Most headlining acts give their openers a nice farewell gift when the tour ends. Sometimes it's jewelry, a cash bonus, a nice bottle of liquor, a personalized item or something else heartfelt. But Morgan Wallen gave one of his tour openers, Lauren Watkins, something truly unique: a gun.
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The gift was revealed when Watkins was asked if she kept in touch with Wallen. Watkins previously opened for him on his One Night At A Time World Tour.
"I just texted him the turkey I killed the other day," Watkins tells Taste of Country Nights.
Watkins goes on to explain that she sent Wallen the photo because he gifted her the gun.
"He gifted me a gun for end of tour," Watkins says. She adds that Wallen gave her a very nontraditional gift.
"I've always been a turkey hunter, so I was like, 'Oh this is perfect, I could use this,'" Watkins reveals.
Fortunately, Wallen didn't just hand Watkins a gun after her final show with him. He actually did something much safer.
"We share an agent, so it was there at the office waiting for me," she recalls. "They were like, 'Hey, we got a surprise for you, you might want to come by and see it.'"
Few artists get the chance Watkins did to open for the global superstar.
"It was wild," Watkins tells iHeartRadio. "I mean, one, I've been a fan of his for forever...and then you get to know him and you get to know that whole crew, and it's like 'wow, these are just cool, good people.' They are fun."
Morgan Wallen's New Album And Tour
Watkins isn't opening for Wallen on his upcoming tour. Wallen will embark on his I'm The Problem Tour on June 20, joined by a rotating list of opening acts, including Brooks & Dunn, Miranda Lambert, Thomas Rhett and Koe Wetzel, among others. The tour is in support of Wallen's latest I'm The Problem album, out on May 16.
I'm The Problem, Wallen's fourth studio album, will be much different than his previous ones.
"It's just subtle changes. It don't have to be huge things," Wallen says on This Past Weekend with Theo Von. "My last album I had plenty of trap beats and stuff like that. This time I was like, 'Hey man, let's tone that back a little bit.'"
"I'm tired of it. I'm tired of hearing it. So if I'm tired of it they're probably tired of hearing it," he adds. "It's just certain things that, you can still get that same swagger, you can accomplish certain things without doing the same exact thing."
