Ashley McBryde and Noah Reid Poke Fun at Morgan Wallen's Arrest at 2024 ACMs: 'You Should Smile in the Mug Shot'

Morgan Wallen may not have been at the 2024 ACM Awards, but the night’s hosts were still thinking of him.

When presenting the award for single of the year, Ashley McBryde and Outer range star Noah Reid hit out at the country star’s recent arrest, which came after he allegedly threw a chair off the roof of Eric Church’s bar Chief’s in downtown Nashville.

To introduce each of the nominees in the category, McBryde and Reid took turns singing an original song in which they wrote cheeky new lyrics set to the tunes of each of the nominated songs.

Luke Combs was nominated, and later won, for the song “Fast Car,” prompting McBryde to sing to Reid, “Do you have a star bar? Is it down on lower Broadway? Oh, you don’t know? Me neither. I’ve heard good things about Eric’s place.”

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At that point, Reid broke into the melody of Wallen’s nominated song “Last Night,” singing, “Last night after some alcohol, [that] the chair there was really starting to piss me off. It told me I dumped him on someone I’ve never met, and my publicist keeps telling me it’s not over yet.”

Check out PEOPLE’s full coverage of the ACM Awards here.

Afterward, McBryde joked, “You should smile in the photo,” in a nod to Wallen’s smile in his photo.

Metropolitan Nashville Police Department

Wallen, who recently dropped the single “I Had Some Help” with Post Malone, did not attend the ACM Awards. He is currently on the One Night at a Time Tour, with a show in New Jersey on Friday, May 17th.

He was arrested on April 7 after allegedly throwing a chair, and charged with three counts of reckless endangerment and disturbing public order.

The star later addressed the rudeness in a statement shared on X (formerly Twitter), in which he said he was “not proud” of his behaviour.

“I didn’t feel right coming forward publicly until I made amends with some people. I touched the base of law in Nashville, my family and the good people at the Chiefs. I am not proud of my behavior and accept responsibility,” he wrote. “I have the utmost respect for the officers who work every day to keep us all safe. As for my tour, there will be no changes.”

Wallen’s case continues in Nashville on August 15.

Ashley McBryde at the ACM Awards on May 16, 2024 in Frisco, Texas.

Jason Kempin/Getty

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“This is obviously a very complicated case and it’s not going to resolve itself without subpoenas and witnesses,” Wallen’s attorney, Worrick Robinson, told reporters. “We’re going to work on the case from our end and then Morgan will be here on August 15. A couple of things could happen — we might have a hearing, we might settle the case, or the case might continue. Those are the options.”

Robinson continued: “We are not being asked to plead guilty.”

The 2024 Academy of Country Music Awards are broadcast live on Prime Video from the Ford Center at The Star in Texas.

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