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Lainey Wilson Cries After Seeing Message From Her Idol

Lainey Wilson was brought to tears when she was interviewing with Access Daily, and they showed her a video message that Dolly Parton recorded for her. In the message, Dolly…

Lainey Wilson Cries After Seeing Message From Her Idol
Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Lainey Wilson was brought to tears when she was interviewing with Access Daily, and they showed her a video message that Dolly Parton recorded for her. In the message, Dolly says, "It's your singing partner, Dolly." She then told Lainey how proud she was of her and added, "I love that you love me because I love you right back."

Wilson wiped away tears and reacted, "Ya'll, I'm gonna have to call the makeup artist to get in here real quick." She said it was "insane" that Parton even knew her name and how special it is to have her "support."

Lainey gushed, "When the people that you've looked up to your entire life start showing that support, it makes me feel like, 'Dang, I can really do this.'"

Wilson also discussed her first meeting with Dolly. That meeting was on stage at the ACM Awards earlier this year when she won the Female Vocalist award presented by Parton. She noted that she looked at Dolly "like a dear in the headlights," recalling as they walked off stage that she told the country icon how much she meant to her. She also said that while walking off stage, Parton told her how excited she was to be doing a song together. The two collaborated on "Mama He's Crazy" for an upcoming Judds Tribute album.

Lainey said she couldn't believe she met Dolly. She said, "It's really cool to think little Lainey even dreaming about being in the same room as Dolly Parton, and now I'm getting to do music with her."

After saying that Parton "has got a heart of gold," Wilson said she will try her best to be as kind and humble as the country icon, adding, "I have a lot of people in my life that keep me very humble."

Before she met Dolly, I talked with Lainey about Parton.  On her 2021 album Saying What I'm Thinking, she had a song called "WWDD (What Would Dolly Do?)." She noted, "Oh, my gosh. She's my hero. And I don't know anybody who does not love Dolly Parton. They're crazy. You can't. It would be wrong on every level not to love her."

She added, "She's just it. Yeah, everything about her, from her style, her personality, her talent, but more importantly, who she is and in her heart. And I'm a firm believer that if everybody was a little more like Dolly Parton, the world would be a much better place."

As Miranda Lambert has repeated time after time, country music artists are a family, and many of them share long friendships throughout their careers and beyond. The genre has many bromances like Blake Shelton and Luke Bryan, Tim McGraw and Kenny Chesney, and many more. The ladies of country music have shared friendships as well, like Reba and Dolly, Ashley McBryde and Carly Pearce, Miranda and Carrie Underwood and more.

Country music also has fun stories of how Luke Combs and Lainey Wilson came up together in Nashville, collaborating for years before they became country superstars. Wilson opened his stadium tour this summer.

Then there is the tale of Ashley McBryde once housesitting for country icon Dolly Parton and almost setting her house on fire. McBryde was a friend of Dolly's niece, and unfortunately, Parton had to fire Ashley due to the microwave mishap.

For years in country music, we have experienced our stars talking about each other and sharing their lives. In honor of those friendships, we gathered quotes that country stars have said about each other in the last few years.

Blake Shelton on Reba after it was announced she would replace him on "The Voice" from a 2023 press event

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"Well, there's a couple of things about Reba that make her so special. First of all, she's just so authentic. I don't know anybody in country or on the planet, who is more authentic than Reba, and that's just the truth, but the other thing is her talent. She was born with this raw, natural talent that's just unbelievable. People will finally maybe start to realize what an incredible vocalist she is."


Cody Johnson on Jelly Roll backstage at the 2023 CMA Fest

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"Jelly's one of my favorite people to hang out with. You may not look at me and know this, but I have a pretty jaded past as well. I relate to him, and he relates to me, and we're so opposite; you've got the cowboy hat and the face tattoos... I think it's a very opposite attraction kind of thing. The respect is mutual and real recognizes real."


Carrie Underwood on Dolly Parton to CMT December 2020

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"I think her true legacy is how she has made the world better. She could've just been Dolly Parton and taken her money and just lived for herself. But she was given gifts by God, and she takes them, she does the work, she uses them to glorify God, and she gives back. She cares about people. That's her legacy."


Keith Urban on Miranda Lambert about when she opened shows for him in 2005 on the red carpet at the ACM Honors in 2019

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"She was one of the very few artists that I would see out there watching our show. Almost every night. And I just felt like, then, 'kindred spirit,' that's how you do it, that's how you grow."


Darius Rucker on Kane Brown to "Time" Magazine in September of 2021

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"He has that unquantifiable 'it' factor. He's so laid-back and doesn't take himself too seriously, but he also really cares about his craft."


Lainey Wilson on Ashley McBryde from my 2021 Interview:

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"She's a dear friend to me. And there's this one story that I always think about when I think of Ashley. We were somewhere on the road, I believe, in Texas. And we were sitting on the bus. We had a little bit of whiskey, and she grabbed my hand, and she was like lightning. She said, 'I want to help you over this wall.' And she said, 'I want literally help you any way that I possibly can. But you got to promise me that when you find somebody who you love and believe in as much as I do, you, that you will do the same exact thing.'"


Morgan Wallen on Eric Church co-writing "Quittin' Time" from his "Dangerously" album from my December 2020 Interview

Morgan-eric.jpgJason Kempin, Kevin Winter/Getty Images

"I'm obviously a huge fan of Eric Church. I've spoken about him since I've been in this industry and how much of a hero he is to me. Having him allow me to sing a song that he's a writer on is truly one of my favorite accomplishments that I've got so far in my career. I love his style, his attitude, and just the way he's handled himself has always really resonated with me."


Carly Pearce on Luke Bryan in a statement after it was announced she was joining his "Crash My Playa" event in 2023

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"Luke is one of the craziest, funniest people I've ever met in my life, so I can only imagine what you do when you get Luke down with tons of tequila and a beach. So, I can't wait."

Nancy Brooks has been working in the country music industry for almost 30 years. She has interviewed pretty much any country star you can think of. In the late 1990s, she started working with Dolly Parton. And yes, Nancy reports that Parton is as sweet as you would think. She loves her life in country music and has been backstage at every CMA Awards show since the late 1990s. Many of her stories are from her one-on-one interviews. She was there at the beginning of the incredible careers of many music superstars today, including Taylor Swift, Shania Twain, and Blake Shelton, and has interviewed them multiple times throughout the years.