Matt Rife's Mullet Hairdo At 2024 People's Choice Country Awards Screams Morgan Wallen Wannabe

The 2024 People's Choice Country Awards saw comedian Matt Rife debut a new hairdo, and something tells us he was inspired by the evening's biggest winner: Morgan Wallen, four-time awardee, proud mullet owner, and, as it turns out, Rife's hair salon reference pic. That the controversial comedian opted to try what seems to be the early stages of a Wallen-esque mullet probably isn't a surprise to everyone. After all, Rife is relatively fresh out of a relationship with Jessica Lord, so there's a pretty good chance he wants to experiment a little. However, upon closer inspection, it turns out the up-and-coming funnyman has actually been sporting a slightly longer 'do for a while leading up to the People's Choice Country Awards. 

Oh hey @mattrife 👋#PCCAs | #LiveFromE pic.twitter.com/nuReNKXYVr

— People's Choice Country Awards (@peopleschoice) September 26, 2024

In an August 2024 pic Rife posted to Instagram of himself with 50 Cent, the back of his hair already looked a little longer than what we're used to. Granted, it could still easily have passed as a regular hairstyle. That said, in another pic he shared closer to the end of August, the beginnings of a mullet were much harder to miss. Perhaps we didn't pick up on the early days of this brave new style because it was still so fresh, or maybe we just didn't want to believe it (because, hello, it's a mullet). 

But sure enough, by the time Rife hit the red carpet at the glitzy awards ceremony, his striking new hairdo was unmistakable. Maybe we shouldn't be all that shocked though. After all, while Rife has come close to being cancelled, Wallen's image isn't exactly squeaky clean either. See: Wallen's felony arrest, the fact that he's officially banned from the AMAs among other awards shows, and several other notable scandals. With that in mind, could Rife's hair be some kind of show of solidarity?

Whatever Matt Rife's reasoning for going the Kentucky waterfall route, it bears mentioning that he's far from the only person to have been inspired by Morgan Wallen's iconic mullet. In fact, the singer-songwriter has spoken extensively about his hairdo becoming a trend. Despite first sporting the mullet for a surprisingly heartwarming reason (his dad always rocked one and they're super close), Wallen acknowledged that it eventually ended up becoming his signature lewk. So much so, in fact, that he started noticing his fans trying it out for themselves. As Wallen proudly disclosed to People in 2019, "Dudes show up to my concerts with mullets and cutoff flannels! I was like, 'Man, what is going on here?' I love it. So I've stuck to it." 

Of course, not everyone is as enamored with the Camero cut as Rife and the scores of Wallen fans who followed suit to match it. In fact, in that very same interview, the country star admitted that his own team were pretty unenthusiastic when he first debuted the style. "Everybody else in my label and management were like, 'What are you doing?'" Wallen recalled. It's pretty clear that Rife fell into the former category, rather than the latter. And, luckily for the budding mullet-ee, in another 2019 chat about the 'do, Wallen detailed the steps it took for him to properly nail the divisive style. 

"It really took a few months to grow into a mullet. I think about six months before you could see what I was trying to do. Before those six months, you might have wondered, like, 'What is this guy doing?'" he joked with the Associated Press. Guess that means the comedian's early-stage mullet could one day live up to its inspiration. Until then, we guess we'll avert our eyes. TBH, we'll probably avert them once it's grown out properly, too.