Lainey Wilson Talks Career ‘Whirlwind,’ Crafting Her New Album, Acting on ‘Yellowstone’ & More: ‘It’s Fun for Me to Step Out of My Comfort Zone’

“I’m here for a day then we’re back out, just coming here long enough to run a few errands and repack a bag,” Lainey Wilson tells Billboard in her signature Louisiana twang, on a rare day in Nashville for the singer-songwriter. She’s preparing for a slate of West Coast dates on her headlining Country’s Cool Again Tour — but even during her brief time in Music City, she’ll also attend the ACM Honors and make a surprise visit to her Bell Bottoms Up Restaurant & Bar, which opened in downtown Nashville earlier this year.

At the same time, the four-time Billboard Country Airplay chart-topper is gearing up for the release of her new studio album, appropriately titled Whirlwind, out Friday (Aug. 23) via BBR Music Group/BMG.

That swirl of touring and recording has also come with a swiftly accumulating pile of accolades. In November, Wilson became the first woman since Taylor Swift in 2011 to take home the coveted CMA entertainer of the year honors. In February, she earned her first Grammy win, with her 2022 album Bell Bottom Country taking home best country album. In May, she doubled up on her entertainer of the year win, taking home the same accolade at the ACM Awards. Less than a month later, she was inducted as a member of the Grand Ole Opry. On Wednesday (Aug. 21), she was honored with the ACM’s coveted triple crown award and the organization’s milestone award.

The momentum has been hard-fought for this small-town Baskin, Louisiana native, who found work as a Hannah Montana impersonator early on (she recently had a full-circle moment, honoring Hannah Montana actress/singer Miley Cyrus during a Disney Legends event). She moved to Nashville in 2011, living in a camper near Bellevue while pursuing writers’ rounds and co-writing sessions. She released two independent projects before signing with BBR Music Group/BMG in 2018. In 2021, she released her major-label breakthrough, Sayin’ What I’m Thinkin’.

That same year, almost exactly a decade after moving to Nashville, she earned her first Country Airplay No. 1: “Things a Man Oughta Know.” She’s followed that with a steady stream of both solo and collaborative hits, including the top 5 hits “Heart Like a Truck” and “Wait in the Truck” (with HARDY), her three-week solo chart-topper “Watermelon Moonshine” and the two-week chart-toppers “Save Me” (with labelmate Jelly Roll) and “Never Say Never” (with Cole Swindell).

She says the process of writing for Whirlwind was markedly different from her previous projects. “I realized very quickly as my career grows and changes, there are a million other parts of this job that I just didn’t know existed,” Wilson says. “For this, it had to be quality over quantity. I couldn’t write 200 songs to get to my 14 [songs on Whirlwind]. I had to map out what I want to share, where do I want to get vulnerable, and really figure out the message I want to bring.”

While the new album includes some of Wilson’s mainstay co-writers, including Dallas Wilson and Trannie Anderson (who, collectively known as the Heart Wranglers, co-wrote “Heart Like a Truck” and several songs on Whirlwind), Wilson also was intentional about adding new writers to the fold — including Aaron Raitiere and Jon Decious, writers on songs like “4x4xU” and the funky kiss-off track “Ring Finger.”

“I knew they had this quirkiness to their writing that I wanted to tap into,” Wilson says, noting that they were going for a Jerry Reed feel on “Ring Finger.” “I had been telling them I wanted a song that showed my speaking voice, because a lot of people talk about my accent — whether they love it or hate it, they talk about it.”

“It’s fun for me to step out of my comfort zone and write from someone else’s perspective,” she continues. “But as I got deeper into the song, I think it was like verse two that I realized maybe I’m not stepping into someone else’s shoes—maybe this is really me. I do have a bit of a crazy side and a little spunk, and I haven’t gotten to show that side of my personality as much as I have with ‘Ring Finger.’”

Despite her success with duets, Whirlwind features just one collaboration—with a woman she calls “my sounding board for a lot of things,” Texas native and fellow singer-songwriter Miranda Lambert. The two, along with songwriter Luke Dick, wrote “Good Horses,” an ode to the pull of both the adventure of the road and the comforts of home, while spending a day at Lambert’s farm outside of Nashville.

“Miranda said, ‘Come hang out and take a nap. Me and Brendan [McLoughlin, Lambert’s husband] will feed you and then maybe we can write a song.’ They made burgers and pasta, we had everything,” Wilson recalls. “I had this [song] idea for quite a while and a lot of people had passed us up on writing it. Looking back on it, I’m glad they did because it was supposed to be us who wrote it together. But I think the magic kind of came from me and her having a lot in common when it comes to that love of the road, having a gypsy soul.”

“As we were sitting up on her balcony, three bluebirds flew up and landed on the balcony,” Wilson adds. “She and Luke were sitting in the same spot where those bluebirds had landed when they were writing [Lambert’s 2019 hit ‘Bluebird’].”

Lainey, who has become a mentor for rising women artists like Anne Wilson and Ella Langley, says of Lambert, “She’s become that girl in my life in the industry that just calls and checks on me. Even yesterday, she just sent me a text and said, ‘Love you. Wherever you are, I’m thinking about you. Sending you all the good vibes.’ I think it’s really important to have women like that in your corner in general, not with just the music industry, but you just got to have those folks around you. I met her about three years ago, and I’ve been able to go to her and she just has some good insight. I try to make sure that I go to people like that who have been there and done it.”

Another album standout is closer, “Whiskey Colored Crayon,” sparked from a word exercise from co-writer Josh Kerr, who took lists of hundreds of words, mixing and matching them to see if ideas spark. Landing on the words “whiskey” and “crayon,” they began etching the tearful-yet-hopeful story of how a young child’s innocent question to his teacher — asking for a whiskey-colored crayon to complete a drawing of his father — catalyzed change in his father’s life.

“I come from a family of teachers. My mama was a teacher, all my aunts, my grandma, my daddy taught for a minute,” Wilson says. “I see how much of a difference they make in kids’ lives and I know they hear so many different things from these kids. In country music, I think of sad stories and storytelling, but even when I’m telling a story like that, I can’t help but have some kind of triumph or resilience.”

Of course, some songs lean into Wilson’s own life, from the title track to a few love songs inspired by her boyfriend of over three years, Devlin “Duck” Hodges. “It is really fun to sing about love when you mean it,” she says of songs such as “4x4xU” and “Call a Cowboy.”

Simultaneously with her surging music career, Wilson has further been elevated in the spotlight through her role as Abby, a musician, on the hit series Yellowstone. This week, it was revealed that Wilson will be a part of the upcoming season of Yellowstone, through an ad calling for extras for a concert scene featuring the singer. The second half of season five, the final season of the show, premieres Nov. 10.

“I’ll tell you, I’m so excited,” Wilson says of her upcoming work on the series, though she’s mum on specifics. “We’re waiting to hear all of those details about how much involvement I’m going to have. But as soon as they let me know, I’m going to learn the lines and do my thing.”

Beyond Yellowstone and a seemingly ever-expanding slate of brand partnerships, which have included Kendra Scott, Wrangler, Charlie 1 Horse and Stanley, Wilson says she’s “starting to realize other opportunities are coming that I never knew existed. There is so much I want to do — I want to try voiceover acting. I would love to do a country cartoon; if you need a redneck cartoon, I got you. I’d love to play another role of some sort or write a whole soundtrack.”

She adds, “There’s so much I want to do, but as long as I can get up and do what I love to do every day, this ain’t a bad life to live.”

Having forged a reputation for relentless work ethic and having piled up accolades and milestones over the past few years, Wilson has allowed herself at least one splurge — though, true to her nature, it’s a practical one.

“I got me some land,” she says proudly. “I’m going to try to develop it here [near Nashville] soon and get it going, but it’s got some beautiful trails and eventually I’m going to build a barn on it and get some horses of my own up here. All of my horses right now are back home in Louisiana. Those are the things I guess my family just taught me to be super proud of — owning a piece of America. I don’t see myself going out and splurging on ridiculous things. I enjoy doing things for my family and stuff like that, but I don’t see myself changing much.”

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