Country singer Morgan Wallen, who was the subject of controversy this year after he repeatedly admitted to using the n-word, seems to have quietly re-inserted himself into the public sphere. Wallen’s label, Big Loud, sent his song “Sand in My Boots,” the opening track to his 2021 record Dangerous: The Double Album, to country radio recently. Most radio stations banned Wallen’s music after his February admission to using the racial slur, effectively blocking him from a large source of chart qualifications. The song, while only playing on a fraction of radio stations, is gaining the most traction in Wallen’s home state of Tennessee.

Wallen’s controversy, coming after a year in which he was arrested for public intoxication and yanked off Saturday Night Live for partying during the pandemic, led to his booking agency dropping him and his label temporarily suspending him. It didn’t have much of an impact on his success, however—his record was the highest-selling album of the first half of 2021, Billboard reports.