'One Thing at a Time' is out now.
Morgan Wallen is looking back. ET's Cassie DiLaura traveled to the 29-year-old singer's hometown of Corryton, Tennessee, to accompany him on a visit to his former high school, and things quickly got emotional when Wallen stepped out onto his old baseball field.
"I spent a lot of time on this field," Wallen tells ET, adding that "this place right here played a huge part in making me who I am."
The visit to the field was Wallen's first time back in a long time, and he tearfully admits that he was "pretty emotional" about his return.
"It's important to me. I never thought that I would be able to do this. I had dreams of playing baseball. My life obviously took a different turn for the better, God had different plans, but it's cool to come back here," he says. "We had a good team. We had a very close-knit team. I love my coach. He's still a coach. It's just a lot of good things that run through my head when I step on this field, so it makes me probably more proud than almost anything."
Wallen's visit to his alma mater was for more than a walk down memory lane; the singer was there to perform at an album release party for his third LP, One Thing at a Time. The attendees at the hometown concert were the current high school seniors. "I guess that's my senior gift to the them," Wallen says.
"They came to us with this idea," Wallen tells ET of Spotify, who presented the show. "I can't even take credit for it. We immediately jumped on it. They have always been good to us and a good partner. I was just thrilled. I was very excited to do this with them, so thank you, Spotify."
During the show, Wallen and his Morgan Wallen Foundation presented a $35,000 check for the school's music and sports departments.
"We wanted to say thank you tonight and help you out with a couple things, so we wrote a $35,000 check," he told the crowd. "It's going to go towards instruments for the choral department, instruments for the band department and then for baseball -- a new field cart -- so we can help get this field back in shape after y'all trampled on it tonight."
In addition to the donation, the teens were treated to an emotional set, as Wallen got "choked up," both while performing and while discussing his 2-year-old son, Indigo, onstage, a source tells ET.
"When he mentioned his son and becoming a father, Morgan had to pause and wipe his eyes before continuing to tell fans that his boy changed his life," the source says. "His son was in the audience dancing to his dad's music for most of the one-hour set."
Wallen's on-stage comments about how fatherhood changed him mirror his statements to ET.
"I didn't have a whole big plan, I just floated until I got to that point -- that's what it felt like anyway -- but when he was born, it kinda just put a whole new purpose and perspective in my mind," he says. "I had more important things to do every day, just knowing how much that he's gonna understand, how much he's gonna see of me. I know how important I'm gonna be to him and I know how important my dad was to me, so I'm just trying to be that for him."
With One Thing at a Time finally out in the world, Wallen says it "feels good" to have new music to share with his fans.
"We've been working hard for a while. I think as soon as Dangerous was out I started writing, I started recording," he says of his 2021 album. "It feels really good. It feels different 'cause I'm different. I'm in a different place in my life than I was in the last one, so I'm really proud of it and I'm really looking forward to just letting people hear it."
For Wallen, the "tremendously" therapeutic album is his way of sharing who he is with the world.
"Music has always spoke to me in a different way than anything else. I'm not always great at talking or giving speeches, [but] music has just always communicated to me in the strongest way possible. That's no different with this," he says. "[In] every aspect of my life, the music has always been some sort of healing... I've always felt such a strong connection to music and I think God probably gave me that. I'm just fortunate to have that."
"It's always a work in progress," Wallen adds. "I'm doing the best I can, I truly do care about what people think of me. I want to be viewed as a good man. I try to be, but I just want that to be known -- I'm just doing the best I can."
One Thing at a Time is out now.
RELATED CONTENT:
