Morgan Wallen confronts being 'America's problem' in fiery Arizona concert

As a grinning Morgan Wallen was escorted to the stage at State Farm Stadium by local legend Randy Johnson of the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday, July 18, his latest album, “I’m the Problem,” was still holding strong at No. 1 on Billboard’s album chart.

Of course, it’s only been eight weeks.

Wallen’s previous album, “One Thing at a Time,” spent 19 weeks at No. 1 — the most weeks any country act has ever spent on top, which followed the success of “Dangerous,” a multi-platinum breakthrough Billboard named the most successful album of the century so far.

Country star Morgan Wallen performs before a packed Camp Randall Stadium in Madison on June 28, 2025. The show, the first of two nights of concerts, was the first major concert at the University of Wisconsin-Madison football stadium since 1997.

By any reasonable metric, he’s the most successful country artist of his generation, requiring a two-night stand at State Farm Stadium to meet demand for ticket sales.

Morgan Wallen can't stop falling into fresh controversies

But there’s a reason he would choose to name his latest tour and album “I’m the Problem.”

It wasn’t long after releasing “Dangerous,” in early 2021, that TMZ released a video that showed the up-and-coming country star shouting the N-word and other profanities at a carload of friends outside his Nashville home after a heavy night of drinking.

Wallen’s label suspended his contract. Spotify, SiriusXM, Pandora, Apple Music, CMT and the nation's most powerful radio chains pulled his music.

Wallen did damage control as best he could: retreating from the spotlight; entering rehab; donating money to the Black Music Action Coalition and the National Museum of African American Music; urging fans not to defend him; apologizing for his actions.

Then, in April 2024, he was arrested in Nashville, having thrown a chair off the roof of Eric Church's newly opened bar. Pleading guilty to reckless endangerment, he was sentenced in December 2024 to seven days in a DUI education center and two years of probation.

Wallen’s reputation took another hit in March in response to his hasty retreat from the set of “Saturday Night Live” before the episode was over, posting an Instagram story from his private plane with the caption, “Get me to God’s country.” 

And the records just kept selling as he leaned into his image as the complex kid who doesn't always do the right thing, often sabotaging his own dreams with impulsive behavior, which may just make him that much more relatable.

Who did Morgan Wallen walk out with? That was Randy Johnson

At his Arizona concert, the screen above the stage was filled with headlines taking the singer to task as “America’s Problem,” “the elephant in the room,” a breaker of COVID-19 mask protocols, “not real country” and more as Wallen brought his set to an incendiary close with “I’m the Problem,” which isn’t about the aforementioned problems so much as it is about the narrator's relationship with a certain Ms. Never Do No Wrong.

By the time the song was through, he’d doused the runway with a liquid meant to look like gasoline and struck a match.

It was beyond intense, brilliantly staged and cathartic as hell, ending in a huge pyrotechnic display as Wallen left the stage, returning in a Randy Johnson baseball jersey for a three-song encore that ended with “The Way I Talk,” a debut single that didn’t necessarily set the charts on fire but remains a staple of his live show.

No surprise. Morgan Wallen's 2025 setlist favors 'I'm the Problem'

The setlist clearly favored “I’m the Problem,” hitting 13 of the album’s 37 songs in the course of a 25-song set.

Those selections included such obvious highlights as “I Got Better,” “Love Somebody,” the Post Malone collaboration “I Had Some Help” (performed without Malone) and a heartwarming “Superman,” in which a father tells his son, “And when you ain't a kid no more, I hope you don't think less of me/ I try to hide my fallin' short, but you're gonna see.”

Ella Langley returned to the stage for a duet on “What I Want” from the new album, singing Tate McRae's part, and Miranda Lambert came back for a spirited version of “Cowgirls,” one of five songs Wallen did from “One Thing at a Time.”

He’s a commanding presence with a talent for putting the lyrics across in a way that's sure to resonate as the members of his six-piece backing band construct a richly textured wall of sound around him.

Midway through the show, he strolled through the crowd to a satellite stage at the opposite end of the venue to perform an unplugged mini-set that featured three of his best vocals of the night — the Jason Isbell song “Cover Me Up,” an emotional “I’m a Little Crazy” (in which the tile is followed by “but the world’s insane”) and a mournful rendition of “Sand in My Boots” with Wallen on piano, which remains an undisputed highlight of his concerts.

Wallen did his best throughout to nurture the connection he’s been building with his ever-growing fan base this whole time.

Before that unplugged mini-set, he talked about the early days of his career when “we’d play pretty much anywhere they’d let us in the door” as they traveled the country in a little van while working their way up to where they are today, headlining rooms as big as State Farm Stadium.

“And one of the things that I miss a little bit about those smaller shows is I could go out on stage and I could look at everybody in the eyes pretty much and just have that connection,” he continued. “These days, it’s a little bit more difficult to accomplish that, but this is my effort to kind of bridge that gap a little bit.”

Miranda Lambert proved she should be headlining stadium tours

Miranda Lambert came out rocking with an organ-driven stomp through “Kerosene,” dressed to impress the locals in a sequined Arizona state flag T-shirt with flowing gold fringes.

It was great to see her work a room as big as State Farm Stadium, leading a seven-piece band of fantastic musicians in a well-paced overview of one of modern country music’s most consistently inspired catalogs on a stage she should be headlining.

And before she was finished, she’d turned in a solo acoustic rendition of “Thought You Should Know,” a Morgan Wallen hit she co-wrote on a Nashville porch front.

Kindred spirit Ella Langley, whose set preceded Lambert’s, strolled out to join in the fun in the midst of a suitably boozy rendition of “Tequila Does,” which included a detour through the instrumental hit “Tequila" by the Champs.

An exceedingly intimate version of “The House That Built Me” drew spontaneous applause on two separate occasions mid-song by the time she invited the audience to take the wheel and it became a massive sing-along.

Lambert was in brilliant voice throughout, from a deeply soulful “Vice” to the playful honky-tonk of “Geraldene,” delivering phrases as brilliantly turned as “You're trailer park pretty, but you're never gonna be Jolene” in that charismatic Texas twang that makes her one of Nashville’s most distinctive vocalists.

And after dusting off the Wallen hit, she signed off with four of her rowdiest numbers — “Drunk (And I Don’t Wanna Go Home)” with backup singer Gwen Sebastian stepping in for duet partner Elle King, “Mama’s Broken Heart,” “Little Red Wagon” and “Gunpowder & Lead.”

Ella Langley looked straight off an early Linda Ronstadt album cover

Ella Langley set the tone for her performance with the sound of crackling vinyl on an old Hank Williams tune, followed by something from Hank Williams Jr. and finally … Rihanna — perhaps not the world's most obvious pairing.

Then she made her entrance in a long black dress with a thigh-high slit and a big silver belt buckle, looking like she’d stepped right off the cover of an early Linda Ronstadt record in oversized hoop earrings and bangs.

Langley carries herself with a swagger that places her closer in spirit to a Gretchen Wilson, whose “Here For the Party” provided a head-banging highlight, or Miranda Lambert, who gave her the cup she was holding when she introduced that Wilson cover.

But she’s got the vocal range to go from rocking with authority to tugging at your heartstrings in moments as vulnerable as that breathtaking version of “Hungover” that may have been the highlight of her set to delivering the spoken narrative of “You Look Like You Love Me” with all the personality at her disposal, which is plenty.

After thanking the fans who caught her performance for showing up early, Langley said she didn’t know if she could get used to playing a place as big as State Farm Stadium.

Then she pointed to the upper reaches of the stadium and said, “I probably couldn’t throw a rock that far.”

Zach John King: 'First stadium I have ever played in my entire life'

Zach John King took the stage in his camo bib overalls for a brief but impressive display of his songwriting talents as early arrivals trickled into State Farm Stadium.

“This is the first stadium I have ever played in my entire life,” he announced before leading his bandmates through a raucous first song about needing a little space.

A few songs later, King revealed that he was sitting in a Waffle House a few days earlier when he got the call to see if he might like to do a show with Morgan Wallen.

He was clearly thrilled to be there, introducing a song titled “Wannabe Cowboy” with the self-effacing revelation that he’d grown up on a cul-de-sac, and then following through with the only cover of his set, the Toby Keith hit “Should’ve Been a Cowboy.”

By the time he signed off with two songs from a new EP called “Slow Down,” you could see how someone figured King might be a good fit for the Wallen tour.

Morgan Wallen 2025 setlist: I'm the Problem Tour songs

These are the songs that made the setlist when Morgan Wallen brought his I'm the Problem Tour to State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona:

• "Broadway Girls" (recording of Lil Durk collaboration)
• “Miami”
• "Ain't That Some"
• ”Kick Myself”
• ”I Got Better”
• ”Love Somebody”
• ”You Proof”
• ”20 Cigarettes”
• “Dark Til Daylight”
• "Kiss Her In Front of You”
• "Don’t We"

B Stage

• "Cover Me Up"
• "I'm a Little Crazy"
• "Sand in My Boots"

Main Stage

• "Up Down"
• "Cowgirls" (with Miranda Lambert)
• “I Had Some Help”
• "Superman"
• ”TN”
• “Thinkin’ Bout Me”
• ”What I Want” (with Ella Langley)
• "More Than My Hometown"
• ”Whiskey Glasses”
• ”I’m the Problem”

Encore

• "Last Night"
• “Just in Case”
• "The Way I Talk"

Ed has covered pop music for The Republic since 2007, reviewing festivals and concerts, interviewing legends, covering the local scene and more. He did the same in Pittsburgh for more than a decade. Follow him on X and Instagram @edmasley and on Facebook as Ed Masley. Email him at [email protected].