Lainey Wilson is a Grammy-nominated country music singer-songwriter best known for songs such as “Things a Man Oughta Know,” “Watermelon Moonshine,” and “Heart Like a Truck.” Wilson traveled to Nashville, Tennessee, at the age of 19, intending to become a country star.
However, many executives thought her musical approach didn’t fit the new genre, and she struggled for years to find popularity. It wasn’t until her songs began to appear on the famous television serial Yellowstone in 2019 that this perspective began to shift and Wilson gained global fame.
At the 2023 CMA Awards, she had the most nominations of any artist, eventually winning five categories, including Entertainer of the Year and Female Vocalist of the Year.
Early Life
Lainey Denay Wilson was born on May 19, 1992, and grew up in Baskin, Louisiana, a small hamlet of less than 300 people. Brian Wilson, a fifth-generation farmer, is her father, and Michelle Wilson, a schoolteacher, is her mother. Janna, Lainey’s older sister, lives nearby.
Her parents’ musical and fashion tastes affected her from a young age. Her father played guitar at the family’s kitchen table, and Lainey and Janna made up dances to accompany his tunes. Brian was influenced by singers such as Buck Owens and Glen Campbell, whom he used to emulate as a child by standing on a picnic table with his guitar and waving to passing vehicles. Lainey admired Dolly Parton as well. She eventually paid tribute to the legendary singer with the 2021 single “WWDD,” standing for “What Would Dolly Do?”
Similarly, Michelle helped inspire her daughter’s sense of fashion. Now a signature part of her onstage apparel, Lainey received a pair of bell bottoms from her mother when she was a young girl. “At one point, [my mother] was like, ‘You’ve got to take them off, we’ve got to wash them,’” Lainey told Billboard of the blue leopard-print pants. “I’ve always been in love with things that are throwbacks, whether it’s music or stories.”
Lainey participated in extracurricular activities such as cheerleading and basketball, but her favorite was music. She composed her first song at the age of nine, inspired by pop singer and fellow Louisianan Britney Spears, and began playing guitar at the age of eleven. “It’s honestly been one of those things that from 9 years old, I knew I was going to do. I didn’t know how I was going to do it, but I knew it was going to be a journey,” she told Holler in 2021.
Wilson got her start as a performer in middle and high school by impersonating Hannah Montana, the iconic Disney Channel character played by Miley Cyrus, at birthday parties, nursing homes, and other public locations. She also established the Cadillac Kings, a cover band that performed in pubs and clubs despite being underage.
Lainey, then 19, traveled to Nashville, Tennessee, in August 2011 after graduating from high school, intent to pursue a career in country music.
Early Career Struggles
Despite her optimism, Wilson’s first journey into the industry was not particularly fruitful. After her transfer, the singer lived frugally in a Flagstaff camper trailer for three years, parking it just outside a recording studio owned by a family acquaintance who owed her grandfather a favor. In November 2022, she told Good Morning America that she often slept with three pairs of stockings and various jackets to be warm during the winter months. She also had to rely on her neighbor for water, internet, and electricity.
While doing so, she strolled up and down Nashville’s Music Row, handing out demos and CDs in quest of a chance to launch her career. However, music executives saw Wilson as “too country for country,” with her twangy voice and highly personal songwriting in contrast to the genre’s pop-infused tunes. “I had a lot of folks slam the door in my face,” she told People. “There were some hard times, there were some rough days, times when I probably should have packed it up and went home.”
Regardless, she refused to give up. Wilson’s self-titled debut album was published in 2014. According to The Washington Post, she met Mandelyn Monchick a year later, who, after hearing Wilson’s song “Dreamcatcher,” was persuaded the singer had “next level” potential and became her manager. Wilson released her second album, Tougher, in 2016 and had her first chart success, with Tougher debuting at No. 44 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums list.
By 2018, Wilson had acquired a publishing deal with Broken Bow Records. Wilson, however, was not a household name in the country scene. It would take the help of a new TV show to start changing that.
Music and Role on Yellowstone
Wilson, like other young country musicians such as Zach Bryan, benefited significantly when her song was utilized on the Kevin Costner drama series Yellowstone.
Wilson’s first song to debut on the Paramount show was “Working Overtime” in Season 2 of 2019. Since then, series co-creator Taylor Sheridan has included Wilson’s singles “Straight Up Sideways” and “Small Town Girl” in Season 3, as well as “Smell Like Smoke”—a song Wilson wrote expressly for Season 5—in Season 5.
Sheridan subsequently offered Wilson an on-screen role for the show’s fifth season in 2022, not content with only sharing her songs. Wilson appeared in four episodes as Abby, a local musician who is in a love connection with ranch hand Ryan, played by series regular Ian Bohen. “When Taylor told me, ‘I want to create a character specifically for you—I want you to wear your bell bottoms, sing your own songs, and pretty much be yourself,’ I knew that he was wanting to kind of help me over that wall… to put a face to a name for people,” she told Variety.
Despite her enthusiasm, Wilson was on the verge of quitting when her father, Brian, became ill and had a stroke; he required nine surgeries, including the removal of his left eye. Brian pushed that Lainey fulfill her commitments after hearing her detail the matter over a phone call at the hospital. “I said, Daddy, I can’t leave you,’” she told People. “He said, ‘You better go, and you better not come back until the job is done.’ That is the girl that he raised. So I headed that way and did it.”
Breakthrough and Country Stardom
Because of the success of Yellowstone, Nashville began to take notice of Wilson and her music. She launched her 2019 EP Redneck Hollywood, which included the autobiographical single “LA” in tribute to her home state of Louisiana. Wilson also went on tour with Morgan Wallen, another rising country talent.
Soon after, in February 2020, one of Wilson’s fondest goals came true when she made her debut at Nashville’s legendary Grand Ole Opry. Later that summer, her radio single “Things a Man Oughta Know” became her breakthrough hit. By September 2021, it had reached the top of the Country Airplay chart, giving Wilson her first No. 1 hit, and Billboard had awarded her the year’s top new country artist. Sayin’ What I’m Thinkin’, her 2021 studio album, charted as well, but only reached No. 40.
Wilson’s path, however, was decided. Bell Bottom Country, her 2022 album, featured multiple smash singles, including eventual Country Airplay No. 1 “Watermelon Moonshine” and “Heart Like a Truck,” which reached at No. 2. Wilson was nominated for six Country Music Association Awards that year, including New Artist of the Year and Female Vocalist of the Year. “I promise you I know I’m new to a lot of folks, but I won’t let you all down. I promise you,” she said while accepting her award for the latter.
2023 CMA Entertainer of the Year
Wilson kept her promise from a year ago, collaborating on two popular duets in 2023: “Wait in the Truck” with Hardy and “Save Me” with Jelly Roll. She also established herself as one of music’s busiest artists, stating in an October radio interview that she had more than 160 appearances scheduled for the year. “It’s been hard, it’s been busy, but these are the moments that I’ve dreamed about and prayed for,” she was quoted as saying.
Unsurprisingly, praise continued to flood in. Wilson received four Academy of Country Music Awards in May 2023, including Album of the Year for Bell Bottom Country and Female Artist of the Year, which was presented to her by her idol, Dolly Parton.
Wilson thus became the year’s most-nominated artist at the CMA Awards, with nine nominations. Wilson became the first female singer to win Entertainer of the Year since Taylor Swift in 2011, in addition to retaining her Best Female Vocalist prize at the November awards presentation.
Bell Bottom Country eventually won the Grammy for Best Country Album in February 2024. Wilson’s Country’s Cool Again Tour, which will include more than 35 gigs, will kick off in May 2024. She’ll also make many performances as a special guest artist on Morgan Wallen’s One Night at a Time Tour.
Relationship
Wilson is not married and has kept her personal life quiet until recently.
Wilson attended the ACM Awards in May 2023 with former NFL football player Devlin “Duck” Hodges.People confirmed the couple’s relationship with the singer’s representatives. Wilson then disclosed on The Bobby Bones Show a month after the ACMs that she and Hodges had been dating for more than two years.
The pair met in Nashville, Tennessee, in 2021 through mutual friends. Wilson told People that she kept her relationship with Hodges a secret because she wanted to see if Hodges was “in it for the right reasons.”
Hodges, 27, left football in 2022 to work in real estate. “He knows what it’s like chasing a dream because he’s done that for himself,” she said. “But I’ll tell you what: he’s as good as gold.” Supports me and would never stand in the way of anything I’m attempting to do. “He says, ‘Go get it, girl.'”