Morgan Wallen is known almost as much for his retro hair as he is for his music. The 26-year-old proudly sports a mullet, even though he knows not everyone – including his Big Loud record label – is a fan of the style.
“Not everybody likes it,” Wallen admitted to Music Row. “Everybody at my label was like ‘No! We are not doing a mullet!’ But I was like, ‘Give it a chance. What could it hurt?’”
Videos by PopCulture.com
Wallen had the idea for the unique hairstyle by looking at photos of his dad when he was around Wallen’s age.
“I [looked at] my parents’ wedding photos and my dad had a mean mullet,” Wallen said.
“My dad and I are very similar in looks and personality. If you put our pictures side by side of me at 26 and my dad at 26, it would be scary how we look alike.”
One thing is different between Wallen’s hair and his dad’s hair back then, at least for now, although the Tennessee native won’t completely rule it out in the future.
“He had a perm in his,” Wallen recalled. “I don’t have a perm in mine — yet. It turned into this whole thing that I didn’t really mean to happen. I think that makes me like it even better, because I wasn’t doing it as a branding or business move. And it’s a throwback to earlier country singers.”
Fans might be divided on his hair, but they all agree one one thing, that Wallen’s latest single, “Whiskey Glasses,” is a hit. The song, which stayed at the top of the charts for three weeks, always gets a strong reaction when he performs it night after night while serving as the opening act on Florida Georgia Line‘s Can’t Say I Ain’t Country Tour, a welcome return after previously opening for the duo in 2017.
“I end my set with that now, and it’s a great note to end on,” Wallen said. “Back then, I had 15 minutes and I didn’t have any hits. It’s been a mind-blowing difference. Every show, the venue has been 90% full when I go out to play, and we are the first of three acts on the bill. That’s special.”
Wallen just released “Chasin’ You,” the fourth and perhaps final single from his 2018 If I Know Me record.
“I’m really happy with where I am and who I am as a person right now,” Wallen told PopCulture.com of his freshman album. “Just having a lot of fun in life. So I wanted my songs to reflect that. There’s not a whole lot of serious or sad stuff going on on the album, just because that’s where I’m at right now. So with my music, I hope that’s what I always do — wherever I’m at in life, I’m probably gonna stay pretty close to that with my music as well.”
Photo Credit: Getty images/Rick Diamond
