Lainey Wilson Was Never ‘Going To Quit’

Lainey Wilson is country music's top star these days, racking up major award wins, hit songs, and a headlining tour that is selling out all over the country this summer.

We recently asked her what she would tell her younger self about this pinch-me moment in her life she is currently having. She said, "I'd say, 'It's not going to happen as quick as you would like it to.' When I moved here in 2011 in my little camper trailer, I thought, 'You know, you've got to be there to make it.'"

She continued, "I thought that it would happen a lot quicker for me, but I realized in about year three that my journey was going to look a lot different. But just because the opportunities were not coming didn't mean that I was going to quit."

Wilson has no other path paved for herself. She said, "This is the only thing I know how to do. This is my life. Country music is my life especially where we grew up in a town of 200 people. It's more than a genre of music. We eat, sleep, and breathe it. It's the try of our lives."

"I don't know anything different than doing this; it feels like it is truly a part of me. So if I could go back and tell that little girl anything, I'd say, 'Keep the pedal down, roll your sleeves up with a little elbow grease and a whole lot of faith can change your life.'"

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Backstage, before her recent CMA Fest performance, she recapped her wonderful year in country music in which she was crowned Entertainer of the Year by the CMA and the ACM. She told us, "We've been trying to zoom out as much as we can to really see how far we have come in a short amount of time. Like, don't count the thirteen years I've been here, but let's talk about the last couple. It's been crazy."

The country superstar also touched on how it all began with her father and six strings. She said, "My daddy showed me a few chords on a guitar, and that was it for me. It just ran in my soul; it ran in my blood."

Wilson reiterated what she's been saying about her beloved genre for a while now. She offered, "Country music is having a moment, and I don't think it's slowing down anytime soon. And I'm not talking about just country music—of course, everyone wants to be a part of the genre, and I think that's awesome—but more importantly, the Western way of life. The culture, the way I grew up on a horse and wearing jeans. It's really cool to see people start embracing that way of life."

Lainey Wilson won five awards at the CMA Awards last week (11/8), including the night's top honor of Entertainer of the Year. She also won Female Vocalist and Album of the Year for her Bell Bottom Country project, which was just nominated for a GRAMMY for Best Country Album.

After her major win, Lainey came backstage and talked about leading the pack of the new generation of country music, including Morgan Wallen, HARDY, Luke Combs, and more. She told us, "I will say that we are at a very pivotal time now in country music. I am very proud to be a part of this generation of country music. You got Jelly Roll, you've got Morgan, you've got HARDY, you've got Luke Combs."

She continued, "You've got folks like Ashley McBryde and Kelsea, and they all look different, they all sound different, they all have different stories. They all come from different places, and I think It's really important for that to be a thing. There's a lot of different kinds of people in the world to hear all the different sides of the stories."

Wilson said, "For me, I will say if you say I am kind of leading the pack or whatever, I hope that it will encourage people to stay true to themselves, stay true to their stories, stay true to their sound, and stay true to their look."

She concluded, "Don't let anybody tell you 'no.' At the end of the day, it's all about timing. I've been in this town for 12 and a half years, but I didn't start working on this 12 and a half years ago; I started working when I was nine years old, and that is the truth. So, I'm hoping that I can show folks, 'You know what? Blood, sweat and tears, elbow grease and faith will take you as far as you want it to go.'"

Under the radar at the CMA Awards was the fact that Wilson, along with her buddy and duet partner HARDY, won a CMA for Video of the Year for "Wait In The Truck."

As country fans celebrate Lainey Wilson, we take a look at five of her best music videos.

This music video is quite personal as it was filmed in Lainey's own home and filled with personal elements and close friends. It was released on April 2, 2021.

Wilson told us at the time of release, "I hoped that people would connect to this song, and it's been so incredible to see just how strong the reaction has been. For the music video, we wanted to create a piece of art where people could watch it and feel something all over again."

This cinematic video stars Lainey as a stable hand who is brought in to earn the trust of a free-spirited pony that no one else has been able to tame. Through time, care, and patience, she can get through the difficult period and eventually rides the horse around the farm, designed to mirror her own approach to relationships.

Wilson recently celebrated the song going to number one on the country charts with a party on Music Row, where she and the song's co-writers sang it from their own separate truck beds in a parking lot.

This song was never released as a single, but they did make a music video of it, and it's kind of personal to this journalist as my buddy, a budding country singer named Presley, is a dancing extra in it, dancing right beside Lainey. The video features a bunch of breakdancers all dancing to the song in front of Wilson's tour buses.

It's another number-one country song. Lainey told us about it, "This song embodies what country music means to me, creating a timeless story that will resonate with people for generations to come. This song is about the crazy, young, nostalgic love we all hope to experience." The video has been watched almost 10 million times on YouTube.

Even though Wilson is an actress herself, she actually has actors Rachel Lynn Matthews and Sam Sherrod play in the video, acting out the storyline of the song and depicting the unfolding of a young love. Wilson performs the song in a field as she narrates the story.

This fantastic video from a duet with Lainey and HARDY is an award winner. It won the CMA for Music Video of the Year and the Musical Event of the Year award. "Wait In The Truck" also won the Visual Media of the Year (basically Video of the Year) at the 2023 ACM Awards. The music video also won Collaborative Music Video of the Year at the 2023 CMT Music Awards and was nominated for Video of the Year.

In this journalist's opinion, the murder ballad and video is one of country music's most prolific videos in the last decade. The video has been watched 69 million times on YouTube.