Darius Rucker: What He Loves About Lainey Wilson

Darius Rucker's "Riverfront Revival" at North Charleston's Riverfront Park takes place on Saturday, October 7, and Sunday, October 8, 2023. The lineup for this year's festival includes country music's current "it" girl, Lainey Wilson.

We chatted with Darius last week about the festival and having Lainey a part of it. He told us, "I've always wanted to have my own festival, and last year, we finally started one in Charleston, and it was a big success. This year we've got such great bands. When we called Lainey, she said the reason she wanted to do it was that the lineup was so strong, and that made me feel so good."

Rucker added of Wilson, "She's a superstar. Her voice is amazing, and she writes these cool songs with everybody. But the thing that I love is when you are around her, she just brightens the room. She's such a great person, and she makes me laugh, and she's always smiling. I am so glad and proud to have her at my festival."

Proceeds from each ticket sold will benefit the Arts in Healing program at the Medical University of South Carolina. The country star has raised millions of dollars throughout his career for the hospital where his late mother was a nurse.

Darius recently unveiled the official music video for his current single, "Fires Don't Start Themselves," with an exclusive CMT world premiere across all platforms and Paramount billboards in Times Square.

Rucker plays a cop in the song's video, in which he is investigating a fire. In the steamy video, Darius holds up a partially burned vinyl album of Conway Twitty as he name-checks the country icon in the song's chorus.  "So, let's drink what's left of this bottle of wine / Move a little closer 'til the sparks start flyin' / Turn the lights down low and pull the Conway off of the shelf / Then we'll dance through the kitchen and straight down the hall / Let my old blue jeans and your sundress fall / Girl, we're holding the lighter and fires don't start themselves."

Lainey Wilson, crowned CMA's Entertainer of the Year in November, spent the summer opening shows on a number of tours, including Eric Church's "Outsiders Revival Tour." Lainey even joined Eric on stage recnetly in Orange Beach, Alabama.

The two sang "Over When It's Over," and one fan captured the performance on TikTok.

Church's camp posted images from night two of his Orange Beach, Alabama show, including a shot from Lainey and him on stage during soundcheck. His team captioned the images, "Night 20 of #TheOutsidersRevivalTour 8.18.23 // Orange Beach, AL (Night 2) // The Wharf Amphitheater."

See that post here.

Lainey posted along with several photos of herself with Eric on stage during sound check and then at the show, "Had the time of my life with ya this weekend @ericchurchmusic! Thank ya for bringing me out. Orange Beach, y'all were awesome."

Several fans reacted to her post, including one who commented, "Girl, U Can Rock Anything!" Another fan wrote, "The best in country music to me." One more fan said, "We were there Friday & Saturday nights & it was amazing! How y'all performed the way you did & we were soaking wet from sweating while just watching!"

See that post here.

Country icon Dolly Parton revealed earlier this year to ET Canada that she and Wilson would release a duet in honor of The Judds, for the tribute album that was released in October. Dolly said when asked about it, "With Lainey Wilson…. I just did with her; we've got a song we did for The Judds. They're doing an album for The Judds for mental illness and some of the problems that [Naomi Judd] had."

She added, "So they're doing a whole album of the songs, and I got to do 'Mama He's Crazy' with Lainey. I don't even know her. So, I'm going to get a chance to visit."

The duet came out in October.

We gathered four of what we believe are Wilson's top collaborations to date. We have a feeling there will be many more to come.

This fun song started a viral trend that had Blake Shelton and Kane Brown among the country stars joining Lauren on social media to dance. Lainey shines on this song, as does Lauren. The lyrics include, "Thelma and Louise and some faded blue denim / Jumpin' in them Wranglers, barely gettin' in em / Buttons hangin' on, thank god they ain't givin' / Flauntin' what we got like we do it for a livin' / Dressed to kill (Dressed to kill), to the nines (To the nines) / I got her back (She got my back), and she got mine."

The chorus includes the lyrics, "We're thicker than our accents, thicker than our hair / Thicker than the Georgia and Louisiana air / Thicker than molasses from the patches to the seams / Stealin' hearts is in our jeans / Us southern girls, we're thick as thieves, we're thick as thieves / We're thick as thieves, we're thick as thieves."

This collaboration came as a surprise when Lainey joined Jelly to sign it at the 58th ACM Awards in May. The song will be released as a single for these two label mates. Lainey said of Jelly in a recent interview, "I was an extra in a music video of his in, like, 2013. It was one that he did with Uncle Kracker. I was a drunk girl, passed out on the ground." She said it was her first interaction with Jelly, and even then, she could tell he was a "good dude."

A powerful duet with Cole Swindell that topped Billboard's Country Airplay chart. Cole said of the song when it came out, "I wrote 'Never Say Never' with Jessi Alexander and Chase McGill in 2018 about a relationship you just can't stay away from; I have been a fan of Lainey Wilson's for a while now and what she brings to this song is everything it needed."

"Wait In The Truck" is one of country music's best murder songs. She and HARDY show off some impressive acting chops in the dramatic video for the song that won Collaborative Music Video of the Year at the 2023 CMT Music Awards. "Wait In The Truck" also won ACM awards in 2023 for Visual Media of the Year (video) and Musical Event of the Year. When HARDY and Wilson won their ACM awards, HARDY said on the stage, “Man, thank you, Lainey. You absolutely killed it. There was never a doubt that you were always the one to make people believe this song.”