‘God Laid’ Music on Lainey Wilson’s Heart — She Never Looked Back
By Movieguide® Contributor
Country sensation Lainey Wilson always knew she was made for music.
There was never a “Plan B.”
“A lot of people thought I was crazy,” Wilson said about her path to success, which took more than a decade. “‘Yep, 19-year-old Lainey.’ I knew it. I did. I knew it. But there’s been a million steps.”
“You never had a plan B?” TODAY host Willie Geist asked.
“I never did,” she replied.
When she visited Nashville as a child, she knew she had found her home, even though she’d only been there for a vacation.
“I told my parents in the car, I said, ‘This is home. I knew it,'” she said. “I knew I was going to be a part of the industry, and in a weird kind of way, I think they knew it, too.”
When she made it to Nashville as an adult, she lived in a trailer for three years.
“When I first got there in my camper, you know, I didn’t know that it was going to take me another 10 to 11 years to even, like, crack the egg a little bit,” she said.
Her stubborn roots and determination kept her there, and she never called it quits even when it got hard.
“I think God laid it on my heart a long time ago. I think it was being from a bunch of hardheaded folks,” she said. “You got to be a little bit nuts to want to do this. You do.”
Movieguide® previously reported on her inherited hard-headedness:
Country star Lainey Wilson says early career rejections made her even more determined to make it in the music industry.
“I think a lot of the rejection really just kind of made me want it that much more,” she told Fox News. “I am hardheaded. I really am, and if you could sit down and talk to my parents, you would realize why I am the way that I am. Both of them, when they have their mind made up, that’s it. And I’ve had my mind made up from the very beginning that I was going to do this.”
Wilson has been working in the country music industry for 13 years, but it wasn’t until recently that she had her big break. She took home her first Grammy this year.
In 2021, Wilson’s music finally started to get attention. Though people tuned into her songs, the name Lainey Wilson didn’t ring any bells.
“I could barely sell a ticket. It was like the strangest thing,” she said. “You know, a lot of people know the songs on the radio, but they don’t know who sings ‘em.”
So she got on social media.
“I need to be on TikTok as much as I possibly can. They need to know me, feel like they know me as a friend, and then get to know my music,” she explained.
When YELLOWSTONE’s second season aired some of her music and she came on the show as a musician in Season 5, people started to put a face to her voice.
Last month, the “Heart Like a Truck” singer got inducted into the Grand Ole Opry. Now, her name is up there with Dolly Parton, Reba McEntire and others.
“My favorite moment so far. Hands down, my favorite moment,” she said.
Last Sunday, Wilson performed “Dead Flowers” with The Rolling Stones.
She shared photos of the night on Instagram and said, “I got to hang out with rockstars of all rockstars last night. @mickjagger @officialkeef @ronniewood @therollingstones – you are legendary to say the least. What a treat, what an honor, what a night!! Wow. 🤯🤘🌸”
Wilson’s favorite thing about the country genre is “the storytelling.”
“I think the Lord kind of wanted me to live a little bit more life so I could have more stories to tell, so I could relate to more people,” she previously told FOX News. “That’s what it’s about when you kind of zoom out and you think about all of this. It’s important to remember and realize, why are we doing this? And what are we doing this for?”
“It’s just because we all want to feel something. And, I think, because of that rejection, I think people can relate to some of my stories,” she said.