. “It’s so unfair, man,” said the longtime Rascal Flatts vocalist, 54.

He continued, “You know how the show business thing goes. But to me, just being an honest person, if you, if you’ve got the biggest single, you should win Single of the Year. If you sold more albums than everybody, you should win Album of the Year.”

Gary LeVox Recalls 2006 Grammys Snub

Gary Levox can empathize with Morgan Wallen’s plight. The Ohio-born country star compared Wallen’s dearth of country music awards to the time “What Hurts the Most”—arguably Rascal Flatts’ biggest hit—was snubbed by the 2006 Grammy Awards in favor of Brad Paisley’s “Ticks.”

[RELATED: Behind the Meaning of “What Hurts The Most” by Rascal Flatts]

“We had outsold everybody in the whole entire world that put a record out, any genre music,” LeVox said. “So they had one country performance on the Grammys. We’re like, ‘Gotta be ‘What Hurts the Most.’

“Nope, “he concluded. “Brad Paisley and ‘Ticks.’”

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