Country music star Morgan Wallen checked into rehab after cameras caught him using the N-Word toward one of his friends after a night of partying. Wallen donated half a million dollars to organizations including the Black Music Action Coalition after his album saw a major spike in popularity after cancel culture kicked into high gear.

Wallen sat down for an interview with Good Morning America‘s Michael Strahan, discussing the backlash he has received since the publication of a February video, featuring the Dangerous singer returning home after a night out partying with friends. The video shows Wallen referring to one of his friends as the N-word.

“Take care of this pussy-ass motherfucker. Take care of this pussy-ass nigga,” Wallen said in the video, referring to his white friend.

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His remarks triggered a wave of backlash, as the Academy of Country Music (ACM) disqualified Wallen from eligibility for the 56th Academy of Country Music Awards and radio networks removed him from hundreds of stations, despite his apology.  Meanwhile, country music fans offered Wallen their support as cancel culture came after him in vehement fashion, boosting his album’s status as he, at one point, took seven of the ten spots on Apple Music’s Top 10 list.

But the incident played a number on Wallen, who told Strahan he ultimately “checked into rehab in San Diego for 30 days, just to try and figure out why I’m acting this way, do I have an alcohol problem, do I have a bigger issue.”

“I had some of my longtime friends in town and we had been partying that weekend and we figured we’d just go hard for the two or three days that they were there,” Wallen told Strahan, explaining the incident.

“We say dumb stuff together,” he continued, explaining they were “clearly drunk.” “In our minds, it was just playful. That sounds ignorant but that’s really where it came from. It was wrong.”

“When I say I used it playfully I understand that that makes it sound like I don’t understand,” he continued, adding that he was “just ignorant about it.”

“I don’t think I ever sat down and said this is right or this is wrong,” the “Somebody’s Problem” singer continued.

Hardy and Morgan Wallen perform onstage during CASH FEST In Celebration Of YouTube Originals Documentary THE GIFT: THE JOURNEY OF JOHNNY CASH at War Memorial Auditorium on November 10, 2019 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Brett Carlsen/Getty Images for YouTube )

The album, Wallen continued, was selling well prior to the event, but he said his team noticed “a spoke in my sales” and tried to figure out how much of it was due to the unseemly video.

“We got to a number around $500,000 and we decided to donate that money to some organizations, BMAC [Black Music Action Coalition] being one,” he added.

Strahan said the spike in sales “tells a lot about country music and the race situation in country music,” and Wallen did not disagree. Instead of recognizing the spike in sales as a demonstrative response to cancel culture itself, Wallen insulted the fans who keep the industry ticking.

“It would seem that way,” Wallen said in response to Strahan effectively asking if the boost in sales indicated a race problem among country music fans. “I haven’t really sat and thought about that.”