Morgan Wallen, the chart-dominating country star, is postponing six weeks of shows on his current tour, saying in a statement on Tuesday that he had injured his vocal cords and that the pause was recommended by his doctors.
“I performed three shows last weekend in Florida and by the third one I felt terrible,” Wallen said in a video posted on social media. “So I went in and got scoped yesterday, and they told me that I reinjured my vocal cords and that I have vocal fold trauma. Their advice is that I go on vocal rest for six weeks, so that’s what I’m going to do.”
He also announced that he would not perform as scheduled at the Academy of Country Music Awards show this Thursday, where he is up for entertainer of the year.
A spokeswoman for Wallen said that 14 shows would be postponed, starting with a planned date in Hershey, Penn., on May 18, and including two shows at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. The tour is set to resume on June 22 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.
Rescheduled dates will be announced.
Last month, Wallen canceled a stadium show at the University of Mississippi shortly before he was to take the stage, saying that he had lost his voice. Even so, angry fans took to social media to complain.
Wallen has held the No. 1 spot on Billboard’s album chart for the last nine weeks with his 36-track new album, “One Thing at a Time,” which has now been streamed about 2.3 billion times in the United States alone. His last LP, “Dangerous: The Double Album,” was No. 1 for 10 weeks two years ago, even amid an industry rebuke — including his temporary removal from country radio playlists — after he was caught on video using a racist slur.
In his statement on Tuesday, Wallen said: “They told me that if I do this the right way, I’ll get back to 100 percent, and they also said that if I don’t listen and I keep singing, then I’ll permanently damage my voice.”
“So for the longevity of my career,” he added, “this is just a choice I had to make.”
