Long before the internet-breaking, shaved-head Morgan Wallen era, there was the questionable dangly earring-wearing Wallen era. In case you’ve also erased it from your memory, Wallen used to sport a gold cross earring out of his left ear around 2019, in between the transition of his 2018 debut album If I Know Me and the 2021 release of Dangerous.
It was an iconic look at the time for the Tennessee native who was rocking a grungier country-rock look alongside the classic mullet. There are certainly some mixed opinions about the style, but one thing is for sure: the story behind that piercing is more surprising than the accessory itself.
A resurfaced TikTok clip from a 2019 interview sheds light on how it all went down. In the video, Wallen explains that the earring was a tag team effort between him and fellow artist HARDY. Wallen had shared with HARDY that he wanted a cross earring as a nod to his Christian upbringing, given his dad is a preacher, and told a crowd at the time, “It means a lot to me.”
He goes on to share that HARDY took on the role as Wallen’s personal piercer:
“Couple weeks later, he comes up to my bus and he’s dangling this cross earring, I’m like, okay, we’re really doing this.”
The next details of the story are straight out of a sitcom. Foregoing the easy route of going to a professional shop or even the at-home DIY version of using a needle and an apple, the two get creative.
“We were gonna pierce it, you know, normally, how you should pierce an ear, with a needle or something, you know, but there was no needle to be found.”
“So we uh there was no E string of the guitar so we got the B string and he stuck a guitar string through my ear and that’s how he pierced my ear.”
These days, Wallen and HARDY are best known for co-writing hits like “Sand in My Boots” and “More Than My Hometown,” and collaborating on tracks such as “He Went to Jared” and “Come Back As a Redneck.” But this earring story might be the ultimate proof of their close friendship, or maybe just a case of classic on-tour boredom.
Wallen has since ditched the earring (whether because of fashion evolution or a guitar-string-related infection, we’ll never know). But his faith still shines through, especially in recent songs like “I Ain’t Comin’ Back” and “Revelation” off his latest album, I’m The Problem.
It’ll be exciting to hear songs like these, as well as a few of the 35 others off of I’m The Problem at his upcoming tour, which kicks off June 20 in Houston, TX. Who knows, maybe Wallen will rock some new styles (hopefully no tetanus-infected earrings though).
Check Out the Dates:
- 6/20 Houston, TX
- 6/21 Houston, TX
- 6/28 Madison, WI
- 7/11 Miami Gardens, FL
- 7/12 Miami Gardens, FL
- 7/18 Glendale, AZ
- 7/19 Glendale, AZ
- 7/25 Seattle, WA
- 7/26 Seattle, WA
- 8/1 Santa Clara, CA
- 8/2 Santa Clara, CA
- 8/15 Cleveland, OH
- 8/16 Cleveland, OH
- 8/22 Foxborough, MA
- 8/23 Foxborough, MA
- 9/4 Toronto, ON
- 9/5 Toronto, ON
- 9/12 Edmonton, AB
- 9/13 Edmonton, AB
Watch the interview clip: