“Morgan Waylon”? Jeff Bridges Mispronounces Morgan Wallen's Name While Revealing Night's Biggest CMA Award

Jeff Bridges is many things – and 'legendary actor' is certainly one of them. Not only did Bridges bring The Dude to life in 1998; The Big Lebowski, creating one of the most beloved (and imitated) movie characters of the last 30 years, but he beautifully portrayed an alcoholic country singer in 2009 Crazy Heart and won the Academy Award for Best Actor for it.

Shortly after Crazy HeartBridges – who played guitar with Kris Kristofferson when the two worked together in the 1980s Gate of Heaven – began to take music more seriously in a professional sense. After appearing live a few times and trying his hand at covering some classic country songs, Bridges recorded his own self-titled country music album in 2011 with legendary producer T Bone Burnett.

So yes, he is an actor, a singer and a legend. But it seems Bridges might not be a particularly careful listener when it comes to country music today, at least based on his appearance at the 2024 CMA Awards on Wednesday (November 20). Presenting Artist of the Year (the biggest award given by the Country Music Association) at Nashville's Bridgestone Arena, Bridges announced that Morgan Wallen – one of the most popular artists in any genre today – was the winner. But instead of pronouncing Wallen as Wallen, Bridges said “Morgan Waylon” (or maybe “Morgan Whalen” – maybe he read Moby-Dick recently).

“Morgan's not here, man, Morgan couldn't make it tonight, so I'll take it for him,” Bridges said after mispronouncing the last name.

“Let's hear it for Morgan!” he continued as 2024 CMA co-hosts Luke Bryan, Peyton Manning and Lainey Wilson rushed the stage to relieve him in the moment with some comments and jokes about their special CMA T-shirts.

Wallen, Waylon. Tomato, tomato. Well, you can't be right all the time, can you? And it's nothing a white Russian – or a rug that really ties a room together – can't fix.