Morgan Wallen Cleared to Return to Stage After Vocal Rest: ‘We Back’

Morgan Wallen had some long-awaited, great news for fans on Wednesday (June 7) morning. After cancelling six weeks of shows on doctor’s orders a month ago to go on vocal rest, the “Last Night” singer announced in an Instagram Story “we back.”

The story included a photo of Wallen sitting on the back seat of his fishing boat, arms outstretched, with the message “Also, the doc cleared me to talk and sing… we back.” That was the best-case scenario after Wallen announced on May 9 that he would have to put his tour on ice for more than a month to rest his strained voice, crossing off shows through June 17.

“I’m just gonna go ahead and get straight to it. I got some bad news from my doctors at the Vanderbilt Voice Center yesterday. After taking 10 days of vocal rest I performed three shows last weekend in Florida and by the third one I felt terrible,” the singer said at the time.

“So I went in and go scoped yesterday and they told me that I re-injured my vocal cords and that I have vocal fold trauma,” he added in the intense video. Wallen said his doctor’s advice was that he go on vocal rest for six weeks.

“They told me that if I do this the right way, I’ll get back to 100% and they also said that if I don’t listen and I keep singing, then I’ll permanently damage my voice,” Wallen said of his doctor’s diagnosis of vocal fold trauma after playing three shows in Florida, where he reinjured his vocal cord. “So for the longevity of my career, this is just a choice I had to make. I hate it. But I love you guys, and I appreciate all the support that you always give me.”

Wallen said his plan was to listen to his doctors, who advised him to not to talk at all, but cleared him to make the tour cancellation announcement. In addition to the cancelled shows, Wallen also had to skip out on last month’s Academy of Country Music Awards and push his 2023 festival appearances to 2024.

At press time the next scheduled date on Wallen’s One Night at a Time tour with HARDY, ERNEST and Bailey Zimmerman — according to the singer’s official website — was a June 22 show at Wrigley Field in Chicago. At the time of the cancellations, a Wallen spokesperson said tickets for the original dates will be honored for all rescheduled performances, with a 30-day refund window open at the point of purchase when the new dates are announced.

Wallen made news after canceling a planned show at Oxford, MS’s Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on April 23 after his opening acts performed and just moments before he was to take the stage. “I thought I was going to be good to go and I just wasn’t,” he said in a message to the 60,000 disappointed fans who were sent home that night without seeing him.