Metro Nashville Council Member Jeff Eslick provided an inside look of the council’s decision to deny a sign from being displayed on the exterior of country music artist Morgan Wallen’s downtown bar, explaining how the ordinance to deny such display dealt with “aerial encroachment” and was a “standard operating procedure” before members personally smeared the artist for his past actions.
“Aerial encroachment is what the ordinance was about. It’s for a sign to go over like a sidewalk or in an alleyway…We probably have five to 15 of these that go through without even being discussed and they go through on a bigger piece, the consent agenda, which may have 15 to 40 or 50 pieces of legislation that goes through at the same time. Again, all of these are so simple that they really are all understood. They’ve already gone through committee, they have been approved at other levels whether it’s with Metro Water, or planning, or whatever it is,” Eslick explained on Thursday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
“So when it came up, Council Member Kupin pulled it off consent and he said a little bit about it at the beginning of having some concerns about the bar stool incident. But even though he did have those concerns, he said he was going to support it. That started a wildfire and it really wasn’t as much about throwing something off the Chief’s building,” Eslick added.
The council’s decision to deny the sign from being displayed comes as Wallen currently faces criminal charges after he allegedly threw a chair off the roof of Eric Church’s bar, Chief’s on Broadway, and nearly hit a police officer.
Eslick said while discussing the aerial encroachment ordinance, council members condemned the singer for his past language and “deemed him a racist.”
“It was more about the comments that he made a few years back that deemed him a racist. That’s more so what it was. And again, it wasn’t as much about, and I’m sure there was a percentage of both being in there, but more of the discussion from the other council members was about the wording that he used late night, and again I’m not going to claim to know everything, but from my understanding, the term wasn’t used in a derogatory way toward an African American. It was toward one of his friends and it was more used as a term of endearment between friends, where It’s used that way a lot in songs and in other ways where it’s not meant to be a bad term,” Eslick said.
Noting how the council’s decision to deny Wallen’s sign from being displayed won’t “change people’s minds” about the singer, Eslick said he believes that the council’s decision “opens the door” for a legal intervention.
“[Wallen] is super popular right now. He sold out three shows…at Nissan Stadium just recently. So you can look at it from another way. There are a ton of people, like even when the racist stuff came out a while back and everybody was trying to keep him from being on award shows and other things, his album went to number one and stayed number one. So you’re not going to change people’s minds about Morgan Wallen by not letting him have a sign,” Eslick said.
“I do think it opened the door for some action on their side to either make this go away or use that as a way to get the council to let this happen,” Eslick added.
Eslick also addressed the rise in crime throughout Music City during Thursday’s interview, saying how he has been working on a strategy since October to help reduce crime by encouraging law enforcement to follow the broken windows theory and enforce the smallest of laws in order to reduce crimes committed by those who feel “emboldened.”
“I think in a way we have allowed people to be emboldened to do more. I know there’s a lot of research out there as far as video games and other influences that create the culture of being at ease with a gun or being at ease with violence. For one thing, I do believe our Metro Police Department is working hard on all this…But I do think we need to make sure that we are keeping the windows from being broken,” Eslick said.
Eslick then gave an example of how, as a Metro Council member, he has stayed true to his agenda regarding homeless encampments and panhandlers.
“I know there’s a lot of pressure out there because of social issues that have happened that have put us in a precarious position, but you have to push through that. You have to do what’s right and not just ignore some of the stuff because you feel like you’re going to be the one that people post about or hate on or make memes about, and I’m willing to do that. I ran on an unpopular part as far as when it comes to the homeless in my neighborhood. I wasn’t going to let it establish and grow and I’ve stayed true to that. I go talk to them. If you set up in my neighborhood, in my district, I will personally come talk to you,” Eslick explained.
“We had something over the weekend on Friday afternoon on old Hickory Boulevard and Robinson Road right there by the green bridge going to Madison. There was a car that was set up with a big pop up tent…On Sunday, I went to that vehicle and I told that person that this is not going to be allowed and that I will have this vehicle impounded. I will take all the steps necessary to make this happen in the way that it’s supposed to happen. I’ve already gone through the process, I’m familiar with the process, and I will put the process in place. On Tuesday, they were gone and they left on their own,” Eslick added.
Regarding the police enforcing the law, Eslick pointed to statistics from the Metro Nashville Police Department, specifically data that shows traffic stops are “dramatically down.”
“If you pull up some of the data on the police department, you’ll find that we are dramatically down in traffic stops. If we’re not making traffic stops, then we’re doing the same thing. We’re allowing people to be emboldened to speed and we’re not stopping or citing people for loud mufflers. I’m old now. I’m the ‘get off my lawn’ guy and I don’t want those cars that pop and are super loud…I don’t know why we don’t set up in front of muffler shops because they openly specialize in doing this. Why are we allowing them to put these together and sell this when we know once they roll out, they are automatically in violation of the noise ordinance, which we are not enforcing,” Eslick pointed out.
“If you also look at the [road] fatalities from 2018 to 2023, we are up 75 percent in fatalities. We went from 80 to 140 in that time,” Eslick added. “I feel like it’s a citywide issue that would help everyone, every single person.”
Watch the full interview:
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Morgan Wallen” by Paul to my Linda. CC BY-SA 4.0.
