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Lainey Wilson Always Knew She Would Be A Country Star

Author Nancy Brooks // Country Writer, Beasley Media Group

Lainey Wilson was on Music Row in Nashville yesterday (10/25) afternoon. She was celebrating the chart-topping success of her song “Heart Like A Truck.” At the party, she performed the song and others on the back of a truck bed in a parking lot. The song’s co-writers joined Wilson on their own separate truck beds.

Before the party got underway, Lainey talked with us about being nominated for nine CMA Awards at the show next month (11/8). She told us, “Watching the CMA Awards was a big deal in my house as a child. We would be sitting around the TV; we knew when it was coming on, I mean, eyes glued to it. I would dream about just being a part of the industry and being down there on the floor with these people who I’ve looked up to and people who have paved the way.”

Wilson continued, “It’s crazy how life works. The truth is I think sometimes you’ve got to envision yourself in places and sometimes pretend you are even though you’re not really, so one day you can become it and keep seeing it. Now, these people have become my friends. They’re my mentors; they are people that I can call and get advice from. I’ve prayed about it and manifested and put myself there ’cause there was no other option for me.”

RELATED: Lainey Wilson Announces 'Country's Cool Again' Headlining Tour

She admitted that she was confident being a country star was in her future. Lainey told us, “I knew it with every fiber of my being. My mom and daddy knew it, too. I think probably people back at home thought they were a little crazy at times for supporting this little nine-year-old girl who had to enter every honky tonk talent search there was. They just knew it, and I had a weird sense of peace about it.”

Wilson is trying to wrap her head around being in the coveted Entertainer of the Year category. “To be considered for Entertainer of the Year, it’s like, ‘Oh my gosh, how did that happen?’ But when you think about the amount of shows that we have played this year and last year, we have played a lot. We started playing a club tour at the top of the year. We went out with Luke Combs and did a stadium tour. And we are out on the road with HARDY right now. Every fair and festival in between, we have done it, so with the amount of people we have entertained, then I guess it’s not that crazy.”

Five 2023 CMA Awards Lainey Wilson Should Win

  • Female Vocalist of the Year

    This is an award she won in 2022 from the CMA, and in this category, the CMA often repeats if a particular star has had such a good year as Lainey has. Let’s not forget Miranda Lambert took this award home seven times. Reba McEntire won the honor four times in the 1980s and 1990s. It feels like Wilson is a shoo-in for this win.

  • Album of the Year

    Having won the Academy of Country Music’s 2022 award for Album of the Year, Lainey can also win this from the CMA. The album was one of the year’s biggest and has spawned two number-one songs, including “Heart Like A Truck” and “Watermelon Moonshine.” She told us when the album was released, “Sure, I love a good pair of bell bottoms, but Bell Bottom Country to me has always been about the flare and what makes someone unique—I have really embraced mine, and I hope y’all can hear that across this project.”

  • Video of the Year For "Wait In The Truck" with Hardy

    This epic video has already won Collaborative Music Video of the Year at the 2023 CMT Music Awards. It also won the Visual Media Award (basically Video of the Year) at the 2022 ACM Awards in May. With its hard-core storyline and great acting from both HARDY and Lainey, it would be wrong if it did not win Video of the Year from the CMA.

  • Musical Event With Jelly Roll for "Save Me"

    Jelly Roll and Lainey are both so very hot in country music right now, so a win here would be no surprise at all. Also, the song is solid and a fan favorite for sure. Even though Wilson is nominated against herself in this category with the Musical Event with HARDY and “Wait In The Truck,” there is a good chance her collaboration with Jelly will be the winner.

  • Entertainer of the Year

    Yep, I said it. Lainey should take the biggest award of the evening and the most coveted honor of Entertainer of the Year. Let’s be honest: she dominated country music in 2023 with several tours, big hit songs, and many other awards from other award shows. It always seems a little soon for someone like Wilson, whose rise in country music seemed to happen so quickly, to win this one. However, she really deserves this one, and I would be surprised if she didn’t take it home on CMA Award show night.

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.

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Author Nancy Brooks // Country Writer, Beasley Media Group
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