Stephen Wilson Jr. Captivates CMA Awards With ‘Stand By Me’ Cover: ‘It’s Been Haunting Me My Whole Life’

It’s safe to say anyone who hits the stage at the CMA Awards has seriously lived some life, but Stephen Wilson Jr. might have ‘em all beat at least in terms of strange paths to the country spotlight.

The Indiana-born Wilson has been a boxer, competing in the Golden Gloves of America amateur competition; 10 years ago, he was wearing a lab coat and working as a microbiologist; not long after that, he became a songwriter in Nashville, signed to Big Loud. But following the death of his comparatively extroverted father in 2018, something changed, and he began to warm up to the idea of stepping into his own spotlight. His debut album, søn of dad, dropped this year, and although he skews country, he’s covered everyone from Nirvana to Smashing Pumpkins.

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At the 2025 CMA Awards on Wednesday (Nov. 19) night, Wilson appeared on stage, wearing mostly black but rocking a floral ball cap with the Virgin Mary on it. In his firm, raspy tone, Wilson slowly but surely captivated the Bridgestone Arena with a soul-rending cover of Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me.”

Ahead of his performance of “Stand By Me,” which turned heads when he brought it to the Atlanta-based YouTube series Live at the Print Shop in Oct. 2024, Wilson spoke to Billboard correspondents on the CMA Awards red carpet and explained how the 1986 film of the same name influenced his decision to trot out this iconic song.

“I’m a big Stephen King fan,” Wilson told Billboard. “I play this song called ‘Stand By Me,’ which I’m playing tonight as well, because of a movie called Stand By Me based off a Stephen King [story called The Body]. It’s been haunting me my whole life. I started playing this song after my dad died to kinda bring him back. I turned it into a hymn for me. And then fast-forward these years later, I get invited to sing this song and write this song with Shaboozey for a Stephen King movie called The Long Walk and here we are playing both of those songs. The world is weird, life is weird and I’m just here for it.”

Later in the evening, Wilson joined Shaboozey to perform that song, “Took a Walk,” on the CMA Awards stage, too.

Check out Billboard’s interview with Stephen Wilson Jr. on the CMA Awards red carpet below.