Kenan Thompson Responds To Morgan Wallen’s Awkward ‘Saturday Night Live’ Exit
Billboard Women in Music 2025
Kenan Thompson has issued a response to Morgan Wallen‘s awkward and “abrupt” exit from the set of last week’s episode of Saturday Night Live. During the broadcast, the country singer is seen hastily leaving after the show ends, not staying around to interact with the cast, as musical guests typically do.
“I don’t know what goes through people’s minds when they decide to do stuff like that. I don’t know if he understood the assignment or not, or if he was really feeling a certain kind of way,” the 46-year-old shared with Entertainment Weekly. “You see somebody before you get a chance to say hi or say good job or anything like that, they just dipping,” he continued adding, “I thought maybe he had to go to the potty or something.”
After his departure, Wallen posted an Instagram story arriving at a private jet and requesting “Get me to God’s country,” per Variety. The on-screen exit and the social media post quickly spread on social media, however, a source informed the outlet that the musician “had no tension,” and “had a good time” on SNL.
SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE — Episode 1879 — Pictured: (l-r) Musical guest Morgan Wallen and host Mikey Madison during Goodnights & Credits on Saturday, March 29, 2025
Will Heath/NBC
Thompson informed EW that he “never met” Wallen during his time on set or his first appearance on the sketch comedy series back in December 2020.
“Prince did the same thing,” explained the long-time SNL cast member. “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. So we just thought like, ‘Okay, now he’s gone back into fantasyland.’”
He continued, “But Saturday, I guess it was just different because it just felt so abrupt. 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.”
Kenan Thompson attends SNL50: The Anniversary Special on February 16, 2025 in New York City.
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images
The Good Burger star also responded to Wallen’s cryptic “God’s country” social media exclamation.
“The ‘God’s country’ of it all is strange because it’s like, what are you trying to say? You trying to say that we are not in God’s country? We’re not all in God’s country? We’re not all under God’s umbrella? That’s not necessarily my favorite,” relayed the comedic actor.
This week, Jack Black is set to guest-host SNL for the fourth time, with Elton John and Brandi Carlile as the musical guests. The series airs Saturdays at 11:30 p.m. ET/8:30 p.m. PT on NBC and Peacock with every season available on the streamer.
