Lainey Wilson Anxious About Career Move—’I Do Have That Side of Me’

As Lainey Wilson prepares for her new album to finally be released, she told Newsweek she’s anxious about sharing her vulnerability with the world.

The 32-year-old Louisiana native, who left her small farming community to chase her dreams in Nashville, has made a name for herself as a next-generation icon. The prolific singer-songwriter has earned praise from the industry and this year alone she has won a Grammy for best country album, a People’s Choice Award for female country artist of the year and entertainer of the year at the 2024 Academy of Country Music Awards.

Wilson is showing no signs of slowing down, as her album Whirlwind will be released on August 23, which the singer said is the “most cathartic and personal piece of art” she’s ever created. She is currently on her Country’s Cool Again tour until December 14.

“Somebody actually explained it to me the other day, they said [an album is] like your four-year-old kid who is about to go to preschool,” she told Newsweek. “There’s a time where you’re like: ‘Man, I can’t wait for them to go to school.’ And the closer it gets to actually sending them off to school, you start getting a little anxious. And that’s kind of where I’m at right now.”

Wilson explained that for this album, she wanted to share parts of herself that she only discovered after the 2022 release of Bell Bottom Country—which won the Grammy for best country album.

“I share a lot of my life with the world, and I’m in a happy, healthy relationship, and I caught myself writing a few love songs, and finally found me a man worth writing about. So I wanted to show that. I wanted to show that I do have that side of me too,” she said.

“Writing and recording this record just brought me a lot of peace during a time of my life that was constantly changing and spinning around and around, like a whirlwind. So it made me feel grounded and it made me feel at home. And that’s how I hope people feel when they hear it.”

Wilson explained that when you’re writing songs about personal experiences, it can leave you feeling vulnerable while you revisit those past emotions.

“I’ll be honest at times, it’s like a blessing and a curse, because you just keep reliving it and reliving it and reliving it and reliving it, even if, like you’re in a very happy, healthy relationship,” she said. “If I’m writing a sad song, I am going to put myself right back there to where I felt like my world was falling apart. And I’m the kind of songwriter, well, I will probably feel that way the rest of the day.

“Whether you have to put yourself back in that place when you were 16 and you were going through it, you know, with a guy that you thought that you were going to spend the rest of your life with, or, you know, whether—my daddy was sick a few years ago. And those feelings right there. It’s those feelings that you never want to revisit again but if you need to connect to a time when your heart was breaking, you can’t help but think about those real moments.”

Wilson’s father, Brian Wilson, suffered from serious health problems in 2022, which included a fungal infection that led to the removal of his left eye and a stroke. Thankfully, he eventually made a full recovery and later that year, he accompanied her at the 56th CMA Awards.

The singer-songwriter said she always knew she was going to be a successful country artist—no matter how “crazy” that might sound. She said a big part of it was her imagining herself where she wanted to be.

“You know, it’s really crazy, and I think I might be slightly crazy to even say this out loud, but I did believe it, like, I believed it with every fiber of my being. At one point in time, I was the only one that believed it. And sometimes I think you have to pretend to be something that you’re not, so one day you can become what you knew that you could always be and so I think it’s about envisioning yourself there,” she said.

“I think it’s like putting yourself at these awards. I think it’s putting yourself, you know, on the radio, putting yourself in these positions to where you get to be able to see it for yourself and that way you can connect the dots to get you to that place.”

Even though Wilson is now going from one success to another, she was once considered “too country” by music executives who didn’t think she would appeal to a modern audience.

She explained that for a long time, her team only consisted of herself, manager Mandelyn Monchick—”She’s my best friend”—and her band leader, Aslan Freeman.

“It was really us three for a long time, and we would sit around and we’d come up with these goals, and we would figure out what we needed to do to make those goals happen. And we kind of have a short-term list and we’ve got a long-term list,” she said.

“But it is crazy when you find the right team members, when you find the people that like that know you know what you’re trying to do, know what you’re trying to say, and don’t want to see a change for anything … And I have a bada** team, I do.”

Wilson told Newsweek that while she is now a trailblazer, cleaning up at award shows and selling out concerts, she was previously “chewed up and spat out” numerous times by the industry before she found the right people.

She added: “Once you find those people, you got to hold on to them, you got to treat them right, and they treat you right. And, yeah, it’s kind of like you’re you’re helping each other make your dreams come true.”

It’s clear that the singer-songwriter puts a lot of herself into her music, but as her star power continues to rise, so do the hateful comments from strangers. While this might halt some people in their tracks, Wilson said this isn’t going to stop her from sharing her talent with the world.

“At the end of the day, everybody’s human and negative, hurtful words, they pain your heart … But just because I might not be somebody’s cup of tea doesn’t mean that I’m going to stop sharing my gift with the world,” she said.

“There are people out there who have gotten something from my songwriting, have gotten something from my singing, and feel connected. You put yourself out there, and you can’t expect everybody to love you and latch on to your stuff, but you can’t let the ones who don’t like you and sometimes just hate you for no reason, stop you from doing what you’re supposed to be doing.”