Lainey Wilson opens up about her ’14-year overnight success’

'I want people to see my journey'

Published Jun 26, 2026  •  5 minute read

Country singer-songwriter Lainey Wilson. Photo by CeCe Dawson

See more Toronto Sun on Google — save as a Preferred Source

Article content

By Eric Volmers

Article content

Article content

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.

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.

Article content

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.

Article content

Article content

“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.”

Lainey Wilson and Tim McGraw perform on stage during day three of the 2026 CMA Fest at Nissan Stadium on June 6, 2026 in Nashville. Photo by Jason Kempin /Getty Images

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.

Article content

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.”

“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.”

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.

Article content

Lainey Wilson seen playing to a full house on the opening night of Bluesfest in Ottawa in July 2025. Photo by JULIE OLIVER /Postmedia

“Nothing has been handed to me on a silver platter,” she says. “I think there have definitely been times in my life where I wish they were, but that was just not my journey. Now that I’m a little bit older and wiser, I’m glad that they weren’t. I feel like that has moulded the kind of creator that I am, the kind of songwriter I am and the person. All of the above.”

Wilson’s 2024 album Whirlwind was nominated for a Grammy and contained a number of chart-topping singles, including Hang Tight Honey and 4x4xU. Earlier this month, she released Phone, Keys, Wallet, a playful love song celebrating those who stay true to each other despite the messy chaos life can bring. It was written on the Whirlwind tour and recorded at Chaplin Studios in Los Angeles. John Mayer plays guitar on the track.

“The day we wrote this song, I actually said, ‘Man, I think John Mayer can really do something special with this song by playing the solo,” Wilson says. “From my mouth to God’s ears, the day we were recording the song in L.A. at Chaplin Studios — John actually owns the studio now — he was there, and we went into his studio and played him a little bit of what we had been working on, and he said, ‘I’m in. Let’s go. Let’s do it right now.’ He literally picked up his guitar. He played acoustic on it real quick, and the next thing you know, he was shredding on his electric guitar. It was a very organic situation. It wasn’t even a plan. Sometimes, I think that’s when things are even more special and come out better than you imagine when they are just spur of the moment.”

Article content

Read More

1. 

   Lainey Wilson gets candid about her life in 'Keepin' Country Cool' doc

2. 

   Lainey Wilson's country music rise nothing short of a 'Whirlwind'

3. 

   CMA entertainer of the year Lainey Wilson admits lying to fiance Duck Hodges on first date

Wilson’s inclusion at Country Thunder would have marked a return to the city for the artist, who not only brought her Whirlwind tour to Calgary last August but also filmed the romance film Reminders of Him earlier that year. It was Wilson’s film debut, although she had acted before. She played aspiring country singer Abby in the fifth and final season of the modern Western, Yellowstone. In Reminders of Him, she played Amy, the manager of a grocery store who befriends protagonist Kenna Rowan (played by Maika Monroe).

“I really didn’t know what to expect going into Yellowstone, but I really enjoyed it,” Wilson says. “It felt like second nature because (series creator) Taylor Sheridan did write that role specifically for me, just with a different name. My next goal was to try something that was completely out of my comfort zone, and that was showing up as Amy, the general manager of the grocery store. I love it.

“In different times in my life in songwriting, I’ve been able to put myself in other people’s shoes and write from other people’s perspective. I think that’s what I’ve been able to do, and when you do that, you learn a lot about life and the world. It was just another creative outlet for me that I can see myself doing as long as it’s an opportunity.”

Article content