Jack White Will Replace Morgan Wallen As The Musical Guest On Tomorrow’s Episode Of “Saturday Night Live”
Earlier this week, we learned who Morgan Wallen was, and not in the way his agent would have liked. Morgan is a country singer who went viral last weekend, metaphorically, but possibly literally as well, when he was caught in multiple videos published to social media, showing him kissing and partying with a whole mess of random fans. That’s a big no-no when you’re scheduled to be the musical guest of Saturday Night Live, a show that has done the most to make it look like they’re taking COVID-19 safety precautions very seriously. So Morgan was removed from the show, and the last-minute replacement to swoop in and save the day (or night, if you will), is Jack White.
SNL works on a notoriously tight six-day schedule. By Wednesday, sketches have been written and the layout of the show is finalized. That means, if there are any sketches that involve the musical guest, they’re locked in by Wednesday night so that production (costumes, sets, wigs, and all that) can be worked on the next day. On Wednesday of this week, SNL announced that Morgan was officially out as musical guest.
I don’t know if Morgan and Shane Gillis got together to chat about what it’s like to get caught online being a dumb fuck, and fired before you hear the words, “Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night!“. But much like Shane Gillis, Lorne Michaels has quickly washed his hands of that bad PR. Lorne appeared in a segment for the TODAY show this morning in which he let Willie Geist know all about how he planned to fix this musical guest mess. And it still sort of sounds like it could be a mess, to be honest.
“I know Jack White is coming in, and there could be some other stuff still in discussion,” Michaels told Willie. Having to switch gears on the fly meant several factors coming together quickly for this weekend’s show, which will be hosted by comedian and actor Bill Burr.
“It depends on whether their band is together,” Michaels said. “Calling somebody on a Thursday to be here for Friday and say, you know, is complicated. It has to be people who are ready to go.”
Lorne said of Jack White: “He’s always good on the show, just always good.”
Jack White has appeared on SNL three previous times, in 2002, 2012, and 2018. It looks like the decision to add him to the show was made after they released the promos for this week’s show, which only have Bill Burr’s name on them.
Hopefully, Jack can hold off on making out with strangers at a mask-optional party. It’s only 34 hours Jack, you can do it! As for Morgan Wallen, well Lorne told Willie that he planned to have Morgan back on the show at another time. That’s great. But we don’t know how long this pandemic is going to go. If Lorne decides to bring him back any time soon, someone should tell him that if he needs to kiss something, to kiss Lorne’s ass for not blacklisting him.
Pic: Instagram