Country Star Survived ‘Dark Days’ Before Career Took Off
By Movieguide® Contributor
Country music star Lainey Wilson released her fifth album, “Whirlwind,” but her journey to the top of the music industry hasn’t been easy.
“It’s been a journey,” Wilson told The Associated Press in an interview. “I’ve been in Nashville for 13 years and I tell people I’m like, it feels like I got there yesterday, but I also feel like I’ve been there my whole life.”
Originally from Baskin, Louisiana, Wilson moved to Nashville 13 years ago. She lived in a “camper trailer and hit countless open mic nights, trying to make it in Music City.”
In 2022, she returned to the spot where she parked her camper for her first three years in Nashville.
“I feel a sense of hopefulness standing here, but I also feel a little sadness,” she told GOOD MORNING AMERICA at the time. “There were a lot of dark days for me. I was very lonely. I didn’t know hardly anybody in town.”
“The winters were cold. I had to sleep in three or four jackets, three pairs of socks just to stay warm,” Wilson continued. “When I look back, honestly, if I had known it was going to be this hard, I don’t know if I would go and do it again.”
Thankfully, her hard work paid off when her song “Things a Man Oughta Know” and her 2022 album “Bell Bottom Country” took off.
“I had always heard that Nashville was a 10-year town. And I believe ‘Things a Man Oughta Know’ went No. 1, like, 10 years and a day after being there,” Wilson remembered. “I should have had moments where I should have packed it up and went home. I should have went back to Louisiana. But I never had those feelings. I think there’s something really beautiful about being naive. And, since I was a little girl, I’ve always had stars in my eyes.”
She credits her eventual success to God, as Movieguide® previously reported:
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.
“I think it’s really just a part of my story. And 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 explained. “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.”
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