Justin Bieber Apologizes For Morgan Wallen Shoutout: “I Had No Idea”

If you follow music news at all, you’ll probably recall that country star Morgan Wallen was filmed drunkenly screaming the N-word in January. (Just last month, he went on Good Morning America and told Michael Strahan that his use of the racial slur was “playful” and that he “didn’t mean it in any derogatory manner.”) One person who apparently hadn’t heard, though, was Justin Bieber, who has now apologized after giving Wallen a shout-out on his Instagram story.

Bieber posted a screenshot of Wallen’s song “Sand In My Boots” on his Instagram Story today with the caption “Love this album.” Within hours, though, Bieber had deleted the post and replaced it with a three-slide apology. “I had no idea that the guy’s music I posted was recently found saying racist comments, as you know I don’t support or tolerate any sort of racism or discrimination,” Bieber wrote. “I had no idea, I sincerely apologize to anyone I offended.”

Bieber himself got into some hot water a few years ago when videos of a teenaged Biebs saying the N-word surfaced online. He acknowledged that history in his Instagram apology, saying:

When I was a kid, I was incredibly ignorant and said some very hurtful racist jokes that clearly were not funny. I hurt a lot of people especially the black people in my life but was fortunate enough to have had them educate me on the horrifying origins of the n word. This brings those painful memories back up, I will always take ownership for my ignorance and my past because I know I am not that person. I know that I have apologized for this before but knowing that this is such a sensitive issue I believe it’s important to bring this up to hopefully educate people who may be ignorant to the topic of racism and how hurtful it is.

“I have so much more to learn and I’m grateful for my black brothers and sisters for being patient with me as I have a long way to go,” Bieber’s apology concluded.

Elsewhere on his Instagram story, Bieber lamented that the media still uses bad old photos of him in his skeevy-mustache phase: “I’m still in shock we are still using those photos of me, I’m telling you media wants to pick bad photos of me to make it look like I’m not okay … There have been countless photo shoots and oppertunities [sic] for media to pick up other photos but they still run with this one to make me look sick and unwell, its not right.”