NASHVILLE, Tennessee (AP) – Grammy-winning singer and songwriter Jason Isbell says he will donate the money he earns from Morgan Wallen’s cover of his song “Cover Me Up” to the NAACP.
Wallen, who has had the No. 1 album in the country for the past four weeks, was caught on camera last week saying racial nonsense, but his album sales rose after radio stations removed him from his playlists.
Isbell, a popular American artist and former member of Drive-By Truckers, wrote “Cover Me Up,” which Wallen included as a cover for his second album, “Dangerous: The Double Album.”
Isbell posted on social media Wednesday that he would not keep his share of those sales.
“I decided to donate everything I’ve done so far from this album to the Nashville chapter of @NAACP. Thank you for helping a good cause, people, ”he wrote.
Wallen had been performing a cover version of “Cover Me Up” for a while before recording his own version, which jumped to the Top 15 of the Hot Country Songs chart and earned platinum status for the Recording Industry Association of America. .
His album already set streaming records before the release of his video with the TMZ pencil. It’s the first country album to spend four weeks at the top of the Billboard 200 since 2003, when Shania Twain’s album “Up!” He spent five weeks at the summit.
Wallen has apologized for using racist language and his record label, Big Loud Records, said Wallen was suspended, but neither has made more announcements since last week. A representative of Wallen and his label did not immediately return any messages asking for comments.