Kenan Thompson wants to know what “complicated individual” Morgan Wallen was trying to say with that cryptic Instagram message after he raced off the Saturday Night Live stage in what appeared to be a snub of the cast.
“I don’t know what goes through people’s minds when they decide to do stuff like that,” Thompson told Entertainment Weekly. “I don’t know if he understood the assignment or not, or if he was really feeling a certain kind of way.”
Thompson was reacting to the strange moment the country star, at the end of his episode as musical guest alongside host Mikey Madison, “abruptly” left the stage before the traditional SNL ending where the cast and hosts mingle as the credits roll.
After Wallen’s rough history with the show, which included his canceled debut for breaking the show’s 2020 COVID protocols ahead of the show, fans interpreted the moment as bad blood. Sources told TMZ that Wallen’s exit was an accident, though his cryptic post—“get me to God’s country”—after the show only fueled speculation (and some memes). The phrase normally refers to rural, predominantly Christian areas of the country and is a common theme in country music.
Thompson admitted that what really annoyed him was the country star’s message on his Instagram post after the fact, which he wrote over a photo of the private jet waiting to take him from New York City.
“The ‘God’s country’ of it all is strange because it’s like, what are you trying to say?” Thompson asked. “You trying to say that we are not in God’s country?” This, after Wallen’s “abrupt” exit during the part of the show where hosts and musical guests show goodwill with the cast, prompted Thompson to conclude that Wallen “seems like a complicated individual.”
“You see somebody before you get a chance to say hi or say good job or anything like that, they just dipping,” Thompson said, telling the site that he hadn’t even had the chance to meet the star. “I thought maybe he had to go to the potty or something.”
“It was just different because it just felt so abrupt,” he continued, “And it was already such a small grouping on the stage anyway. So it was just like, oh wow, that was pretty visible. You know what I’m saying? It was a pretty visible thing.”
Thompson continued, “We’re not all in God’s country? We’re not all under God’s umbrella? That’s not necessarily my favorite.”
“It’s definitely a spike in the norm” because “we’re so used to everybody just turning around and high-fiving us, everybody’s saying, ‘Good job, good job, good job,’ so when there’s a departure from that, it’s like, hmm, I wonder what that’s about?” Thompson added.
But in his 22 years in the cast, he does remember one other musical guest taking off early.
“Prince did the same thing,” Thompson revealed, though he was sure to add, “I’m not saying Morgan Wallen is Prince, but we weren’t surprised because Prince was notoriously kind of standoffish. It’s just how he was.”
