We're Comin' Out

"At the end of this day," Nashville music critic ANN POWERS tweeted at end of the day Wednesday, "I feel the need to point out that a wealthy white Southern man using the N- word casually is hardly a historic occurrence while a country star at the top of his game coming out IS a historic occurrence." Which is to say thank you, T.J. OSBORNE, for quite literally being yourself and giving Nashville a reason for optimism in the middle of a week when another country star was ripping open an old, deep wound in Music City by simply, it appears, being himself.

T.J., the lead singing half of the brothers duo BROTHERS OBSORNE, came out as gay in a story in TIME MAGAZINE that, by the magazine's reckoning, makes him "the only openly gay artist signed to a major country label." That assertion got a thumbs-up from social media fact-checkers, who added that he appears to be the first mainstream country star to *ever* come out anywhere near the peak of his career. "You have just changed and saved a whole lot of lives," said CHELY WRIGHT, who was closeted when she was topping the country charts in the late '90s and came out several years later. There are plenty of openly gay voices in country, including A-list songwriters SHANE MCANALLY and BRANDY CLARK and elder statespeople like Wright and TY HERNDON, but having a legit current star come out will be a godsend for anyone trying to make it in Nashville who needs the assurance that they'll be welcomed. Representation matters.

Will the business, which is neither as conversative as its reputation nor as as liberal as its cousins in New York and Los Angeles, in fact welcome Osborne? The mood Wednesday was celebratory, and Osborne seemed cool, calm and collected, but that doesn't change the fact that he's stepping out on an untested ledge. He's stepping out and trying to lead the business forward. An act of cool, calm, collected courage. "I don’t think I’m going to get run off the stage in Chicago," he told Time's SAM LANSKY. "But in a rural town playing a county fair? I’m curious how this will go." His brother and bandmate, JOHN, pointed out that their songs generally aren't gender-specific: "If our songs were all about, 'Climb on up in my truck, girl,' that might really confuse some people." Dear country radio: You can, and hopefully will, climb up in that truck. The door's open. You just need to step on through.

Country radio, meanwhile, finished kicking MORGAN WALLEN out of its truck on Wednesday, less than a day after TMZ posted video of him shouting the N-word outside his house. The reaction was amazingly fast and all but unanimous: COUNTRY AIRCHECK reported that Wallen, who's had the #1 album in the country for the past month, received 311 total spins across 159 reporting radio stations between midnight and 6 a.m. Central Time Wednesday, but only 67 spins between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m., and a paltry 32 spins in the five hours after that. IHEARTRADIO, CUMULUS and ENTERCOM all ordered their stations to drop Wallen from their playlists. (Think of all that newly available airtime for Brothers Osborne!) CMT pulled his videos, the ACADEMY OF COUNTRY MUSIC disqualified him from this year's ACM AWARDS and the COUNTRY MUSIC ASSOCIATION removed him from its website. His songs disappeared from SPOTIFY and APPLE MUSIC playlists (cue the questions).

Wallen's label, BIG LOUD, said it's suspending him "indefinitely" but didn't say what that means. Is it a prelude to dropping him or a way of scolding him while still collecting whatever sales and royalties may remain? So many questions remain, too. Is the fast industry response a sign of an absolute no-tolerance-for-racism policy? Or is it more a sign of no tolerance for one particular star whose offstage behavior has gotten him into deep trouble three times in less than a year? Is racism canceled or just Morgan Wallen? Will he get a third or fourth chance? Does he deserve one? Has a clear signal now been sent to everyone else who needs to hear it? Will the signal still be sounding a month from now? A year from now? Can everyone in Nashville (and Knoxville and Dallas and Phoenix and Chicago and and and) hear it? Every programmer? Every marketing and A&R exec? Every singer? Every agent? Every fan?

Plus Also Too

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Rest in Peace

DANNY RAY, who was JAMES BROWN's longtime emcee and "cape man"... JIM WEATHERLY, who wrote "MIDNIGHT TRAIN TO GEORGIA" and several other GLADYS KNIGHT & THE PIPS hits... A 28-year-old dove named DIVINITY.