Growing up a farmer’s daughter in rural Louisiana, Lainey Wilson’s life closely mirrored the country songs her family loved. And the “Heart Like a Truck” singer needed just one trip to the Grand Ole Opry to know that this was the life for her. Learning to play guitar at age 11, Wilson was already a seasoned songwriter by that point. The reigning Entertainer of the Year took a rare look back at some of her earliest work during a recent appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
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“Where I’m from, country music is just life. We eat, sleep, and breathe it,” said the “4x4xU” singer, 33. “It was about the storytelling. When you’re from a town of 157, you live your life on the edge of your seat waiting for the next story. That’s how it was with my folks.”
Convinced the voices on the radio were speaking to her, Wilson wrote her first-ever song at just 9 years old. Now, what could a child so young possibly have to talk about in a song? “I was writing about tequila and cigarettes and everything else,” she said with a laugh. “Old soul.”
How Lainey Wilson Kept the Faith
Lainey Wilson’s country music origin story is the stuff of Hollywood. In August 2011, just one year removed from high school, the future Grammy winner packed her entire life into a 20-foot Flagstaff camper trailer and headed for Nashville. She barely scraped by the first two years, living in the parking lot of a recording studio. The studio owner, a fellow Baskin, Louisiana native, paid for her water and electricity.
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Of course, with nine CMA trophies and 16 from the Academy of Country Music, hindsight is now 20/20. But the “Wildflowers and Wild Horses” singer insists she never lost faith even in the lowest moments.
“I’ve always had this weird sense of faith about knowing that this is what I was going to do no matter what,” she told Colbert. “I feel like it’s more than a hobby, more than a passion. It’s my calling, and I knew that at 9 years old.”
Featured image by Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty Images
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