“It’s a Little Bit of a Cheat”: John Mayer Tells Lainey Wilson His “Hottest Take” on Country Music

John Mayer has one issue with country music. When Lainey Wilson stopped by the singer’s SiriusXM show, he candidly revealed his one issue with her genre.

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“My hottest take about country, the only critical take about country… it’s the constant invocation of drinking,” Mayer told Wilson, per Whiskey Riff. “Everyone loves drinking. So when you think about drinking, you get excited. When you hear about drinking, you have a smile on your face.”

“To me, sometimes, it’s a little bit of a cheat,” he continued. “Because it’s like telling people, ‘Remember how cool tequila is? My song is playing while you are thinking about tequila.’”

Mayer additionally pointed to country music’s tendency to name drop iconic singers in songs as another genre-specific issue he has.

“I’m like, ‘Well now you are making me think about the legendary artist. I love that legendary artist.’ It’s a bit of a cheat,” he said. “You put them both in a song, ‘Well I like tequila and Hank Williams, I’m liking this song.’ It’s a little bit performance enhancing.”

Despite all of that, Mayer was complimentary of Wilson’s work, specifically “Wait in the Truck,” a 2023 HARDY song that she was featured on.

“My jaw dropped listening to a song called ‘Wait in the Truck.’ Holy s**t, Lainey. This song, the music has an ominous keyboard line that exactly says, ‘Wait in the truck.’ Fragments of speech is what country does the best,” he said. “… Everyone needs to listen to ‘Wait in the Truck.’”

Lainey Wilson Discusses Her Dreams

Wilson has been on a press tour in support of her Netflix documentary, Lainey Wilson: Keepin’ Country Cool, which is now streaming.

Speaking to People, Wilson opened up about her dreams for her personal life, now that so many of her career aspirations have come to fruition.

“I wasn’t dreaming about my wedding day; I was dreaming about what I was going to wear at my Grand Ole Opry debut. Instead of what song I would want my first dance to be to, I was dreaming about what song I would play at Red Rocks or the Ryman,” she said. “The Lord surprises you at times and puts other dreams in your heart you didn’t know you had.”

One of those dreams is a having a family, something Wilson prepared for by freezing her eggs.

“I just wanted to make sure that when the time comes and I want to [have a baby], I will hopefully be given that opportunity,” she said. “… “I’ve focused on my career for so long, and I definitely have something to show for it with my music, but I have other dreams too.”

Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for SiriusXM