Country superstar Lainey Wilson opens up about her success: ‘I want people to see my journey’

Country singer-songwriter Lainey Wilson. Photo by CeCe Dawson.

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NOTE: This interview was conducted before Country Thunder Alberta was cancelled.

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In the Netflix documentary Lainey Wilson: Keepin’ Country Cool, Wilson is shown reading a letter she sent to fellow Louisianian Tim McGraw when she was still a teenager.

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It is ostensibly a fan letter, but Wilson is all business. She informs “Mr. Tim McGraw” that she is 18 and has just entered Louisiana Delta Community College in Monroe to study nursing. However, “singing, writing and performing are the most important things in my life.” She included a CD as a sample of her songwriting, boasting that she had many others that are “just as good.” She proposed that McGraw meet with her and her family.

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McGraw didn’t respond. At least not right away. Earlier this month, Wilson met him for the first time backstage at the CM Fest in Nashville. They would eventually perform McGraw’s 1995 hit I Like It, I Love It together. According to People magazine, McGraw was embarrassed about never responding to Wilson’s letter, so he penned a response and gave it to her backstage.

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“He grew up right down the road from me, like 10 miles down the road,” says Wilson, in an interview with Postmedia. “My very first concert was the Down on the Farm tour, and my mama took me and sister in a little double stroller. We showed up. We were there to have a good time and experience something that we never had. Things like that did not come to northeast Louisiana a lot. I’m from a town of 170 people. I got to see that a dude from that area did it. I got to see that, if I wanted to, I could chase a dream just like he did. He left that area. He left his family and everything that he knew to chase this thing that was put in his heart, and so he has been a big inspiration to me.”

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It was a full-circle moment for Wilson. Professionally, she is now in a position similar to McGraw’s 15 years ago. She has earned multiple No. 1 hits and a Grammy and has been inducted into the Grand Ole Opry. She has been named Entertainer of the Year twice by the Country Music Association. All of which has made her a sturdy role model for other young hopefuls taking their first steps into the competitive industry.

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When told that her name came up in an interview last year to preview the Country Thunder 2025 festival after a 13-year-old local singer-songwriter was asked who inspired her, Wilson says, “That means a lot.”

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“It means that I have people watching, which is a good thing and a scary thing, and it also holds me accountable,” she says. “I want people to see my journey.”

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Wilson, who was to headline Country Thunder on Sunday before the festival was abruptly cancelled this week, has always been forthcoming when it comes to sharing her story. The Netflix documentary, released in April, offered an intimate and honest look at Wilson’s journey by highlighting not only her success and much-publicized fairy-tale romance with former NFL quarterback Devlin (Duck) Hodges, but also her early professional struggles and mental-health issues as she rose to fame. A year after writing McGraw, Wilson travelled to Nashville at the age of 19. In the film, Wilson addresses a common misconception that she enjoyed overnight success. “I’ve been here 14 years, so a 14-year overnight success. I spent a decade being the one you didn’t see coming,” she says.